Seventeen's 3rd album tops Japan's Oricon Chart

Seventeen's "Heng:garae" [PLEDIS ENTERTAINMENT]

Boy band Seventeen's third album has topped Japan's Oricon Chart for the third consecutive time, a first for a K-pop act.

Seventeen's seventh EP "Heng:garae," which dropped on June 22, sat on Oricon's weekly digital album rankings for the week of June 22 to 28, as well as the Oricon Weekly Album ranking.

This is the third album of Seventeen's to top the album ranking chart, following its two previous releases, "You Made My Dawn" (2019) and "An Ode" (2019).

Seventeen's "Heng:garae" [PLEDIS ENTERTAINMENT]

It is also the first time for a K-pop act to have three consecutive albums reach No. 1, and also the first time for a foreign artist to do so in 42 years and 11 months since Scottish band Bay City Rollers set the record in 1977.

Seventeen's "Heng:garae" sold 1.09 million copies of its album within the first week of its release, which is the second highest for any Korean artist so far this year.

Its lead track "Left & Right" ranked high on local and overseas music charts, including Korea's Melon, Genie Music and Bugs, as well as the international iTunes Chart, Billboard Japan and China's QQ Music.

"Heng:garae" centers around the story of Seventeen's journey to maturing both musically and individually.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]