BTS’ new compilation album Proof debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart (as of June 25) and earns the pop group their sixth chart-topper. The retrospective – which consists mostly of previously released material – ends with 314,000 equivalent album units earned in the US in the week ending June 16, according to Luminate. The overwhelming majority of this volume was driven by CD album sales.
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The anthology was released on June 10, four days before the group announced an indefinite “hiatus” to focus on solo projects. The seven-piece South Korean act formed in 2010 and debuted on the US Billboard charts in 2013. BTS has made 15 entries on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
Also in the new top 10, Carrie Underwood places her 10th consecutive top 10 album on the Billboard 200 – the aggregate of her charting efforts – as her new studio release Denim & Rhinestones launches in the region.
The Billboard 200 chart lists the week’s most popular albums in the United States based on multimetric consumption measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. The units include album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equates to one album sale, or 10 album tracks sold, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscribed official on-demand audio and video streams generated from tracks on an album. The new chart, dated June 25, 2022, will be released in full on Billboard’s website on June 21. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of Proof’s 314,000 earned equivalent album units, album sales include 266,000; SEA units are 36,000 (equivalent to 52.84 million official on-demand streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units are 12,000.
Proof records the biggest week of the year for a group’s album, both in units earned and in album sales. The only major week overall in 2022 was the debut frame of Harry Styles’ Harry’s House with 521,000 units of which 330,000 albums were sold.
Proof was released as a 35-track digital download and streaming album and as a 48-track extended album on CD. The latter edition contains 13 exclusive tracks – mostly demo recordings – not available on the digital or streaming album. Proof has not been issued for other formats such as vinyl LP or cassette.
All versions of the album feature eight of BTS’ 13 Top 40 charting songs on the Billboard Hot 100 (via the last published chart dated June 18), including three of the act’s six No. 1’s (“Dynamite”, “Life Goes On” and “Butter”). Proof also includes three brand new tracks, including the set’s lead single, “Yet to Come (The Most Beautiful Moment)”.
As is usual with many K-Pop releases, the CD edition of the album was issued in lavish collective packaging. A total of two CD variants are available: a $24 version and a $70 version (certain retailers may have them at a lower retail price). Both share the same tracklist, just different packaging and internal paper goods (like brochures and posters). Each also includes randomized items (photocards and postcards). (Expensive CD albums are nothing new to BTS. The act’s latest new studio album, 2020’s eight-track Be, was originally only available in two retail formats: a $9 digital album and a $50 CD -Dollar.)
Proof has sold nearly 266,000 traditional albums – including 6,500 digital albums. The remaining total of just over 259,000 was all from CD sales. This is the biggest week of sales for an album on CD in the United States since Adele’s 30 sold 378,000 CDs in its first week (to November 25, 2021; chart from December 4, 2021). In comparison, Adele’s 30th CD was released in three variants, a 12-track standard edition (with a list price of $11.98), a Target-exclusive pressing with three bonus tracks ($13.98), and a deluxe box ( $40) which includes the standard CD, a t-shirt, and a photo print. The vast majority of CD sales for 30 came from the $11.98 and $13.98 editions.
Proof – recorded largely in Korean – is the 15th mostly or entirely non-English language album to hit No. 1, and third in 2022. That year also saw non-English No. 1 from Bad Bunny (the all- Spanish Un Verano Sin Ti) and Stray Kids (the predominantly Korean Oddinary). Of the 15 leaders recorded primarily in a language other than English, six are from BTS.
Speaking of Bad Bunny, Un Verano Sin Ti lands at #2 on the new Billboard 200 with 129,000 album units earned (down 6%). Un Verano Sin Ti is the first album in nearly four years to earn more than 100,000 equivalent album units in each of the first six weeks for the first six weeks. The last title to do so was Drake’s Scorpion, which surpassed all 100,000 units in its first seven weeks (charts from July 28 to August 25, 2018).
Harry Styles’ chart-topping Harry’s House is a non-mover on the Billboard 200 at number 3 with 91,000 album-equivalent units (down 20%). Post Malone’s Twelve Carat Toothache falls 2-4 (down 51%) in week two at 59,000. Rounding out the top five is Future’s former #1 I Never Liked You, which is down 4-5 at 55,000 (down 10%). A trio of former leaders are next on the list, while Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album sits at No. 6 (52,000; down less than 1%), Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Moral & The Big Steppers at 5-7 (42,000 ) falls back ; down 23%) and Olivia Rodrigos Sour remains steady at number 8 (32,000; down 14%).
SZA’s Ctrl climbs from No. 35 to No. 9 after a fifth-anniversary deluxe reissue on June 10 that adds seven previously unreleased tracks. The album, which debuted on the charts dated July 1, 2017 and peaked at number 3, is recovering with 32,000 earned equivalent album units (up 109%).
Capping the new top 10 on the Billboard 200 is Carrie Underwood’s new studio album Denim & Rhinestones, which debuts at number 10 with 31,000 album units earned. Of this, 22,000 are accounted for by the sale of albums; SEA units are nearly 9,000 (equivalent to 11.19 million official on-demand streams of the set’s tracks) and TEA units are less than 1,000.
Denim & Rhinestones is Underwood’s 10th consecutive Top 10 album – the aggregate of their charting efforts. And all 10 have made the top 10 starting with their first release Some Hearts which was released in 2005.
Luminate, the independent data provider of the Billboard charts, conducts a comprehensive and thorough review of all data submissions used to compile the weekly chart rankings. Luminate verifies and authenticates data and removes any suspicious or unverifiable activity based on specified criteria before performing the final chart calculations and publishing them. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious and unverifiable will be disqualified prior to the final calculation.