Well, Adele didn’t go easy on the charts. The singer-songwriter broke records to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100 with “Easy on Me,” her first new song in over five years and the lead single off her upcoming album 30. Notably, this isn’t a No. 1 debut for Adele — “Easy on Me” actually debuted at No. 68 last week, off just five hours of tracking, since it was released at midnight on October 15 in the U.K., or 7 p.m. ET on October 14 in the U.S. (Her decision to time the release to midnight U.K. time paid off, earning her a No. 1 debut on the U.K. Singles chart.) Still, it becomes her fifth No. 1 single, after “Hello” in 2015. “Easy on Me” summited the chart thanks in large part to radio, where Adele earned 65 million audience impressions — also leading the song to debut at No. 4 on the Radio Songs chart, the highest debut since the chart began tracking all formats in 1998. Additionally, “Easy on Me” earned 53.9 million U.S. streams and 74,000 downloads, topping both streaming and sales — the first song to simultaneously top two separate metrics in a single week since Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license.” And while the Hot 100 only accounts for U.S. streams, “Easy on Me” broke Spotify’s record for most streams in 24 hours globally upon its release, besting BTS’s “Butter” with 24 million streams. Now, after Adele’s last chart topper, “Hello,” spent ten straight weeks at No. 1 from 2015–16, the question becomes how easy it’ll be for “Easy on Me” to keep its run going.
