Frank Ocean's 'Blonde' Reaches No. 1 on Billboard

After going silent for four years, Frank Ocean's triumphant return to music is paying off: His new album "Blonde" skyrocketed to No. 1 on Billboard's 200 album chart, selling 232,000 records and racking up more than 65 million streams in the U.S., according to Nielsen (via The New York Times).

Ocean's return was highly anticipated by his rabid-online fanbase and the hype surrounding his new music mounted when the musician released a visual album "Endless" on Aug. 19 and the proper follow up to his breakthrough 2012 album "Channel Orange," "Blonde," on Aug. 20.

"Endless" did not chart because Billboard said the album was not for sale and its tracks are not available to stream individually.

Though the singer was signed to Def Jam, his album "Endless" fulfilled his contract with the record label, freeing Ocean from the company, and he was able to release "Blonde" independently; straight to Apple Music exclusively. The move sent shockwaves through the music industry, probably worrying several record label execs: Universal Music Group is reportedly banning their artists from releasing music in the same way, Billboard reported.

It looks like Ocean's decision to release "Blonde" independently is paying off. In a separate Billboard article, the company writes:

So far, Blonde has generated about $2.12 million in total, according to Billboard's estimate. (Note that the following tallies are based on the assumption that Ocean is receiving 70 percent of revenues, since Blonde was self-released -- in a major fiscal coup for the artist.) Of that first week cash, Ocean would have made $1.623 million off 232,000 album sales, and about $504,000 on 69.1 million streams.

With publishing revenue wholly subtracted, Ocean would still net about $1.77 million from "Blonde"... from its first week.

"Blonde" has been lauded by critics, with some calling it a LGBTQ masterpiece.

Watch Ocean's music video for "Nikes" below.