Korean pop group BTS have yet again cracked the pole position on the Billboard 200 chart.

Their latest album, Map Of The Soul: Persona has landed at #1 on the Billboard 200 Chart, making it their third #1 effort in less than 12 months. The seven track record cracked over 230,000 equivalent album units in the US.

Map Of The Soul: Persona‘s first week of sales includes 196,000 full album purchases, 8,000 individual track sales, and 26,000 streaming equivalent albums. Those streaming figures convert to 37.4 million on-demand streams, through services like Spotify and Apple Music.

This news comes as the K-pop group were certified ARIA Gold over here in Australia a couple of short weeks ago.

Last week, The Industry Observer‘s Lars Brandle said “The year is young, but the lads are already in history-making form.” His predictions that BTS would take over Billie Eilish’s multi-week ARIA #1 stronghold were right.

Eilish’s album WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? (Interscope/Universal), has moved to 2nd, with Khalid’s Free Spirit moving to 3rd on the Albums chart.

Here are a few of BTS’ incredible recent achievements:

  • They’ve scored their third #1 album in less than 11 months.
  • They’re the first group since The Beatles to score three number one albums in less than a year.
  • Fastest accumulation of #1 albums by a group since The Monkees in 1967, who achieved three #1 albums in just over nine months.
  • Fourth #1 mostly non-English album in the last year.
  • BTS’ biggest ever sales week, fourth largest week for all artists for 2019.

Watch BTS’ music video for ‘Boy With Luv ft. Halsey’:

While you’re here:

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.
to Rolling Stone magazine
to Rolling Stone magazine