K-pop boy band Ateez's latest album dominated the Billboard 200

ATEEZ achieves their first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with ‘THE WORLD EP.FIN: WILL,’ marking a milestone for the K-pop group.

ATEEZ, the dynamic Korean pop ensemble, has soared to the pinnacle of the Billboard 200 albums chart with their latest release, ‘THE WORLD EP.FIN: WILL,’ which debuted at No. 1 for Billboard 200 dated December 16. It’s their first time securing the top spot on the chart.

Members of South Korean K-Pop group ATEEZ pose as they arrive to attend The Fact Music Awards in Incheon, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) (AP)

The album has garnered an impressive 152,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. during the week concluding on December 7, as reported by Luminate. The majority of these units, a staggering 146,000, were derived from traditional album sales, setting a new personal best for the band.

‘THE WORLD EP.FIN: WILL’ represents ATEEZ’s fourth consecutive top 10 entry on the chart, demonstrating their consistent popularity and growing influence in the music industry. The group’s previous release, ‘THE WORLD EP.2: OUTLAW,’ had reached the second position in July.

ATEEZ’s ascent on the Billboard 200 has been accomplished without the support of any charting singles on U.S. Billboard airplay or streaming charts, including the Billboard Hot 100, or the global charts like Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. These latter charts rank songs based on streaming and sales data collected from over 200 territories worldwide, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 includes data from all over the globe, while the Global Excl. U.S. chart focuses on data from territories outside the United States.

The holiday season has brought familiar tunes back into the limelight, with Nat King Cole’s timeless “The Christmas Song” re-entering the top 10 of the Billboard 200. The beloved album climbed from the 16th to the 10th position, marking its sixth consecutive appearance in the top region during the festive period.

The Billboard 200 chart is a weekly ranking of the most popular albums in the U.S., measured by multi-metric consumption in equivalent album units. These units are a composite of album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). One unit is equivalent to the sale of one album, the sale of 10 individual tracks from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The upcoming chart dated December 16, 2023, will be fully revealed on Billboard’s website on December 12.

Out of the 152,000 equivalent album units earned, album sales accounted for 146,000 units. An overwhelming 99% of these sales were physical album purchases, with the remaining 1% coming from digital album downloads. SEA units contributed 5,500 to the total, which translates to 7.59 million on-demand official streams of the album’s 12 tracks. Additionally, TEA units added another 500 units to the tally.

‘THE WORLD EP.FIN: WILL’ was made available in a variety of collectible physical formats, totaling 33 unique editions. While each edition features the same 12-song tracklist, they differ in packaging and include various branded paper merchandise, such as photocards, some of which are randomized. The collection includes 26 CD versions and seven vinyl editions, with exclusive variants available through retailers like Barnes & Noble, Target, and Walmart.