SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – JANUARY 05: Bangtan Boys arrives at the photocall for the 34th Golden Disc … [+] Awards on January 05, 2020 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by The Chosunilbo JNS/Imazins via Getty Images)
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BTS’s new album Map of the Soul: 7 has not yet been out for a full week, but it has already made history in the band’s home country of South Korea in many, many ways, and at this point, if the title didn’t sell another copy, it would still hold as one of the most successful releases of all time in the Asian nation.
That’s not to say, however, that fans are done snapping up the vocal group’s latest, and depending on how the next several hours go sales-wise, the septet has a chance at reaching a milestone that was always too grand for any other act to even consider.
Map of the Soul: 7 has a shot, though it may be a long one at this point, of becoming the first album in South Korean history to sell 3.5 million copies in a single week. Seeing as how there is now less than a full day left before the title’s first tracking frame is up in the territory, it’s tough to predict that BTS’s new studio recording will make it to that mark…but looking at how the set has performed day-to-day so far, it’s certainly not impossible.
Currently, Map of the Soul: 7 has sold 3.34 million copies in South Korea, and that’s taking into account the first six full days of tracking, according to Hanteo, a company that shares real-time data in the country’s music industry. That means that in order to reach 3.5 million CDs sold, the title must shift just under 160,000 more.
It has not yet been published how many fans have purchased Map of the Soul: 7 today in South Korea, but chances are the sum is already into the tens of thousands, and the group’s dedicated ARMYs fan base may make a push to raise the first-week total even higher while still possible.
160,000 copies in a single day might sound lofty, but it’s something BTS has managed before—several times this week, in fact. In three of the past six days, listeners have purchased well over that sum, with the first-day take coming in at an incredible 16-times as large.
Yesterday, Map of the Soul: 7 only sold about 45,000 copies, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the seventh day’s count will look the same. In fact, while a slump by the end of the tracking frame wouldn’t be strange, another day with fewer than 50,000 copies sold would be odd when compared to the rest of the week.
Whether BTS sells 3.5 million copies of Map of the Soul: 7 in the first seven days or not, the CD already ranks as the second-bestselling ever, and it will continue to move units over the coming days, weeks and months, and it might not be long before it ends up the most-purchased album in South Korean history.
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