BLACKPINK’s “The Album” debuted at No. 2 on Billboard 200, the highest rank ever achieved by a K-pop girl group on the chart.
According to Billboard, BLACKPINK’s debut studio album earned 110,000 equivalent album units to place second on the Oct. 17-dated chart.
Of the total, 81,000 are from album sales, 26,000 from streaming equivalent albums (SEA) units (40.3 million on-demand streams) and 2,000 from track equivalent albums (TEA) units.
Before “The Album,” BLACKPINK peaked at No. 24 on Billboard 200 with “Kill This Love” on April 20, 2019 while “Square Up” ranked 40th on June 30, 2018.
“‘The Album’ marks the highest-charting album by an all-female group since Danity Kane’s second album ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’ debuted at No. 1 on the chart dated April 5, 2008. ‘The Album’ additionally is the highest-charting debut full-length album by an all-female group since Danity Kane’s self-titled effort opened at No. 1 on Sept. 9, 2006,” according to Billboard.
Billboard 200 is based on equivalent album units from TEA, SEA and album sales with “each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.”
“The Album” also debuted at No. 2 on UK’s Official Albums Chart for the period Oct. 9 to 15, which also set another record for a K-pop girl group.
No. 1 on Spotify Global chart
On Spotify, “The Album” debuted at No. 1 on the new weekly Top 50 Global Albums chart for the period Oct. 2 to 8.
On the Top 50 Global Songs chart for the same week, “Lovesick Girls,” the main track of “The Album,” made its debut at No. 6 while “Bet You Wanna (feat. Cardi B)” placed at no. 11 and “Ice Cream (with Selena Gomez)” is No. 15, “Pretty Savage,” No. 22; “How You Like That,” No. 23; “Crazy Over You,” No. 32; “Love to Hate Me,” No. 35; and “You Never Know,” No. 46.
“The Album” entered at No. 6 on the Top 50 Albums in the US while “Bet You Wanna (feat. Cardi B)” and “Lovesick Girls” grabbed the 26th and 27th places, respectively, on the Top 50 Songs in the US.
No. 1 in South Korea
In South Korea, “The Album” topped Hanteo Chart’s weekly album chart for the period Oct. 5 to 11, selling 617,276 copies. It was released in physical version on Oct. 6 and it sold 589,310 copies on the first day to place first on the daily album chart.
According to Hanteo, “The Album” recorded total first-week sales of 689,066 copies from Oct. 6 to 12, compared to “How You Like That,” which tallied 204,334 copies in sales in the first week, or an increase of 484,732 copies.
“The Album” had garnered more than one million copies in pre-orders: 670,000 copies in South Korea and 340,000 copies in the US and Europe.
1 million copies sold in China
In China, “The Album” has sold more than one million copies. On the Chinese music streaming platform QQ Music, the album sold 910,149 copies as of writing since its release on Oct. 2.
“The Album” also sold 116,899 copies on KuGou, another streaming platform, and 6,233 copies on Kuwo to date. The three music platforms tallied 1,033,271 copies sold for “The Album.”
Meanwhile, the Netflix documentary “BLACKPINK: Light Up the Sky” will be released on Oct 14, showcasing the quartet’s rise to stardom.