NEW YORK, UNITED STATES – FEBRUARY 21, 2020: (L-R) Jimin (Park Jimin), Jungkook (Jeon Jeongguk), Rap … [+] Monster (Kim Nanjoon), J-Hope (Jung Hoseok), V (Kim Taehyung), Jin (Kim Seokjin) and SUGA (Min Yoongi) of BTS (Bangtan Boys) band visit the Today Show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.- PHOTOGRAPH BY Efren Landaos / Echoes Wire/ Barcroft Studios / Future Publishing (Photo credit should read Efren Landaos / Echoes Wire/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
Barcroft Media via Getty Images
BTS is still busy smashing records with its latest album, Map of the Soul: 7, which just became the first album of 2020 to sell 500,000 pure copies in the United States—and the first album by a Korean group to ever accomplish such a feat.
The Korean pop septet’s latest effort rocketed to the top of the Billboard 200 in February with a meteoric debut of 422,000 album-equivalent units, of which 347,000 were traditional sales. It marked the biggest debut of 2020 at the time and remains the second-biggest of the year behind The Weeknd’s After Hours, which bowed with 444,000 units. Map of the Soul: 7 granted BTS its fourth consecutive No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, behind 2018’s Love Yourself: Tear and Love Yourself: Answer and 2019’s Map of the Soul: Persona.
It’s difficult to overstate the magnitude of Map of the Soul: 7’s commercial success. Not only did it nearly double Map of the Soul: Persona’s U.S. debut (232,000 units), but it did so mostly from traditional sales in an era where streaming is king. Compare Map of the Soul: 7 to Lil Uzi Vert’s chart-topping Eternal Atake—which debuted with 288,000 equivalent units, of which only 9,000 were pure sales—and it becomes clear just how much of an anomaly BTS is in today’s streaming-heavy market.
Perhaps even more remarkable, though, is that the group achieved gargantuan first-week sales without the help of concert ticket or merchandise bundles, which have become par for the course for major pop albums. Justin Bieber and Halsey both utilized such bundles for their new albums, Changes and Manic, respectively, yet they still debuted with a little over half the total units of Map of the Soul: 7 (231,000 for Changes and 239,000 for Manic).
According to HITS Daily Double’s year-to-date chart, Map of the Soul: 7 has also shifted approximately 220,000 additional units from streaming- and track-equivalent albums, bringing its total to 722,828 units. Those streaming figures could swell over the next few weeks as people continue to stay inside and await BTS’s rescheduled tour dates. Fans can also tide themselves over with the new Break the Silence docuseries, which premieres on May 12 on the WeVerse app.
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