NEW YORK, NY – MAY 21: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) V, Suga, Jin, Jungkook, RM, Jimin, and J-Hope of the K-Pop Group BTS visit The Empire State Building on May 21, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Steven Ferdman/Getty Images for ESB)
Getty Images for ESB
Musical superstars BTS seem to make history almost every week, as they rise to new heights and hold on longer than many of their Korean colleagues on charts all around the world. The group does so once again this frame, not because they reach No. 1 with another new release or debut a song on top of a specific chart, but because one of their latest full-lengths has managed to spend a significant amount of time on the most important albums tally in the U.S.
BTS’s Map of the Soul: Persona dips 20 spots on the Billboard 200 this week, falling from No. 77 to No. 97, but that’s not what’s newsworthy. What is worth taking note of is the fact that the title has now spent 16 frames on the list, which stands as the third-most of any K-pop record in American history.
Impressively, BTS claims the four longest-charting K-pop albums in U.S. history, and they continue to raise the bar with every passing week.
Leading the way with the most weeks on the Billboard 200 among K-pop releases is BTS’s own Love Yourself: Answer, which is also present on the chart this time around. The set actually climbs to No. 115 time frame, earning a forty-eighth stint on the tally in the process. 48 weeks on the chart is now the most weeks any K-pop album has ever lived on the tally, and BTS is sure to improve their own record in just a few days when Love Yourself: Answer likely finds a home once again.
In a not-too-distant second place is BTS’s Love Yourself: Her, which spent 44 weeks on the Billboard 200 during its reign.
Last week, Map of the Soul: Persona tied with BTS’s Love Yourself: Tear for the third-most frames spent on the Billboard 200 with 15, but now that it’s earned a sixteenth stay somewhere on the list, it holds onto place by itself and Tear falls to fourth.
It’s tough to say at this point if Map of the Soul: Persona will be able to catch up to either Love Yourself: Answer or Her, since it has months left to go, but whether it disappears next time around or not, it will still be able to claim this small bit of history, at least for now.
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