It was heavily promoted by the biggest music store of the planet for over a month.
Promo isn't only performances.
No it wasn't. The iTunes banners and exclusive release was only for a week. Beyoncé hasn't been on any talk shows to promote the album, and the only award show performances(2) was 5 months ago.
I don't know why people were expecting more than 3.5M for Beyonce. She is not a good single seller, and promo is just an excuse, one or two performances won't help her sell 4 or 5 million albums. The only way to keep the era alive is getting another Top 10 hit.
SLAY.