9/2/2018 by Keith Caulfield

BTS bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with Love Yourself: Answer, garnering the K-pop group their second leader on the list after Love Yourself: Tear, which dropped earlier in 2018.

The new album – the third in the South Korean boy band’s Love Yourself trilogy – arrives atop the list with 185,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Aug. 30 according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 141,000 were in traditional album sales.

Love Yourself: Answer was released on Aug. 24 via BigHit Entertainment.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Sept. 8-dated chart (where Love Yourself: Answer debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s websites on Wednesday, Sept. 5 – one day later than usual due to the Labor Day holiday on Sept. 3 in the U.S.

BTS’ Second No. 1: Love Yourself: Answer follows BTS’ previous chart-topper, Love Yourself: Tear. The latter launched at No. 1 on the chart dated June 2 with 135,000 units earned in its first week, of which 100,000 were in traditional album sales. BTS is the only K-pop act with a No. 1 album, and obviously the first with two leaders. They were also the first (and still only) with a top 10 set, when Love Yourself: Her – the first of the Love Yourself trilogy – debuted and peaked at No. 7 (Oct. 7, 2017).

BTS & K-Pop’s Biggest Week Ever: Answer’s first-week totals – in both overall units earned and traditional album sales – gives both BTS and the K-pop genre their best week yet. The previous record for both BTS and K-pop was tallied when Love Yourself: Tear bowed at No. 1 (135,000 units; 100,000 in album sales).

Third-Largest Week of 2018 for a Pop Album: With 185,000 units earned, Answerlogs the third-largest week of the year for a pop album. Only Justin Timberlake’s Man of the Woods and Ariana Grande’s Sweetener tallied bigger weeks. They debuted at No. 1 with 293,000 and 231,000 units, respectively (on the Feb. 17 and Sept. 1-dated lists).

Third-Largest Sales Week of 2018 for a Pop Album: Love Yourself: Answer sold 141,000 copies in its first week, the third-largest sales week of 2018 for a pop album. The only bigger frames were posted by Man of the Woods (242,000) and Shawn Mendes’ self-titled album (142,000; June 9). Sales of Love Yourself: Answerwere likely enhanced by how the album was issued in four collectible editions of the set – each with alternative artwork and ephemera – where devoted fans likely bought all four copies. A concert ticket/album sale redemption offer for the group’s show on Oct. 6 at Citi Field in Flushing, N.Y. also aided sales.

First Pop Act Since 2014 With Two No. 1 Albums in Less Than a Year: Love Yourself: Answer’s No. 1 debut comes a little over three months after Love Yourself: Tear opened at No. 1. BTS is the first pop act with two No. 1s in less than 12 months since One Direction topped the list on Dec. 6, 2014 with Four, which followed Midnight Memories’ arrival on the Dec. 14, 2013-dated chart.

The last act, regardless of genre, with two No. 1s in less than 12 months was Logic. The rapper debuted at No. 1 on March 24, 2018 with Bobby Tarantino II, which came 10 months after the No. 1 arrival of Everybody on the May 27, 2017 list. What about the last act that achieved two No. 1s in a shorter amount of time than the three months between BTS’ Tear and Answer? That would be another rap artist, Future, who notched back-to-back No. 1 debuts in successive weeks with his self-titled album and HNDRXX on March 11 and March 18, 2017, respectively.

A Rare Non-English No. 1 Album: Like Her and Tear, Answer is performed mostly in Korean with a few lyrics in English. Before Tear, the last mostly non-English album at No. 1 came in 2006, when Il Divo’s Ancora topped the chart dated Feb. 11. 2006. Ancora contained songs sung in Spanish, Italian and French, along with a track sung partially in English.