LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 31: BTS attends Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest … [+] 2018 on December 31, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images for dcp)
2017 Getty Images
BTS rules Billboard’s World Albums chart again this week, though that is nothing new, as the septet controls the list more often than they don’t. The South Korean group always sends their latest efforts straight to the top of that ranking, and usually, the more recent offerings hold court there for quite some time.
This week is different, as they control the roster not with their new album, but with an older release that’s been going strong for most of 2020. Surprisingly, the band almost landed a historic chart-topper, but they were held back…by one of their older collections.
BTS’s new album Map of the Soul: 7 ~ The Journey ~ opens at No. 2 on this week’s World Albums chart, missing the highest spot by just a single rung. That’s disappointing, as the set would have been the seven-member vocal band’s tenth leader on the ranking, as they have already managed to collect nine throughout their time together. The band would have become the first K-pop stars to land double-digit rulers had their new set risen all the way, and there’s a chance it still might.
Map of the Soul: 7 ~ The Journey ~ was released mid-week, which is responsible for its shockingly lackluster performance on the Billboard 200 (the group’s last album debuted at No. 1 with one of the largest openings of 2020, while their new set starts off at No. 115). After a full tracking period passes, the set may be able to climb to the top of the World Albums chart, especially if sales pick up.
This week, BTS’s Map of the Soul: 7, their Korean-language No. 1 blockbuster released in February, sold another 6,300 copies, according to Nielsen Music, which is enough to make it the eighth-bestselling title in the country. Map of the Soul: 7 ~ The Journey ~ starts off at No. 23 with just over 3,500 sales, with all of those transactions taking place in the two days it was available last frame.
Map of the Soul: 7 ~ The Journey ~ is BTS’s lucky thirteenth top 10 on the World Albums chart, and it may soon become their tenth No. 1, although whether it jumps to first place next week or next month, when the physical edition of the Japanese-language set is made available, is yet to be seen.
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