Sour was the most pre-added album on
Apple Music during the week leading up to its release (May 14, 2021 to May 20, 2021), dethroning
Billie Eilish's
Happier Than Ever (2021). Upon release,
Sour garnered 385 million streams in its first week on global
Spotify—the biggest opening week for an album by a female artist on the platform, beating the former record set by
Ariana Grande's
Thank U, Next (2019). The album also surpassed the first-week streams of rapper
Pop Smoke's posthumous debut,
Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon (2020), which accumulated 225 million;
Sour surpassed it by 160 margins more. The
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported that Rodrigo was
the world's tenth best-selling artist of 2021.
United States Following the debuts of "Drivers License" and "Good 4 U" at the number one spot of the US
Billboard Hot 100,
Sour became the first debut album in history to have two songs debut atop the chart, and overall the fourth album to do so.
Sour debuted at number one on the
Billboard 200 chart with 295,000
album-equivalent units, of which 72,000 were album sales, and spent a total of five weeks at the spot, becoming the longest reigning number-one album by a female artist in 2021.
Sour was also the first album by a Geffen recording artist and female Geffen artist in nearly 13 years overall to have debuted at number one on the
Billboard 200; the previous female singer to have a number one album under the imprint was
Mary J. Blige, whose eighth studio album,
Growing Pains (2007), made the top position in early 2008. At the time, the 295,000 sum marked the biggest opening week for any album in 2021.
Sour further garnered the second-biggest streaming week for an album by a female artist in the US with 300.73 million on-demand streams, behind
Ariana Grande's
Thank U, Next (307.07 million), and the biggest streaming week ever for a debut album by a female artist, surpassing
Cardi B's
Invasion of Privacy (2018).
Sour charted at number two in its second week earning 186,000 units and remained at the same spot in its third week with 143,000 units. The album jumped back to the
Billboard 200 number-one spot thrice in its chart run: The first instance was when it moved 105,000 units in its fifth charting week, becoming the second 2021 album to earn more than 100,000 units in each of its first five weeks, after
Morgan Wallen's
Dangerous: The Double Album. It remained at the top spot the next week as well, becoming the first debut album by a female artist to spend four weeks atop the chart since
Susan Boyle's
I Dreamed a Dream (2009). The album returned to the chart's summit for the third time following its vinyl release, which generated 133,000 units. Of that sum, 76,000 were vinyl LPs, scoring the second-largest vinyl album sales week in
MRC Data history, placing behind Swift's
Evermore (2020). All 11 of
Sour tracks appeared in the top 30 of the
Billboard Hot 100 dated June 5, 2021. Rodrigo is the first female artist, and the fourth act overall, to simultaneously chart 11 or more songs in the chart's top 30. Three songs charted in the top 10: "Good 4 U" at number two, down from number one the previous week, "Deja Vu" reaching a new peak of number three, and "Traitor" entering at number nine, making her the first artist in Hot 100 history to have three songs from their debut album to chart simultaneously in the top 10; "Traitor" marked the album's fourth top-10 song and fourth to debut in the top ten. Eight of the album's tracks entered the top 10 of
Billboard Streaming Songs chart, breaking the record for the most simultaneous top-10 entries on the chart. "Brutal" debuted atop
Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, marking the first number-one debut on the chart since Swift's "
Cardigan" (2020). As of October 2021,
Sour amassed 2.35 million units in the US, making it the best-selling album of 2021 by a female artist so far, and second overall, behind
Dangerous: The Double Album. As of July 2021,
Sour was the seventh best-selling album of the year, with 146,000 copies sold, and fifth amongst albums by women.
Sour reached 378,000 sales by October 2021, becoming the third best-selling album of 2021, only behind
Evermore and ''Fearless (Taylor's Version)''. By January 2022, the album had sold 557,000 physical copies in the United States and was certified quadruple platinum in June 2023, for streams and sales equaling four million units.
Sour is the longest-running debut album in the
Billboard 200 chart's top 10 during the 21st century, recording its 52nd week in the top 10 on the chart dated July 2, 2022, and surpassing the 51-week tally of Lady Gaga's debut album,
The Fame.
United Kingdom In the United Kingdom,
Sour landed atop the
UK Albums Chart with 51,000 units, eclipsing
Foo Fighters'
Medicine at Midnight for the biggest opening-week for an album in 2021 at the time. It also marked the biggest opening week for a debut album since
Lewis Capaldi's
Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (2019). With "Good 4 U" rising to the top spot of the
UK Singles Chart concurrently, Rodrigo became the youngest soloist in UK history to achieve a Chart Double, at 18 years and 3 months old. She is the first artist since
Sam Smith in 2015 to garner a Chart Double with a debut album.
Sour also broke the all-time UK record for the most weekly streams for a debut album, overtaking Capaldi. The album received 45.7 million streams (30,945 album-equivalent units) in its opening week. When "Traitor" reached a new peak of number 5 on the UK Singles, Rodrigo became the first female artist in history to occupy three spots in the top 5 simultaneously, with "Deja Vu" at number 4, and "Good 4 U" spending a third consecutive week at the top.
Sour spent five non-consecutive weeks atop the chart. By the end of the year,
Sour spent a total of 32 weeks inside of the Top 20.
Sour was the UK's most streamed album of 2021 with 83% of its year-end sum of 395,000 units being on-demand streams. It was also the best-selling
cassette tape in the UK in 2021 with 14,000 copies sold.
Sour became the fourth best-selling album in the UK by the year-end, behind
ABBA's
Voyage,
Ed Sheeran's
= and
Adele's
30.
Sour spent an entire calendar year inside of the UK Top 20 on the Official Charts with a total of 46 weeks of those spent inside of the Top 10.
Other markets The album arrived at number one on the
Billboard Canadian Albums chart. All of its tracks debuted on the
Canadian Hot 100 simultaneously, led by "Good 4 U" atop the chart.
Sour spent four consecutive weeks atop the chart. In Australia, Rodrigo achieved a "Chart Double", where she topped both the
ARIA Albums and Singles charts—
Sour debuted at number 1 on the former, whereas "Good 4 U" ascended to number one on the latter. The other singles "Drivers License" and "Deja Vu" rebounded to numbers 3 and 4, respectively, while the track "Traitor" debuted at number 7; Rodrigo became the first artist since Swift in 2020, to chart four or more songs in the top 10 of the chart. Six other tracks from
Sour debuted in the top 50 of the chart.
Sour topped the ARIA Albums Chart for eight non-consecutive weeks. In Ireland,
Sour launched at number one on the
Irish Albums Chart with the biggest opening-week sales of 2021 in the country, surpassing
J. Cole's
The Off-Season (2021).
Sour garnered the biggest opening-week of streams for a debut album in history, surpassing Eilish's
When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019). Rodrigo achieved a chart-double in Ireland, as "Good 4 U" held on to its number-one spot on the
Irish Singles Chart for a second consecutive week. "Deja Vu" rose to a new peak of number 2, while "Traitor" entered at number 3, marking the first time a female artist occupied all the top 3 spots of the singles chart in the same week.
Sour spent its first seven weeks atop the Irish Albums Chart, claiming the longest consecutive reign at number one by an album by a female artist since
Adele's
21 (2011). It was the best-selling album of the first half of 2021 in Ireland, and spent 20 non-consecutive weeks at number one. On the
New Zealand Albums Chart,
Sour arrived at number one, aside five of its songs reaching the top 10 of the
New Zealand Singles Chart; "Good 4 U", "Deja Vu", "Traitor", "Drivers License", and "Brutal" charted at numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, and 8, respectively.
Sour spent ten consecutive weeks at number one, and is the only album by a female artist other than Adele's
21 to do so. ==Accolades==