What Does The Weeknd’s ‘Hurry Up Tomorrow’ First-Week Performance Mean for His Potential Finale?

If Hurry Up Tomorrow is indeed his final album — as the artist born Abel Tesfaye has hinted at it being, at least under his current artist name — then The Weeknd is certainly going out with a bang.

Tomorrow bows atop the Billboard 200 albums chart this week (dated Feb. 16) with 490,500 first-week units (with 359,000 in sales), according to Luminate. The debut is the strongest of The Weeknd’s career, beating his previous high of 444,000 (posted by his After Hours blockbuster in 2020) and nearly tripling the 148,000 number that Dawn FM, his prior LP, entered with in 2021. Meanwhile, the set lands 14 tracks on the Billboard Hot 100, led by the Playboi Carti teamup “Timeless” at No. 7.

What does the big debut mean for The Weeknd? And if this is the end of The Weeknd, what could Tesfaye possibly do next? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.

1. The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow debuts with 490,500 first-week units, the best first-week numbers of his career and nearly three times more than the number moved by predecessor Dawn FM in its first week in 2021. On a scale from 1-10, how big a deal is this for The Weeknd? 

Rania Aniftos: 9 — it would be a 10, but he’s no stranger to successful albums and likely isn’t too surprised at how well this one performed. However, since he teased this album as the end of The Weeknd (more on that later), it must be validating to have such an impressive end to an even more impressive career.  

Kyle Denis: It’s gotta be a 9. The road to Hurry Up Tomorrow was notably rocky, slightly stained by The Idol and bereft of pre-release hits the size of “Heartless” or “Starboy,” so to pull off the best first-week numbers of your career with so many odds stacked against you is nothing less than impressive. With a figure like this, The Weeknd is also bidding farewell to this character while he’s still on top. Narratively, this is a big win for him; imagine if the album touted as the grand finale of his decade-plus career opened with numbers closer to that of Dawn FM’s opening week? 

Jason Lipshutz: A 9. This debut demonstrates that interest in The Weeknd remains sky-high, at a moment when he hasn’t had a huge hit in a few years and is about to play stadium shows in a few months. The Weeknd would be an A-lister regardless of what this first-week total had been, but with Hurry Up Tomorrow’s gargantuan debut, he proves that he is still a commercial blockbuster, capable of turning out fans in droves for more than just the old hits.

Heran Mamo: I’d say 9. For a superstar of The Weeknd’s caliber, you’d expect him to go out with a bang if this is really his last album under his current stage name.The only reason I’m not saying 10 is because while Dawn FM might not have been The Weeknd’s best-performing album at the time of its release, its well-conceived concept and ultra-polished production have allowed it to age incredibly. 

Andrew Unterberger: Let’s say 8. It’s a big deal, but Tesfaye’s got a lot of big-deal stuff going on right now — from a surprise Grammys comeback to a still-expanding big stadium tour — and I’m not sure it totally stands out from the pack there.

2. What do you see as being the biggest factor in Hurry Up Tomorrow’s stellar early performance?

Rania Aniftos: He really leaned into the idea of “rebirth” and coming back to himself throughout the promo process, which makes me think that fans were more curious than ever about what Hurry Up Tomorrow might sound like. Would it continue be like After Hours and Starboy, or would he return to his House of Balloons or Trilogy roots? To me, it was a seamless mix of both musical eras, appealing to OG fans and ones he made along the way.

Kyle Denis: In his Billboard 200 roundup, our very own Keith Caulfield noted that Hurry Up Tomorrow was available across eight vinyl variants, eight CD variants, a cassette tape, and nine deluxe boxed sets in addition to its standard configurations and access on DSPs. Of course, someone still needs to buy these versions, so the real credit for Hurry Up Tomorrow’s early performance is due to The Weeknd’s deep relationship with his XO fan community. Over the course of his career and the unfurling of the character of The Weeknd, the four-time Grammy winner has garnered an incredibly dedicated fanbase who want to feel as immersed in the story as possible – whether that means collecting album variants, selling out stadiums, or buying tickets for the forthcoming Hurry Up Tomorrow film. 

Jason Lipshutz: Unlike the star-heavy start of 2024, the beginning of 2025 has not been jammed with big new album releases — just Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, really — and Hurry Up Tomorrow took advantage of that relative silence. Plus, The Weeknd made fans wait three years for a new project after being omnipresent at the start of the decade, resulting in a thirst for new music that was slaked by a 22-song opus ripe for racking up major streaming totals.

Heran Mamo: Literally, I would say album sales since they accounted for 359,000 of the LP’s 490,500 first-week equivalent album units. But considering this has been touted as The Weeknd’s final album as “The Weeknd,” there’s a lot more riding on this than if it was just another album in his discography, and that’s bound to bring more attention to Hurry Up Tomorrow.  

Andrew Unterberger: Good planning with the available variants, combined with strong messaging about the album’s place in his catalog — both as the end of this current 2020s album trilogy, and possibly the end of his entire career arc as The Weeknd.

3. “Timeless” is the highest-charting song from the new set in its first week, returning to the Hot 100’s top 10 at No. 7 after having previously peaked at No. 3. Do you think it will stand as the biggest hit from the set, or do you think another song on the album might pass it?

Rania Aniftos: I do think “Timeless” will continue to be the standout hit from the album, especially since he’s going on tour with his collaborator Playboi Carti, which will likely give the song another boost. I would, selfishly, love to see “The Abyss” with Lana Del Rey have a moment, because I’m a huge Lana fan and I think she and The Weeknd have some serious musical chemistry.

Kyle Denis: In terms of chart peaks, I think “Timeless” will probably remain the biggest hit from the set. In a just world “Cry for Me” is a massive spring hit, but we’ll see how that shakes out. “Wake Me Up” deserves some love too, but people seem to be a bit tired of disco/synthpop Weeknd (R.I.P. “Dancing in the Flames”). If he can convince frequent duet partner Ariana Grande to escape Oz for a moment to record a remix, perhaps she can turn “Open Hearts” into a “Save Your Tears”-esque hit. 

Jason Lipshutz: “Timeless” will keep performing well — Playboi Carti’s red-hot streak is still intact, after all — but the focus track “Cry For Me,” which debuted on this week’s Hot 100 at No. 12, sounds like a durable hit, and the type of darkly lit, emotionally heightened synth-pop track that The Weeknd has turned into months-long smashes time and again. It’s unlikely to ever reach “Blinding Lights” heights, but “Cry For Me” should stick around through the spring, at least.

Heran Mamo: It’s hard to say considering “Timeless” had a four-month lead start as a single compared to most of the album’s songs. That 00XO connection between The Weeknd and Playboi Carti has grown stronger and stronger since their “Popular” collaboration with Madonna, and their unreleased “Lose You” joint has been getting a lot of hype since Carti’s Rolling Loud Miami performance last December. And considering “Timeless” is the latest new music release from Carti, fans will be clinging onto that single until I AM MUSIC finally drops (hopefully this year).

I don’t know if “Cry For Me” will surpass “Timeless,” but it’s solidifying itself as one of the most standout tracks from the album. The Weeknd performed both songs during his surprise set at the 2025 Grammys, and “Cry For Me” was No. 1 on the Global Apple Music chart, debuted at No. 5 on the Global Spotify chart and debuted at No. 12 on the Hot 100 this week, making it the second highest-charting track from the LP after “Timeless.” 

Andrew Unterberger: Given that The Weeknd seems to be struggling to connect commercially with his more traditional pop songs since “Save Your Tears,” and that his more dramatic left turns like “Sao Paulo” haven’t fared much better, I imagine the halfway-point territory of “Timeless” (with a red-hot collaborator in Playboi Carti) will probably end up faring best from this one. Rooting for “I Can’t Wait to Get There” though.

4. Hurry Up Tomorrow has been teased to be The Weeknd’s final album, at least as The Weeknd. If so, how do you feel it rates as a grand finale for his superstar artistic persona?

Rania Aniftos: I’m very much satisfied. It feels like the end of a decade-plus character arc, a tribute to the mixtapes that put him on the map and a display of his captivating artistic growth ever since. 

Kyle Denis: The more I sit with the album, the happier I am with it as a finale for The Weeknd. You get notes of all his past eras and some of his most bone-chilling songwriting (shoutout to “Baptized in Fear”), and he sounds great. His voice is notably more robust which makes for ballads that pack a much heavier punch than some of his earlier efforts in that space. My only hope is that this movie doesn’t ruin the album for me. 

Jason Lipshutz: If The Weeknd does stick to this statement, this persona will have gone out on its own terms — the shadowy figure from the PBR&B days of the early 2010s lasting through the mid-2020s, a mystery morphed into a Super Bowl headliner. Hurry Up Tomorrow closes out a trilogy of albums, but it also puts a bow on the maximalist, bleary-eyed, synth-heavy sound that The Weeknd has been tinkering with for over a decade in the spotlight; it’s not his complete project, but it might be the one that’s most representative of who he is, and what he set out to do. And if that’s the case, Tomorrow is a hell of a parting shot.

Heran Mamo: 10/10. His consistent, intentional execution of callbacks to earlier moments from his career have made Hurry Up Tomorrow a compelling closing chapter for The Weeknd. As an artist who’s always idolized and been inspired by Michael Jackson, interpolating “Thriller” on the opening track “Wake Me Up” was an incredible homage. Flipping the song titles and motifs from his previous albums, like “Save Your Tears” to “Cry for Me” and “Escape From LA” to “Take Me Back to LA,” nicely brought things back around. And having the end of “Hurry Up Tomorrow” seamlessly transition into the beginning of “High For This,” the opening song from his debut mixtape House of Balloons 14 years ago, the first chapter of his primary Trilogy, was the LP’s quintessential full-circle moment.  

Andrew Unterberger: Yeah, it’s a strong finale — better on each listen and rich enough that I’m still uncovering new details and personal favorites. I do still wish it had one absolute can’t-miss standout smash on it that could sorta live outside the album a bit, but maybe that song just hasn’t quite revealed itself yet. Wouldn’t be the first time one of his deep cuts took a minute to reveal its charms and find its audience.

5. If this is indeed the end for The Weeknd as The Weeknd, what’s your bold prediction for what Abel Tesfaye might do next?

Rania Aniftos: It’s no bold prediction that he’ll make a home in the horror movie world — he’s already working on a psychological thriller. So, I’ll take it a few steps further. I loved his haunted house at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights, so why couldn’t he have a whole haunted theme park of his own where fans can experience the dark, twisted aspects of his music in real life?

Kyle Denis: Hopefully, more acting projects that aren’t connected to pop stardom/music… I feel like some space from that world might do him so good. 

Jason Lipshutz: The Idol 2: Tedros’ Revenge. I’m half-kidding! I do think he might take a break to explore Hollywood before eventually dipping back into music and reclaiming what is his.

Heran Mamo: He’s going to dive deeper into the TV and film world. His HBO TV series The Idol seemed to be a bit of a false start, but by co-writing, co-producing and starring in his first feature film Hurry Up Tomorrow and launching his own Manic Phase production company, it seems like Tesfaye is creatively rerouting to something he’s always dreamed of doing.  

Andrew Unterberger: I’ve said it before, but I think Tesfaye starts anew as a recording artist under a totally different name — and doesn’t let us know for sure that it’s him until well into the project.