K-pop boy group Stray Kids is seen in this photo provided by JYP Entertainment. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jul. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — K-pop boy group Stray Kids has claimed its fifth No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard’s main albums chart with its latest EP, “Ate.”
The eight-track album debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart for this week with 232,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States, Billboard said in a chart preview Sunday (U.S. time). The latest chart will be released Tuesday.
This marks the band’s fifth No. 1 on the chart, following “Oddinary” and “Maxident” in 2022 and “5-Star” and “Rock-Star” last year.
The 232,000 album units represent the most sold in a single week of 2024 for any K-pop album and the sixth-biggest debut for any album this year, according to Billboard.
The Billboard 200 ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S., measured by equivalent album units, comprising physical album sales and other digital sales records.
Of the 232,000 units, 218,000 came from physical album sales, netting this year’s second-largest sales week for any album of any genre, following Taylor Swift’s latest “The Tortured Poets Department,” according to Billboard.
“As ‘Ate’ is mostly in the Korean language, it is the 25th mostly non-English-language album to hit No. 1, and the second of 2024,” it said.
TWICE’s “With YOU-th” garnered the group its first chart-topper when it opened at No. 1 in March.
“Of the 25 mostly non-English-language albums to reach No. 1, 16 are mostly Korean,” Billboard added.
Apart from Stray Kids, BTS is the only K-pop group to have achieved more No. 1s on the Billboard 200 chart, doing so six times.
Jimin of K-pop supergroup BTS is seen in this concept photo for his second solo album, “Muse,” provided by BigHit Music. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
BTS member Jimin’s second solo album, “Muse,” debuted at No. 2 with 96,000 equivalent album units. Of the sum, physical album sales comprised 74,000.
“It marks the first time the top two on the Billboard 200 are K-pop albums,” Billboard said.
(Yonhap)
