Rihanna being so high after giving 1.4M copies away.
Icon!
Well she gave free copies of her album. Not free streams. Streams are free anyway. So I simply don't catch the reasoning behind your post. Streaming are millions. While sales are normally a couple of thousands. So how will giving away 1.4 million copies of her album affect streaming? It will and has only affected pure sales. Her streaming remained huge.
Compared to everyone else's discographies, it hasn't been on there that long. It made its way there 2 years ago. And her most popular album yet isn't even available and with limited streaming somehow managed to become the most streamed for a female artist in a tracking week.
I can see how she's #5. I can also see how she would be #1 if she played the game the way everyone else plays it.