BTS has earned its seventh No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with “Arirang,” scoring the biggest sales week for an album by a group in over a decade.
“Arirang” opens on the chart with 641,000 equivalent album units, 532,000 of which are pure album sales. It’s the biggest first week for an album by units since Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” bowed at No. 1 with over four million units last year.
Based on pure album sales alone, “Arirang” has the biggest sales week of any album since “Showgirl,” which had 3.48 million copies sold. The last group to have a larger sales week was One Direction with “Midnight Memories” in 2013, selling 547,000. “Arirang” got a big boost from vinyl sales, with 208,000 copies sold across 17 vinyl variants. That makes it the sixth biggest vinyl sales week for an album in the modern era, with Swift holding the top five.
BTS‘ previous number ones include “Love Yourself ‘Tear’” in 2018, “Love Yourself ‘Answer’” in 2018, “Map of the Soul : Persona” in 2019, “Map of the Soul : 7” in 2020, “Be” in 2020 and “Proof” in 2022. Its latest chart conquest comes after the group — Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V and Jung Kook — completed mandatory military service. To celebrate the release of “Arirang,” BTS held a concert in Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul that was aired on Netflix, and debuted a feature-length documentary on the streaming service.
Elsewhere on the chart, Luke Combs secured his seventh top 10 on the albums chart as “The Way I Am” bows at No. 2. Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem” sits behind Combs at No. 3, followed by Harry Styles’ “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.” and Don Toliver’s “Octane.” Occupying Nos. 6 through 10 are Olivia Dean’s “The Art of Loving,” Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” Bruno Mars’ “The Romantic,” Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” and the “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack.
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