Ak explains it best. His label bought 200,000 albums ahead of time and coupled it with his merch. So whenever a fan bought a t-shirt or tour pass it came with a digital album.
Nicki tried to do it last minute but couldnt, so her shyt came with a digtial access code to download her album instead. Which most people aint got time to be doing all that especially when the album was already on streaming services.
Travis Merch came with a instant digital copy that counted as a sale for billboard whether the fans downloaded/redemed it or not. So all the shyt he sold was going towards his sales. Some real lowbro sneaky shyt, if a artist like Post Malone did that the torches would of came out.