Grammy-nominated K-pop group BTS’ anthology album “Proof” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
This is BTS’ sixth album to top the chart, which is based on “the most popular albums of the week in the US based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate,” according to Billboard.
“Proof,” which was released on June 10, ranked first on the June 15-dated Billboard 200 with 314,000 equivalent album units garnered as of June 16 based on Luminate data.
Of the total, 266,000 are album sales; 36,000 are streaming equivalent album (SEA) units (about 52.84 million on-demand official streams of the songs) and 12,000 track equivalent albums (TEA).
“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,” Billboard reported.
It added, “‘Proof’ registers the year’s biggest week for an album by a group, both in units earned and in album sales. The only larger week overall in 2022 was the debut frame of Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, with 521,000 units, of which 330,000 were in album sales.”
Of the 266,000 in BTS’ album sales, a little over 259,000 were CD sales, “the largest sales week for an album on CD in the U.S. since Adele’s 30 sold 378,000 CDs in its first week (ending Nov 25, 2021; chart dated Dec. 4, 2021).”
“‘Proof’ became “the 15th mostly or all non-English language album to hit No. 1 and the third in 2022. This year also saw non-English No. 1s from Bad Bunny (the all-Spanish Un Verano Sin Ti) and Stray Kids (the mostly-Korean Oddinary). Of the 15 leaders that were recorded mostly in a language other than English, six have been by BTS,” according to Billboard.