Blackpink Joins BTS As The Only Korean Acts To Hit A Very Special Milestone On The World Albums Chart

This week’s World Albums chart is ruled by Itzy’s Crazy In Love, the latest launch by the South Korean girl group. As that all-female vocal troupe from the Asian nation runs the show on Billboard’s look at the bestselling “world” EPs and full-lengths in the U.S., another beloved girl group holds on, and in doing so, matches a feat previously only managed by one other name in K-pop.

Blackpink’s The Album takes a step back this frame, declining slightly from No. 8 to No. 9 in what has turned out to be its fifty-second week on the World Albums chart. The set becomes the band’s first release to spend an entire year on the tally, and the quartet has now managed a showing that remains incredibly rare on the list.

The girl group is now just the second South Korean musical act of any kind to see one of their releases rack up 52 weeks on the World Albums chart. They join BTS in this accomplishment, as the K-pop boy group has hit this mark several times. In fact, it’s no longer strange to see their sets make it to a year on the roster, as fans in America continue to purchase their latest efforts months, and sometimes years, after they are released.

At present, BTS have seen seven of their releases—Love Yourself: Answer, Love Yourself: Tear, Love Yourself: Her, Map of the Soul: Persona, Map of the Soul: 7, You Never Walk Alone and Face Yourself—reach 52 weeks on the World Albums chart, so with Blackpink’s new addition, that means there are only eight titles by South Korean stars that have made it to that special milestone.

The Album is Blackpink’s first full-length, and it arrived after years of the four-member band dropping incredibly successful EPs. The K-pop girl group made history on charts all around the world when the project arrived in the fall of 2020, as it instantly became the highest-ranking release among South Korean all-female acts in history in most places. On the World Albums chart, the set quickly became another leader for the outfit, bringing them back to the summit on the purchase-focused list for the third time.