BLACKPINK becomes first K-pop girl group to top Billboard 200

BLACKPINK became the first K-pop girl group to claim the No. 1 spot on U.S. Billboard’s main albums chart, Billboard has said.

In a preview of this week’s charts, Billboard said Sunday (U.S. time) that the band’s second full-length album, “Born Pink,” released Sept. 16, arrived atop the latest Billboard 200 with 102,000 equivalent album units earned. This made the quartet the first female group to reach No. 1 since 2008.

BLACKPINK became the fourth K-pop group to rise to the top of the Billboard 200 following BTS, SuperM and Stray Kids, which are all boy groups.

“Born Pink” took down Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti,” which had retained the top position for 11 weeks, to second place.

A photo of K-pop girl group BLACKPINK, provided by YG Entertainment (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

The Billboard 200 ranks the most popular albums of the week in the United States, measured by equivalent album units, comprising physical album sales and other digital sales records.

Physical album sales of the “Born Pink” comprised 75,500 of the total, according to Billboard.

BLACKPINK also topped the Billboard Top Album Sales chart this week with the physical sales number, which is the seventh highest among all albums released this year.

The group attributed its rise to the top of Billboard to its fans.

“This is a glorious moment created by BLINK,” the band said, through its agency YG Entertainment, referring to the name of its global fandom.

“We’re happy that the album, created with efforts of many staff members who put their heads together with us, seems to have properly reached many people,” it said.

“While working on ‘Born Pink,’” it went on to say, “We wanted to present more evolved music by BLACKPINK, as well as its identity. We’ll do our best to continue to show you good performances in the future.”

Debuting in 2016 with “Whistle” and “Boombayah,” the girl group has become the world’s biggest girl group with hit songs that include “As If It’s Your Last,” “Kill This Love,” “Ddu-du Ddu-du” and “Love Sick Girls.”

On Friday (British time), “Born Pink” debuted atop Britain’s Official Albums Chart Top 100, which made BLACKPINK the only female Asian act to simultaneously top the British and U.S. Billboard charts.

The album has also broken the record for the biggest first week sales by a K-pop girl group in history by selling more than 1.54 million copies in the week, according to data from Hanteo Chart, a local music market tracker. The album has already become the first album from any K-pop girl group to sell more than 2 million copies, according to Circle Chart, another tracker.

“Born Pink” has topped iTunes albums charts of 60 countries, including the United States and Britain, upon its release, with its main track, “Shut Down,” recently topping the weekly global top songs chart of the world’s largest music streaming platform, Spotify.

On YouTube, the music videos for the album’s prereleased song “Pink Venom” and “Shut Down” have attracted more than 300 million and 100 million views, respectively.

K-pop boy group NCT 127 came in third on the Billboard 200 with its fourth full-length album, “2 Baddies,” which was released on the same day as “Born Pink.” “2 Baddies” sold 58,500 equivalent album units, including 55,500 in physical album sales, according to Billboard.