Uh... her first full stadium tour was in 2016. That's not "damn near a decade."

Beyoncè isn't doing 100K in pure sales if she dropped an album today and in 2016, the year Lemonade dropped, Drake did 852K in pure sales in one week. He outsold Beyoncè's album in ONE DAY.

forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2016/05/02/drakes-new-album-outsold-beyonces-in-just-one-day/amp

He has sold more albums and singles than Beyoncè in the US and has sold more records than her globally.

Drake is bigger in terms of his actual music. Beyoncé just a bigger celebrity

It also doesn't make sense to compare an artist that is far beyond their prime and an artist just now settling into their peak. It's like comparing Drake/Beyonce in 2009/2010 when they were in two totally different places in their careers..

It's Beyonce, though.. bigger name, bigger brand and she'll be able to outgross him in virtually any country outside the US. Her biggest known singles supplants his.. I also find it impressive that Lemonade topped the 2016 Global Albums chart at #1..
ifpi.org/downloads/GMR2017.pdf

this woman started her career in 97 making teeny bopper RnB music. This year her name and presence alone pushed a stalling #14 single into the top 5 within two days and eventually to the #1 spot shortly after. Drake's in his commercial prime at the moment so music consumption undoubtedly goes to him, but.. Looking at Beyonce'doverall career over the last 23 years.. it's her!

Beyonce

I mean duh

You put too much Power behind these streaming numbers.

What percent of the world uses streaming?

Beyonce been out longer and has been on many different platforms other than music.
Shes been in movies...
Other famous people love and talk about Beyonce In places with people who dont care about hip hop...

Its not close AT ALL

This is it. OP also doesn't specify bigger in which terms. If it's in terms of actual numbers, Drake is bigger than Beyoncè globally and in the US. He has sold more records than her in the US and globally.

In terms of the bigger celebrity globally, Beyoncè wins that argument easily.

Breakdown of their numbers in the US and globally:

Most RIAA certified male acts in the US:

Most RIAA certified female acts in the US:

Drake has sold more albums than her (he's undercertified in his albums: he has actually moved somewhere around 33 million album units. Beyoncè is undercertified as well and should be somewhere around 20 million album units). Drake has also sold more single units and is also massively undercertified as well.

Most records sold globally:

Drake: 317.9 million records sold.

Beyoncè: 97.5 million records sold.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_music_artists

we also have to remember Beyonce still hasn't certified most of her music. For example, Crazy In Love is elligble for 7x platinum, but is only certified gold. Her album I Am Sasha Fierce is eligible for 6x platinum, but is only certified 2x platinum. Her self-titled album is 2x platinum, but eligible for 5x platinum. She just doesn't care, I guess lol. IDK why, but she doesn't recertify music after it kinda "runs it's course". I guess when one era is over, she just moves on to the next and doesn't even think about the last one.

and what exactly are we judging this off of, OP. sales? tours? star power? how the people in the US and globally view them? their impact OUTSIDE of music?

it is very unfair to compare them in the first place cuz one came out in 2003 and the other in 2009. that alone gives one a big head start and automatically captures more fans, unless it's someone like Adele who blows the tops off every time she releases.

And hip hop is the biggest genre in the world, and before that was country for like 20 years. Beyonce isn't a pop artist like y'all are saying. Her only pop album was Sasha Fierce. She just so happens to be a super famous R&B girl and because she's so famous people say she's a pop star. I get it, but she's def R&B.

Yep, this explains the extreme longevity of both, especially for Bey. She can do pop, RnB and even hiphop. As a normal popstar, you won’t get so far.

Beyonce by far. Jay Z is known ww as "Beyonce's husband"

Realize that you're using an unreliable chart system that varies based on data that fluctuates based on 'claimed' figures. Like someone said if you're an artist that chooses not to certify your records or don't upgrade them, your data (singles, albums, videos) don't get accounted for. It's also worth noting that RIAA's point based metric system is biased towards artists that debut in the late 00s/10s. It's the reason why this same list has Drake higher than Michael Jackson and Elton John and Chris Brown in the top 10. Older artists and artists like Beyonce that doesn't cater to the 'single' market (releasing 50 singles that inherently drives up 1/3 of total figures)..heavier percentage as well, then you have 4 rappers (who historically releases A LOT of singles) in the top 10, two of them supplanted the undisputed commerical GOAT: MJ.

This is an important point. Your commercial success is based on how artists caters to the dominating music consuming market. bubblegum pop/edm will always have a permanent fixture in the consuming market in diff. periods of time. example: early 00s (99-02/03) was all about the poptart teen pop sensations.. the dominant culture reflects those trends. It's the reason why Britney Spears was the biggest commercial artist in the world during any of those years. From 08-12 it was emo dance pop/edm. Boom Lady Gaga blasts out and has one of the best musical debuts in the 21st century. 13/14-15 hip-hop took the top spot and streaming turns the tides for them permanently as actual buying sells were literally dying out.. Hence the explosion of commercial slayage of Drake 6-7 years into his career.

Beyonce creates contemporary RnB w/splashes of other influences. It will never have the widespread accessibility to appeal to the dominant society in the music industry.. historically this is white men, later on being teen angst filled white girls and now ..edgylord hiphop white teenagers. For the most part Beyonce's stayed true to her sound it’s pretty niche outside of urban genres. her southern gospel delivery/drawl, elaborate ornamentation.. excessive runs/harmonies loud brassy instrumentation/production. those groups (demographics) aren't touching it unless a watered down remnant of the sound comes from a white artist i.e-Adele/Amy. Beyonce's traditional rnb/urban fusion stylings and her heavy girl empowerment themes make her music polarizing. It hasn’t been the most popular/trendy new thing since the mid to late 90s. short life. Beyonce's adaptation (notice that she gets small boosts of commerical power when she starts to lean to the popular sound AC (Halo) EDM (single ladies) Tiktok*streaming (Savage Remix). for the most part she's done her own thing musically..example: going rnb w/4 and alieating the audience she gained in Sasha Fierce. The fact that she's survived and consistently maintained and sometimes excelled for over two decades is a testament of her dominance, also outside of numbers her brand has delved into movies (her box office participation is over a billion), her cultural capital and influence, her ability retain her core base and add fans over time across generations solidifies her in a higher echoleon that I Drake may not reach.

probably drake

Drakes musical peak was 7 years ago. Been a slow slide since

Whichever makes you happy

but his commercial peak is/was 2013-now. You could even argue he really didn't hit his peak until 2016 after the boost of Work and all the hits from Views. before then he wasn't getting #1s and top tens nearly as easily, and yes What's My Name was #1 but that was because of Rihanna as she had 4 #1s from Loud alone (being the icon she is)

10 pages and people still think the world is North America and Europe

beyonce

You hit the nail on the coffin. I'd also argue she does get huge hits doing R&B. Crazy In Love, Baby Boy, Irreplaceable and Check On It were all #1s and they were all R&B hits. I count Irreplaceable as R&B/pop. Love On Top still gets played at every wedding I attend and her hits from 4 get played on the R&B radio like it's 2011. She still has loads of star power like you mentioned with going slightly into other genres like pop, a little EDM with hits like Single Ladies, Telephone and Sweet Dreams or hip hop with songs like Apeshit and Savage Remix. She's very versatile and one could argue one reason for her star power is that her music has aged like fine wine. Her old hits like Ring the Alarm, Naughty Girl, Ego, Diva, Upgrade U, Crazy in Love, and Get Me Bodied still get played on the radio and especially at parties. That's a big part of it too.

lol nobody mentioned Africa, South America, Australia, or Asia. I know Beyonce has a big following in those continents, but IDK if Drake is as big there. I haven't been to those continents so what I say is mainly based off of what I've watched on videos and read articles.

idk but beyoncé’s music s***s all over Drake’s