Rated R was considered a massive flop when it first came out. They were making fun of Rihanna and her lackluster sales all over the internet and even her touring tickets weren't selling. The album performed even worse on the UK charts when it came out.

The first two singles underperformed so there wasn't any hype for the album at all and Riri was not known and still is not known to this date to be a big opening week seller. It wasn't until the album's third single Rude Boy and the follow-up single Rockstar 101 that people really started to like the era.

Rated R came out the same week as Susan's Boyle massive hyped album I Dreamed a Dream, Adam Lambert's For Your Entertainment and Gaga's Fame Monster (both the standalone album in the US as well as the re-release of the Fame). With under performed singles, little hype whatsoever and fierce competition - of course she wasn't going to sell a lot.

But in true Riri's fashion she overcame this setback, Rated R sold 7 times the amount of her opening week in the US and her album remains one of fan favourite. She then released the very successful Loud and then continued after that with many smash singles and with her recent album celebrating what 7 years on the charts.

Lady Gaga when she released Born this Way in 2011 was considerably more popular than what Rihanna was when she released Rated R in November 2009.

So just because you got a 99 cent deal does NOT mean you sell 400k copies and reach a million first week sales all in all. Because Gaga's BTW first week has been mocked for only selling a lot because of its deal yet here you are proving not everyone is able to do that and that you actually have to be super successful with or without said deal to sell as much as Queen Gaga did. So thanks for clearing that up