Home > Music

BTS notches third No. 1 on Billboard 200 with new album

By Ahn Sung-mi

  • Published : Apr 22, 2019 - 11:35
  • Updated : Apr 22, 2019 - 11:35

BTS has topped the Billboard 200 albums chart with its new EP “Map of the Soul: Persona,” becoming the first band since the Beatles to win three No. 1 in less than a year, according to Billboard on Monday.

The seven-track album, released April 12, topped the chart with 230,000 equivalent units in the US, including 196,000 album sales, in the week ending Friday, Billboard said, citing Nielsen Music.

Billboard 200 ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, song downloads and streaming.

image
BTS

The chart reflecting BTS’ latest milestone will be updated on Billboard’s website Tuesday.

It took less than 11 months for BTS to dominate Billboard’s main albums chart again. The septet won its first No. 1 with “Love Yourself: Tear” in June last year, followed by “Love Yourself: Answer,” which topped the chart in September.

“Before BTS, the last traditional group (excluding the Glee ensemble, whose multiple cast members rotated) to log three leaders within such a quick span was the Beatles in 1995-96, when the band’s archival releases ‘Anthology 1,’ ‘Anthology 2’ and ‘Anthology 3’ all debuted at No. 1 in a stretch of 11 months and a week,” Billboard said.

BTS’ latest release is the fourth non-English album to top the Billboard 200 in the past year, along with the aforementioned “Love Yourself” series and Andrea Bocelli’s “Si.”

Anticipation is high for BTS to enter the top singles chart Billboard Hot 100 with the album’s lead track “Boy With Luv.” Last year, it cracked the 10th spot on the Hot 100 with “Fake Love.”

The septet has continued breaking records with each release. “Map of the Soul: Persona” also topped the UK’s Official Charts, becoming the first Korean act to enter the country’s main albums chart.

By Ahn Sung-mi (sahn@heraldcorp.com)

Most Read Stories : Week