BTS are poised to extend their dominance on the Billboard 200. According to Hits Daily Double, ARIRANG will secure a second consecutive week at No. 1 with 183,000 album-equivalent units in the United States.
If confirmed, the achievement would mark the first time a K-pop album has spent its first two weeks at No. 1 in the chart’s history. The milestone builds on an already record-breaking debut, as ARIRANG opened atop the Billboard 200 earlier this week with 641,000 units, delivering the biggest U.S. week ever recorded for a K-pop release.
That opening total rewrote the group’s own benchmarks. Previous high-water marks included MAP OF THE SOUL: 7, which debuted with 422,000 units in 2020, and PROOF, which launched with 314,000 units. With ARIRANG, BTS now hold the three largest debut weeks for any K-pop act in Billboard history.
The scale of the debut also places the album among the decade’s biggest releases overall. Within the 2020s, ARIRANG ranks as the eighth-largest opening week in the United States, trailing only 30 by Adele and six separate releases from Taylor Swift.
Elsewhere on the chart, Ye (aka Kanye West) is set to debut at No. 2 with BULLY, projected to earn 153,000 units in its first week. The release marks his 14th Top 10 entry on the Billboard 200 and his first solo album to chart since Donda, which spent one week at No. 1 in 2021. His most recent appearance came with Vultures 2, a 2024 collaborative project with Ty Dolla $ign that also peaked at No. 2.
Melanie Martinez is expected to open at No. 3 with HADES, earning 83,000 units. The debut ties K-12 as her second-highest-charting album, behind PORTALS, which reached No. 2 in 2023. Meanwhile, RAYE is projected to debut at No. 11 with THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE., earning 40,000 units and setting a new career peak on the U.S. chart.
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