BTS ARIRANG Tops Billboard 200, Sets Sales Record

0:00It's March 29th. This is Music News Today, powered by AI, your daily soundcheck. I'm Corey with the story. BTS just claimed their 7th number 1 on the Billboard 200 with AI Rying debuting at the top spot on the April 4th chart. The album racked up 641,000 equivalent units in its first week, the biggest opening for any group since the chart switched to. Units back in December 2014. Others sales hit 532,000, marking their largest sales week ever, and the top 4 group in over a decade. Breaking it down, physical copies drove most of that with 516,000 sold, fueled by 17 vinyl variants and 9 CD editions, packed with photo cards and stickers. Vinyl alone moved 2 in 8,000. BTS is best ever, and the biggest 4 groups since tracking started in 1991. Streaming added 95,000 units from nearly 100 million plays, another record for them. Fans showed up huge, powering this through collectibles and variants, proving BTS's

1:04grip on the game even post hiatus. It edges out everyone except Taylor Swift's recent monster debut, but no group has touched these numbers in years. The release tied into a Netflix live special and performances on the tonight show, keeping the momentum rolling. Meanwhile, Luke Combs landed at number 2 with the way I am, pulling 100 and 1000 units mostly from 77 million streams. It's his 7th top 10 album, backed by country hits like Back in the Saddle. The rest of the top 10 mixes holdovers from Morgan Wallen, Harry Styles, and Bad Bunny, with just two fresh entries. AR ring sets up the BTS World Tour kicking off April 9th in South Korea, hitting the US from April 25th in Tampa through late September. This comeback wave has the charge shaking, BTS owning the throne like only they can.