Jung Kook may be the latest member of BTS to launch a solo project to Billboard 200 chart battle, but so far – at least on the sales front – he’s leading the race among his K-Pop brothers and overall competitors.
Details inside.
Jung Kook’s ‘Golden’
First-Week Sales (SPS): 210,220
First-Week Sales (Pure): 164,000
Billboard 200 Debut Placement: #2
Jung Kook’s ‘Golden‘ – released on the heels of smash singles ‘3D (with Jack Harlow)‘ and the history-making ‘Seven (with Latto)‘ – was lifted to digital sales outlets on November 3.
Dominating domestic and global Apple Music and iTunes charts just a day after its unveiling, ‘Golden’ manage to shine atop U.S.-based real-time digital tallies for most of its inaugural tracking week – a feat that helped it amass a whopping 164,000 in pure sales.
For context, that first-week figure is the second-highest any male vocalist has collected this year. Among all male acts, only Country star Zach Bryan‘s self-titled project (181,000) and Travis Scott‘s ‘Utopia‘ (252,000) can boast more pure sales. When all acts are considered, it’s the 1.36 million attached to Taylor Swift‘s ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)‘ that reigns supreme in 2023.
Further, ‘Golden’ now holds the record for most one-week sales among any K-Pop solo act in the Billboard 200’s history.
Like Swift, Jung Kook’s opening overall sales were enhanced by streams (41.59 million) as well as physical sales (128,500).
Despite being the week’s top-selling album and highest debut, Jung Kook bows at #2 behind Taylor’s ‘1989 (TV)’ which narrowly retains the top spot for a second week.
It’s unfortunate he released so close to Taylor cause he would’ve had the #1 any other week and he deserved it