KUALA LUMPUR: The recent release of its latest album, Map Of The Soul: Persona, sees K-Pop juggernaut BTS hitting another milestone record.
The seven-member South Korean group has garnered its third No. 1 hit on the Billboard 200 album chart.
According to The Korea Herald yesterday, this achievement makes BTS the first group since the Beatles to earn three No. 1s in less than a year.
Citing a Billboard online article, the seven-track album, which was released on April 12, is the boy band’s third Billboard No. 1 album in nearly 11 months.
Its first No. 1 was with Love Yourself: Tear in June last year, which was followed by Love Yourself: Answer that dominated the chart once again in September.
Apparently, the Beatles achieved a similar feat in 1995-1996, when the band’s archival releases Anthology 1, Anthology 2 and Anthology 3 all debuted at No. 1 within a stretch of 11 months and a week.
Billboard said that the Korean language-recorded Persona is also the fourth non-English album ever to top the prominent album chart in the course of the past year.
“Persona likely got a boost in sales from devoted fans who purchased multiple CD copies of the album, as it was released in four different collectable packages,” Billboard said.
BTS also became the first Korean artiste to top the United Kingdom’s Official Album Chart last week with the same album.
Its main track, Boy With Luv, which featured American singer-songwriter Halsey, made it to the 13th spot on the British Official Singles Chart.
This is BTS’ highest-charting result on the UK list so far.