Stray Kids and BTS Jimin released new albums on July 19, which continue to break records on domestic and international charts.
On July 28 (local time), Billboard’s main album chart, Billboard 200, was released with Stray Kids securing the first position and Jimin grabbing the 2nd spot.
Stray Kids’ ‘ATE’ on Billboard 200
Stray Kids’ latest album ATE debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 232,000 album units in its first week. This achievement marks the group’s fifth consecutive #1 entry, following a streak of chart-topping successes with ODDINARY (2022), MAXIDENT, 5-STAR (★★★★★), ROCK-STAR (樂-STAR), and now ATE.
Stray Kids’ album ATE has made a strong impact with its sales figures:
- Traditional album sales: 218,000 copies (the highest single-week sales for a K-pop album this year)
- Streaming equivalent albums (SEA): 13,000 copies
According to Billboard, ATE is not only the top-selling K-pop album of the week but also the second-best-selling album across all genres, just behind Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department in terms of weekly sales.
BTS Jimin’s ‘MUSE’ on Billboard 200
On the other hand, BTS member Jimin’s second solo album MUSE secured the second spot on the Billboard 200 chart, with an impressive 96,000 album units sold in its debut week. The album’s sales breakdown includes 15,000 streaming equivalent albums (SEA) and 7,000 track equivalent albums (TEA).
Jimin’s new album MUSE is his second album to enter the Billboard 200 chart, following his first solo album FACE which reached #2 last year.
Notably, “FACE” achieved the highest ranking ever for a K-pop solo artist on the Billboard 200 at the time of its release. Since then, other BTS members have matched this record with their own solo albums, including SUGAs D-DAY, V’s Layover, and Jungkook’s GOLDEN.
Lastly, the Billboard 200 chart ranks albums based on a combination of three key metrics: traditional album sales, which include physical and digital album purchases; SEA (Streaming Equivalent Albums), which converts streaming activity into album sales; and TEA (Track Equivalent Albums), which converts digital song downloads into album sales.
