BTS’s album ‘Arirang’ has topped the U.S. ‘Billboard 200’ chart for the second consecutive week, setting an unparalleled record.
On April 6, Billboard’s official website reported that BTS’s fifth studio album, ‘Arirang’ (ARIRANG), secured the No. 1 spot on the main album chart, the Billboard 200 (for the week of April 11). This achievement makes BTS the first Korean artist to spend two consecutive weeks at the top of the chart.
Billboard explained that ‘Arirang’ recorded 187,000 album units this week. Of these, 114,000 units were pure album sales (including physical and digital purchases). Streaming Equivalent Album (SEA) units accounted for 65,000, while Track Equivalent Album (TEA) units made up the remaining 8,000 (sales converted from digital track downloads).
‘Arirang’ previously reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart dated April 4, marking the seventh time the group has topped this chart. In its first week of release, the album registered 641,000 album units, setting the highest weekly score for a group album since Billboard began incorporating unit counts in December 2014.
Additionally, with pure album sales of 532,000, the album achieved the highest weekly sales among group albums in over a decade.
Released on March 20, ‘Arirang’ continued to dominate global music charts into its second week, signaling a prolonged period of popularity. As of Spotify’s updated global audio and music streaming platform’s latest weekly chart (March 27 – April 2), BTS maintained the No. 1 position across three categories for two consecutive weeks: ‘Weekly Top Albums,’ ‘Weekly Top Songs,’ and ‘Weekly Top Artists.’
According to Australia’s ARIA, which announced on April 3, the new release also held the top spot on the ‘Top 50 Albums’ chart for two consecutive weeks. It secured second place on Germany’s Offizielle Deutsche Charts (dated April 3) and the French record association SNEP’s ‘Top Albums’ (March 27 – April 2), and fourth on the UK Official Chart’s ‘Official Albums Top 100’ (April 3 – April 9).
Image source: Big Hit Music
