Olivia Rodrigo Hits the Gas

The Disney+ star sets a streaming record with her blockbuster debut single, “Drivers License.”

THERE’S NEVER BEEN anything quite like “Drivers License.”

While Olivia Rodrigo’s breakup ballad takes its sweet time to get to its poignant musical peak, it took off in a sprint right away on the charts. The Lorde-esque track — released as Rodrigo’s official debut single after a slew of songs from High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, the Disney+ show on which she co-stars — not only debuted at Number One on the RS 100, it broke the record for the biggest debut in the chart’s history, which was previously set by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s era-defining 2020 smash “WAP.” It also marked the biggest first-week streams for a single in all of Alpha Data’s history.

Next to other debut singles, there’s no comparison. Even Harry Styles’ first solo song, “Sign of the Times,” pulled in less than one-sixth of the first-week streams that “Drivers License” did. And Rodrigo’s song stayed strong at Number One through the month of January, holding off competition from Ariana Grande, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, and SZA.

In fact, the last time we saw a hit this big it was “Old Town Road.” That song still holds the record for the biggest single-week stream count in Alpha Data history (“Drivers License” comes in second) — but even Lil Nas X’s hit didn’t come out running quite like Rodrigo’s, taking a few months to hit its peak of 80 million weekly streams.

Now, Rodrigo takes Number One on the Breakthrough 25 chart for January. All told, she saw 166 million on-demand audio streams for the month — an increase of 2,400 percent, compared to December. That’s the biggest growth we’ve seen since DaBaby, who had a full album out when he topped the chart with an increase of 232 million streams. Time will tell if Rodrigo can keep this pace going.