xp riaa counts streams and digital sales ("streaming equivalent" and "track equivalent albums") from pre-release singles toward album certifications now. consequently it's normal for albums to be eligible for certification immediately upon release.
the album's total first-week 'consumption' total as reflected on the billboard charts will likely be a bit less than what views pulled, inevitably broken streaming records aside.
(since i've seen heavily-rt'd twitter threads getting this point very wrong, i should point out that the way riaa handles things is NOT the same as how billboard does it. billboard will count streams and sales for "god's plan" "nice for what" and "i'm upset" towards the album's first-week total, but only those attained during the tracking period i.e. after the album was actually released. none of the streams/sales "god's plan" racked up while it was #1 on the singles chart will impact scorpion's placement on the album chart.)
― dyl, Thursday, 5 July 2018 18:00 (five years ago) link