Racine Carrée

Chart performance

In France, Racine carrée debuted at number one with one of the year's strongest first-week sales: 80,882 units, of which 55,597 were physical copies and 25,285 downloads. The opening week numbers were higher than the 75,000 copies his previous album, Cheese, had sold since its release. The following week, the album sold 50,901 copies but was replaced at the top of the chart by the second volume of tribute album Génération Goldman, which sold 59,274 units. By the end of September and after only six weeks of release, Racine carrée had crossed the 300,000 mark and spent five non-consecutive weeks at number one. In the last week of October, the album surpassed Daft Punk's Random Access Memories as the best selling album of 2013; up to that point the former had sold 475,500 copies while the latter had amassed 469,700 units. In its eighteenth week on the chart, just before Christmas, Racine carrée remained at number one for a sixteenth non-consecutive week at the top with its biggest weekly sales and the second-best weekly score of 2013, 182,034 units, just behind the 195,013 copies Random Access Memories sold in its first week of availability. This allowed it to cross the million mark in just four months; the last album to sell over one million copies was Adele's 21 (2011), which took eleven months.

In francophone Europe, Racine carrée also experienced massive success. In his native Belgium, Stromae's second album opened at number one in both Flanders and Wallonia. In the former, Racine carrée spent 17 non-consecutive weeks at number one; while in the latter, it remained at the top for 26 non-consecutive weeks. In late December, the album was certified seven times platinum by the Belgian Entertainment Association, denoting shipments of over 140,000 copies in the country. Additionally, Racine carrée finished the year as the best-selling album in both Flanders and Wallonia. In Switzerland, the album also debuted at number one and held the top spot for four additional weeks. In French-speaking Romandie, the album spent fourteen non-consecutive weeks at number one and remained in the top three for several weeks after its release in late August. In addition, Racine carrée has been certified 5× platinum by the Swiss branch of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, denoting shipments of 75,000 units. In Canada, the album debuted within the top ten and remained in the chart for only three weeks.

Success was not limited to francophone countries; the album also sold well in Germany and the Netherlands. In Germany, Racine carrée debuted just outside the top twenty in the main albums chart and at the top of the digital albums chart. In the Netherlands, the album debuted at number sixteen; the following week it climbed five positions to reach number eleven, its highest chart rank up to that point. After falling below the top forty and reaching positions as low as fifty-seven for two weeks, it eventually rebounded and entered the top ten for the first time in mid-December. The album later peaked within the top three. According to MegaCharts, the album finished the year as the fifty-eighth highest-selling album in the Netherlands. In Austria, the album did not reach the chart but sold constantly in the lower sales regions, eventually reaching gold.

Singles

Racine carrée produced six singles: