NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 06: (L-R) Kim Hong-joong, Song Min-gi, Jeong Yun-ho, Park Seong-hwa, Kang … [+]
When Billboard refreshes all of its weekly charts in a few hours (on Tuesday, September 21), Kacey Musgraves will earn her first No. 1 on the Top Album Sales ranking, the weekly look at which titles actually sold the most copies (as opposed to similar lists like the Billboard 200, which also incorporate streams). The country/pop singer’s new set Star-Crossed will open in first place, as it sold just under 47,000 copies in its first full tracking frame.
As the Grammy winner lands her first leader on the chart, one of the biggest names in the South Korean music industry collects their debut placement inside the highest tier, and they score an interesting spot in the history books by doing so.
Ateez’s Zero: Fever Part.3 is slated to debut at No. 6 with around 11,700 copies sold, according to information shared with journalists by MRC Data, the company that gathers the sales, streaming and radio play data that is then used to compile the Billboard charts. The set marks Ateez’s first appearance inside the top 10 on the Top Album Sales ranking, and they are now one of a relatively small, but always growing, group of South Korean musical acts that have managed to appear inside the highest tier.
With their first top 10 on the Top Album Sales chart, Ateez becomes the tenth boy group from South Korea to send at least one title into the most competitive region on the list.
BTS currently lead the charge among all South Korean acts—male, female or solo—when looking at who has collected the most top 10s on the Top Album Sales chart. The septet has thus far sent five releases to the peak position, and nine of their projects have found space inside the loftiest space at one point or another.
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Tomorrow X Together sits in second place on the all-time ranking of the South Korean boy groups with the most top 10 placements on the Top Album Sales chart, with three. Two other all-male bands—SuperM and NCT 127—are tied for the third-most top 10s, as they have both appeared inside the region with a pair of efforts, though the latter act will likely break that match soon.
Ateez is the latest South Korean boy group to nab their first top 10 on the Top Album Sales chart, and they are tied for the fifth-most (with just one, as these are still early days for many acts from that part of the world when it comes to performing well in the U.S.) appearances in the highest tier alongside Seventeen, Exo, NCT, Monsta X and Enhypen.
Starting a new release at No. 6 on the Top Album Sales chart is a huge win for Ateez, as the band has previously never appeared inside the upper half of the chart. Last year, their projects Treasure Epilogue: Action to Answer and Zero: Fever Part.1 peaked at Nos. 76 and 90, respectively.
