New Kanye West album 'Yeezus' predicted 500,000 sales in first week

The online jury may be out on Kanye West’s upcoming new album, Yeezus, but the people in the know, those behind the Billboard charts, seem to think it’ll be his most popular since Graduation.

There’s been a whole lot of buzz around the record, but sources close to West’s label say they’re fearing a commercial and critical flop for the LP described by those at recent playbacks as “intense” at best, “unlistenable” at other moments. That’s perhaps why there’s been no pre-orders available.

But sales forecasters are pointing to Yeezy’s biggest-selling album since his 2007 number one. While My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy sold 496,000 in its debut week, and 808s and Heartbreak around the same, new effort Yeezus is looking likely to top both, expected to shift 500,000+ units.

Billboard point out that said predictions are usually not only accurate, but tend to underestimate the eventual figure. Daft Punk’s album sold around 70,000 more than expected, while Justin Timberlake’s final first week sales were nearly double what it was thought to be.

Yeezus comes out 18 June. You can read our thoughts of Kanye’s recent album playback in New York here.