NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - SEPTEMBER 12: (L-R) Changbin, I.N., Han, Felix, Lee Know, Seungmin, Hyunjin and ... [+]
It’s now been more than half a decade since a K-pop album first hit No. 1 in America. In the years since then, one name has frequently returned to the top of the Billboard 200, the chart company’s ranking of the most-consumed albums in the U.S. 2023 changed that trend, as that act wasn’t available–but the genre still performed better than ever before thanks to rising superstars.
In 2023, five different albums by K-pop artists reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200. That’s the most leaders on the important tally in a single year for the genre. It’s only one more than in 2022, when four efforts reached the summit.
BTS is far and away the most successful K-pop act in American history. The septet has charted half a dozen No. 1s on the Billboard 200. They were the first to find their way to the summit, back in 2018, and they’ve scored a new champion almost every year since then.
Currently, the seven members of BTS are all enlisted in the South Korean military, a duty which is required of all men in the nation by a certain age. While several of the singers that make up the group dropped solo projects in 2023–with all of them stalling in the runner-up rung–they were eclipsed by a number of other K-pop favorites, who did hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Of the five albums from South Korean artists that reached No. 1 on the all-genre chart, four artists are represented. One name, Stray Kids, earned a pair of winners. They first rose to the penthouse in 2023 with 5-Star in June. Just a few months later in November, they returned with Rock-Star. Stray Kids had previously topped the tally as well, and they now count four rulers in their dispatch.
Three K-pop acts earned their first No. 1s on the Billboard 200 in 2023. The first of that bunch was Tomorrow X Together, otherwise known as TXT. Their recent project The Name Chapter: Temptation opened atop the tally, bringing them to the summit after years of landing near the throne.
After a close race to the top spot with the Barbie soundtrack, NewJeans won that week. The new band became only the second girl group from South Korea to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 when their EP Get Up debuted in first place. They joined Blackpink in this feat, as both have collected a single leader so far.
Just before 2024 rolled around, one more K-pop band hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200. Ateez launched their latest collection The World EP.Fin: Will in first place on the ranking, which uses both sales and streaming data to show what titles Americans are consuming.
Only seven K-pop artists have topped the Billboard 200 in the chart’s history. Of that bunch, nearly half scored their first No. 1 in 2023, making it a very busy and incredibly important year for the genre. 2024 is off to a slow start when it comes to major new releases from stars in the South Korean music industry–at least as far as performance in America is concerned–but the year is just beginning.
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