'BE' becomes 5th BTS album to top the Billboard 200

[BIG HIT ENTERTAINMENT]

For the fifth time, BTS has reached the top of the Billboard 200 with its new mini album “BE,” which includes the group’s first all-English song “Dynamite.”

Over 240,000 copies of the new mini album released on Nov. 20 were sold in the first week of the release through Nov. 26, Billboard said Sunday, quoting data from Neilson Music/MRC Data.

Sales of the physical album reached about 177,000. Downloading 10 songs is counted as the sale of one album, as is streaming 1,500 songs.

It took two years and six months for the Korean boy group to put five consecutive albums onto Billboard 200 list. Only the Beatles have achieved that feat more quickly. It took the English rock band two years and five months, beginning with the release of “Yesterday and Today” in July 1966, until the release of “The Beatles” (better known as the “White Album”) in December 1968.

BTS just this year topped the list twice with its albums, including “Map of the Soul: 7” released in February. The only other singer with more than two albums to the top list of Billboard 200 in a one-year period is American rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again.

“The album’s first week is the biggest for an album by a group, both in terms of equivalent album units and album sales, since BTS’ own previous No. 1 album, ‘Map of the Soul: 7,’ earned 422,000 units in its first week, of which 347,000 were in album sales,” Billboard said.

It also pointed out that the Korean group’s records are available in just two different formats.

“Unlike many other high-selling albums that benefit from an array of available formats and exclusive or limited editions, ‘Be’ was only available in two formats,” Billboard stated.

It added that a standard digital album costs about $9, while the pricier CD edition is about $50.

BY LEE SUN-MIN [summerlee@joongang.co.kr]