Kanye West shoots to top of albums chart

Kanye West has scored his seventh number one on the albums chart with The Life Of Pablo.

The Famous rapper becomes the first artist to top the Billboard 200 on the strength of an album's streaming data, with 70 per cent of its units attributed to fans listening to the project online.

According to Nielsen Music officials, The Life of Pablo earned 94,000 equivalent album units, with just 28,000 generated from pure sales after it was finally made available on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify and other major online music services on 1 April (16).

The album was released exclusively on Jay Z's streaming site TIDAL in February (16) after the hip-hop star debuted his new material at his Yeezy Season 3 fashion show for Adidas at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Before the Billboard chart was confirmed, Kanye took to Twitter on Saturday (09Apr16) to thank fans for their support.

"Thank you to everybody who made The Life of Pablo the number 1 album in the world!!!," he tweeted. "I also wanted to point out that it's the first album to go number 1 off of streaming!!!"

He also revealed plans to embark on a world tour to promote the project.

Meanwhile, country music star Chris Stapleton jumps from eight to two with Traveller, boosted by his four wins at the Academy of Country Music Awards on 3 April (16), and Danish pop stars Lukas Graham are new at three with their self-titled release..

Weezer's White Album is at four and the self-titled project from Twenty88, the duo formed by Big Sean and Jhene Aiko, enters the countdown at five.