On Thursday, Mar. 11, IFPI released their IFPI Global Album Sales Chart for 2020. Among the top 10, we saw two K-pop acts make the list - BLACKPINK and BTS.
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What is the IFPI? What is the IFPI Global Album Sales Chart?
The IFPI describes itself as the "voice of the recording industry." The institution represents over 8,000 record company members across the globe. IFPI strives to promote the value of recorded music and continuously campaigns for the rights of record producers. They also aim to expand the commercial uses of recorded music worldwide.
The IFPI Global Album Chart is an annual music chart that combines global sales of both physical and digital albums to uncover and rank the top albums of the year.
BLACKPINK Ranks No. Five with "THE ALBUM"
BLACKPINK was able to make it to the top 5 with their first-ever full-length Korean-language studio album, "THE ALBUM."
"THE ALBUM" is the group's second overall studio album, but the first Korean-language one, having released their first studio album, "BLACKPINK IN YOUR AREA," in 2018 as a Japanese release. This is BLACKPINK's debut in the IFPI charts.
"THE ALBUM," which was released in Oct. 2020, earned praise for the girl's musicality and its star-studded features, Selena Gomez and Cardi B. It broke S.E.S's 21-year-old record of the best-selling album by a K-pop group.
As of press time, "THE ALBUM" by BLACKPINK is the best-selling girl group album in South Korean history, beating out "My Dear" by Pearl Sisters, a record the latter has had since 1968.
Previously, YG Entertainment announced that "THE ALBUM" surpassed 800,000 pre-orders in just six days, with 530,000 of the pre-orders coming from South Korea alone. By the album's release date, "THE ALBUM" surpassed 1,000,000 pre-orders.
BTS Has Three Albums on The IFPI Global Album Sales Chart
BTS had not one, not two, but three albums make it to the IFPI Global Album Sales Chart!
The first album to be named is their Japanese release, "Map of the Soul: 7 - The Journey," which ranked at number eight. "Map of the Soul: 7 - The Journey" was released on Jul. 2020 as the group's fourth Japanese studio album. The album reportedly sold 500,000 copies within the first two days of its release, breaking the record for the highest first-week sales of 2020.
In Japan, "Map of the Soul: 7 - The Journey" broke TVXQ's record for the highest first-week sales by a male foreign artist, a record TVXQ has had for ten years.
According to the IFPI, "Map of the Soul: 7- The Journey" is BTS's first Japanese studio album in two years and saw two-times as many first-day sales as its predecessor, "Face Yourself."
The second album by BTS to make it to the list is their Nov. 2020 release, "BE." Despite being released at the end of 2020, "BE" still managed to climb up the second-place spot. "BE" debuted at the top of the Billboard 200, making it the K-pop group's fifth number-one album in the country. "BE" also debuted at the top of the Gaon Album Chart, selling 2.274 million copies within the first week of its release. "BE" also topped the charts in 10+ countries.
The final BTS album mentioned is the album that ranked at the top of IFPI's Global Album Sales Chart, officially making them the winner of the said chart. "Map of the Soul: 7" is officially 2020's top album. According to IFPI, it is one of the most pre-ordered albums of all time and swiftly made it to the top of the charts in over 20+ countries!
"Map of the Soul: 7" is also the first-ever album to receive the Global Album All Format Chart Award.
"Map of the Soul: 7" is South Korea's best-selling album of all time. In just nine days of its release, "Map of the Soul: 7" sold over 4.1 million copies. It is the first album in South Korea to be certified as a quadruple million and is still the only artist to have achieved this. The album's title track, "ON," garnered 18.3 million streams in the United States alone within the first week of its release.
Additionally, BTS is the only artist with multiple albums on the IFPI Global album Sales Chart.
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BLACKPINK and BTS Named as Group With The Longest-Charting K-Pop Album in U.S.
BLACKPINK's 'The Album' is the Fifth-Longest-Charting K-Pop Album in the U.S
On Tuesday, Feb. 23, the full-length comeback album of BLACKPINK was pronounced as one of the longest-charting K-Pop albums in the United States. Though "The Album" fell down to No. 122 from No. 91 this week, the said EP of Jennie, Lisa, Rosé and Jisoo have spent a total of twenty weeks on the Billboard 200 chart already.
Of course, the other K-pop albums that spent several weeks on the Billboard 200 chart are all from BTS. As a matter of fact, the "Map of the Soul: 7" album just celebrate its anniversary on the tally as it already been listed there for 52 weeks, which equates to one year.
"Love Yourself: Answer" by Jin, Jimin, Jungkook, J-Hope, V, RM and Suga, holds the title as the longest-charting K-Pop album in the Billboard 200 chart as it already stayed 98 weeks on the chart. "Love Yourself: Her" and "Map of the Soul: Persona," both by BTS, ranked third and fourth, respectively.
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Last week, it was divulged that "The Album" by BLACKPINK was the best-selling K-Pop album in the United States. It remains to be seen if the EP would be able to continue its streak on the Billboard 200 chart in the coming weeks.
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However, it is important to note that the latest EP of Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo and Rosé is still performing very well in terms of streams in other music streaming platforms. So, it is not impossible that it would keep its status until the much-anticipated solo debuts of BLACKPINK members Rosé and Lisa later this year.
BLACKPINK Continues its Reaping Nods and Breaking Records Lately
Meanwhile, the "Lovesick Girls" and "How You Like That" tracks of BLACKPINK got another nod recently. The two songs, popularized by Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo, and Rosé, are said to be the fastest get a RIAJ silver certification. Should the tracks continue their dominance in terms of streams, it is not impossible that both would receive gold or even platinum certifications very soon.
"How You Like That" by BLACKPINK also received a gold certification from RIAJ after it garnered more than 50 million streams. "Kill This Love," "DDU-DU DDU-DU" (Korean version) "Boombayah," "As If It's Your Last" (Korean version) and "Lovesick Girls" all received silver certifications for amassing 30 million streams already.
If that is not enough, "How You Like That" also spent 24 weeks on Billboard Global Excl. U.S. and Global 200 charts already. By far, it is the longest-running song by a female group on both tallies, which simply proves that BLACKPINK, indeed, is the biggest girl band there is today.
"How You Like That" also made it big on the South Korea Spotify charts this week. As of this writing, the BLACKPINK song is at No. 27 with more than 8,100 daily streams. "Lovesick Girls," on the other hand, is presently at No. 10, with more than 13,700 daily streams.
