Stray Kids have done what no artist — not even BTS — has achieved before: seven consecutive No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200.
Billboard announced Sunday that the group’s new full-length album KARMA debuted at No. 1 on the chart, marking their seventh career topper. With the feat, Stray Kids surpassed BTS, who previously held the record among K-pop acts with six No. 1 albums.
The streak began in 2022 with ODDINARY and continued through MAXIDENT, ATE, and HOP. Each of the seven albums released since has reached the chart’s summit — a run unprecedented in Billboard’s century-plus history.
Billboard noted that Stray Kids “first made history by sending all six of their previous albums to No. 1, starting with ODDINARY, and have now extended that record with KARMA.” The album dethroned the soundtrack to Netflix’s hit animated feature KPop Demon Hunters, which had held the top spot.
During the latest tracking week, KARMA registered 313,000 album units, combining traditional sales, track downloads (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The 11-track set, led by the single CEREMONY, is the group’s first full-length release in over two years.
By climbing past BTS’s tally, Stray Kids now stand as the K-pop act with the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. More strikingly, they are the only artist in the chart’s history to see every single entry — from their debut appearance onward — rise to No. 1.
By Byung-Yeon Yoo
yooby@hankyung.com
