Nicki Minaj may be assert her ‘Queen’ status on her new album of the same name, but she has to settle for second place on the Billboard 200.

For, per the final US sales tally, the ‘Chun-Li’ led set has been been beaten by the second week sales of Travis Scott’s ‘Astroworld’ album.

The Hip-Hop forces engaged in a hard-fought battle; on Onika’s end, she paired organic buzz for ‘Queen’ with Tidal, tour, and merchandise bundles and even added Tekashi69 collaboration ‘FEFE’ to the digital tracklist mid-week to benefit from added streams.

While on Travis’ side, he also drew on merch bundles as a primary weapon, as well as a monetary giveaway to fans who bought the project. Clearly, he was here for the duel, as he had already snagged the top spot on the Billboard 200 the week before – debuting with a colossal 533,000 SPS.

Now, he’s snatched another week atop of the pack and here’s how the numbers look (courtesy of Hits Daily Double):

Travis Scott:
222,555
[Sales Plus Streaming]
———-
93,998
[Pure Sales]

********
Nicki Minaj:

190,131
[Sales Plus Streaming]
———-
82,843
[Pure Sales]

****************

Say what folk will, we can’t critique an act for throwing everything and the kitchen sink to secure what they want – which in this case is the top spot. After all, it’s a competition so there should be no expectation of ‘Kumbaya.’ Especially with an album named ‘Queen.’

On that specific note, Nicki is  now tasked with maintaining her numbers weekly and building towards a big total so as for the project to live up to its title — commercially.