BLACKPINK’s ‘Born Pink’ sets 1st-week sales record for girl group album

“Born Pink,” the second studio album from BLACKPINK, has broken the record for the biggest first week sales by a K-pop girl group in history, its agency said Friday.

The album set the record by selling more than 1.54 million copies in the first week of its release last Friday, YG Entertainment said, citing data from Hanteo Chart, a local market tracker.

The figure is more than twice the number of first week sales of 690,000 copies for the band’s first studio album, “The Album,” in 2020.

Since the Hanteo Chart tally does not include some of the overseas album sales, actual first-week sales for “Born Pink” are expected to be bigger, considering the band’s large following abroad.

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

“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,” staying atop the world’s largest music streaming platform, Spotify, for the sixth consecutive day.

On YouTube, the music video for the prereleased song “Pink Venom” became the fastest video from a K-pop girl group to achieve 100 million views. It had garnered 330 million views as of 10 a.m. Friday. The video for “Shut Down” has also attracted more than 100 million views.

A new album by popular boy group NCT 127, which was released on the same day, coincidentally recorded the same first-week sales number, according to the band’s agency Friday.

“2 Baddies,” the band’s fourth full-length album, had sold about 1.54 million copies in the first week of its release, SM Entertainment said, citing data from Hanteo Chart.

It added the number is the highest first-week sales of all SM-managed artists.