According to Billboard on March 30, BTS’s 5th full-length album ARIRANG topped the main album chart Billboard 200, surpassing Luke Combs’s The Way I Am and Morgan Wallen’s I’m The Problem. With this, BTS secured No.1 on both the UK and US album charts.
The Billboard 200 ranks albums based on a combination of physical sales, streaming equivalent albums (SEA), and track equivalent albums (TEA).
In its first week, ARIRANG recorded 641,000 album units marking the highest first-week total ever for a group album since Billboard adopted the “units” system in December 2014. Of this, 532,000 units came from pure album sales, the highest figure for a group album in over a decade.
Out of the total 641,000 units, the 532,000 pure sales also set a new personal best for BTS, earning them their 7th No.1 on the Top Album Sales chart.
Streaming performance was equally impressive. The album accumulated 95,000 SEA units, equivalent to 99.1 million official on-demand streams another record-high for a BTS release. It also debuted at No.1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart.
Billboard noted that BTS achieved the largest album unit total since Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl, which debuted with around 4 million units last year.
With ARIRANG, BTS has now reached No.1 on the Billboard 200 for the seventh time.
The group first made history in 2018 with LOVE YOURSELF 轉 Tear, becoming the first K-pop act to top the chart. They continued their streak with LOVE YOURSELF 結 ANSWER (2018), MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA (2019), MAP OF THE SOUL : 7 (2020), BE (2020), and Proof (2022).
Following its No.1 debut on the UK Official Albums Chart Top 100, ARIRANG has now also conquered the Billboard 200, firmly proving that BTS’s global dominance remains stronger than ever even after their military hiatus.
Sources: Nate
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