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While singer-songwriter Noah Kahan ‘s slow-burning Stick Season album never quite summited the Billboard 200, the effect of the album’s gradual success can now be seen in the first-week performance of its follow-up, The Great Divide .

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Kahan’s new album bows on the Billboard 200 dated May 9 with a stunning 389,000 units, easily securing his first No. 1 on the chart. In addition to marking the biggest streaming week for any album yet in 2026 with its 215 million-plus streams, it marks the biggest entrance for any rock album since 2014, when the Billboard 200 started measuring album performance in equivalent album units.

How huge a deal is this for Kahan? And what else can the industry learn from it? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.

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