BTS’ ‘ARIRANG’ tops Billboard 200 for second straight week, a K-pop first

BTS’ “ARIRANG” held the No. 1 spot on the U.S. Billboard 200 for a second consecutive week, setting another milestone.

According to Billboard’s chart preview posted on its official website on the 6th, BTS’ fifth full-length album “ARIRANG” ranked No. 1 on the April 11-dated Billboard 200. Billboard said BTS is the first Korean act to remain atop the chart for two straight weeks.

Billboard reported that “ARIRANG” logged 187,000 album-equivalent units for the week, including 114,000 in traditional album sales. Streaming-equivalent albums accounted for 65,000 units and track-equivalent albums for 8,000.

The album previously debuted at No. 1 on the April 4-dated Billboard 200, becoming the group’s seventh No. 1 album on the chart. In its first week, it posted 641,000 album-equivalent units, the best weekly performance for a group album since Billboard began tracking units in December 2014. It also recorded 532,000 in traditional album sales, the highest weekly total for a group album in the past decade.

Released on March 20, “ARIRANG” continued to perform strongly in its second week on global charts. On Spotify’s latest weekly charts updated on the 4th, BTS again led the global rankings for Weekly Top Albums, Weekly Top Songs and Weekly Top Artists, holding No. 1 in all three categories for a second week.

The album also maintained momentum on major overseas charts. In Australia, it stayed No. 1 on the ARIA Top 50 Albums chart. It ranked No. 2 on Germany’s official music chart and on the French recording industry association SNEP’s Top Albums chart, and placed No. 4 on the U.K. Official Albums Top 100.

In South Korea, BTS has also remained strong on TV music shows with the title track “SWIM.” Without appearing on broadcasts, the group has won a total of nine trophies across SBS’ “Inkigayo,” MBC’s “Show! Music Core,” KBS2’s “Music Bank,” Mnet’s “M Countdown” and MBC M’s “Show Champion.”