Ed Sheeran Scores Top Spot On Billboard 200, Dethrones Drake's 'Certified Lover Boy'

Ed Sheeran's latest studio album "=" has landed on top of the Billboard 200, replacing Drake's "Certified Lover Boy."

This is Sheeran's fourth No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart. The "Perfect" singer's latest set, which was released on Oct. 29, earned 118,000 equivalent album units in its first week, while “Certified Lover Boy” brought in 67,000 equivalent album units.

Though “Certified Lover Boy” was originally dethroned by Young Boy Never Broke Again’s acclaimed album “Sincerely, Kentrell,” Drake’s album kept making its way back to the top, for a total of five weeks.

The 30-year-old British singer has time and again proven himself as one of the top-selling artists of his generation. His previous albums “Project” in 2019, "÷" in 2017 and "x" in 2014 have all debuted at No. 1.

Recently the Grammy winning singer was tested positive for COVID-19, due to which there were rumors going around he might not be able to perform on “Saturday Night Live.” Luckily, for fans, he recovered just in time and returned to Studio 8H with two songs from his new album -- “Shivers” and “Overpass Graffiti.”

Sheeran kept it simple for his first set as he opted for an acoustic guitar, and gave a rousing performance of the upbeat “Shivers,” while for his second set he took things up a notch with love-affirming, electric guitar-inflected “Overpass Graffiti.”

While on the show Sheeran, told Howard Stern there was never a question he wouldn't make the live performance, despite having “really, really, really bad symptoms” for three days.

He also talked about fans being surprised to see him back for “SNL” so quickly, “Yeah, I don’t know why there was a huge furor about that. Everyone was saying they were scrambling to find a replacement.”

“I was always playing that. I tested for COVID and I announced it a couple of days afterward because I had to cancel stuff, basically. But it’s quite an odd thing, getting that and then having to announce it to the world, and then suddenly… Like, I’m now out of it now, and I’m still sort of being treated…”

“Like you have it,” Stern said.

“Yeah. It’s kind of an uncomfortable… I really didn’t want to announce it to everyone,” Sheeran said, “but I had to cancel three big things in England, and I didn’t want to be rude and like ‘I just don’t want to turn up for this.’”