LOS ANGELES, CA – AUGUST 02: Joy, Yeri, Wendy, Seulgi and Irene of South Korean girl group Red … [+]
When Stray Kids released their latest album Noeasy in mid-August, it was always bound to become a bestseller, but the heights it reached in just over a week are staggering. The Gaon Albums chart ranks the bestselling full-lengths, EPs and single albums in South Korea every week, looking at how many copies were shipped to stores. There is also a monthly component that lists the titles that sold the most copies in the previous months, and Stray Kids dominated that list like no other in August.
Noeasy ended August having sold more than 1.1 million copies. That’s a massive figure for any period of time, but considering the set was released on August 23, that means the title racked up more than a million purchases in a little more than a week. Of course, that sum includes pre-orders placed before the album was made available in full, but it still speaks to the group’s incredible popularity in their home country.
Coming in at No. 2 on the Gaon monthly albums chart for August is Tomorrow X Together’s The Chaos Chapter: Fight or Escape, which sold 644,000 copies. Another all-male vocal act, The Boyz, sold nearly 616,000 copies of their new EP Thrill-ing, and it easily became another No. 1 on the weekly ranking for the band. The top three efforts are the only ones that managed to shift at least half a million units in the month of August.
The highest-ranking female musicians sit at No. 4, as Red Velvet’s comeback release Queendom ends August as the fourth-bestselling title, having sold nearly 319,000 copies. Astro’s Switch On wraps the month with 297,000 copies sold, enough to make the project the fifth-bestselling in the nation.
MORE FOR YOU
The only title that isn’t new to the latest month-end ranking in South Korea is BTS’s Butter, a single album that features just four tracks (two of which are singles, while the other two are instrumentals of those cuts). That set sold another 153,000 copies in August, upping its total sum to over two and a half million.
Up next on the list of the bestselling albums in August in South Korea are Golden Child’s Game Changer (No. 7, 148,000), Cravity’s The Awakening: Written in the Stars (No. 8, 141,000) and CIX’s OK Prologue: Be OK (No. 9, almost 104,000). ONF’s Popping rounds out the top 10 with 93,000 copies sold, and it is the only release present inside the highest tier on this list to not sell at least 100,000 copies in August.
These were the 10 bestselling albums in South Korea last month.
No. 1 – Stray Kids – Noeasy
No. 2 – Tomorrow X Together – The Chaos Chapter: Fight or Escape
No. 3 – The Boyz – Thrill-ing
No. 4 – Red Velvet – Queendom
No. 5 – Astro – Switch On
No. 6 – BTS – Butter
No. 7 – Golden Child – Game Changer
No. 8 – Cravity – The Awakening: Written in the Stars
No. 9 – CIX – OK Prologue: Be OK
No. 10 – ONF – Popping
