TWICE Achieves First No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart with ‘With YOU-th’
Plus: LE SSERAFIM claims second top 10 with arrival of “Easy.”
TWICE achieves its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart as With YOU-th debuts atop the tally (dated March 9) with 95,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Feb. 29, according to Luminate, largely from traditional album sales. It’s the fifth top 10 for the Korean pop ensemble in total, all earned consecutively.
With YOU-th is the first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 by an all-female group since BLACKPINK’s Born Pink opened at No. 1 in 2022, and only the third since 2008, when Danity Kane’s Welcome to the Dollhouse debuted atop the list.
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, fellow all-female Korean pop group LE SSERAFIM debuts at No. 8 with Easy, marking the act’s second top 10-charting effort.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold 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 new March 9-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on March 5. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of With YOU-th’s 95,000 units earned in the tracking week ending Feb. 29, album sales comprise 90,000 (it’s the top-selling album of the week, as it debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales; it’s also the largest sales week for an album in 2024), SEA units comprise 4,500 (equaling 6.33 million official on-demand streams of the set’s six songs) and TEA units comprise 500. Sales of With YOU-th were bolstered by its availability across 14 CD variants (including exclusives for Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and the act’s webstore, all with branded paper merchandise inside the packages as well as some randomized elements) and three vinyl variants (all picture discs, including one Target-exclusive version).
As With YOU-th is mostly in the Korean language, it is the 24th mostly non-English language album to hit No. 1, and the first of 2024.
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time climbs 3-2 with 67,000 equivalent album units earned (up 5%), while Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) and Ty Dolla $ign’s Vultures 1 falls 1-3 in its third week with 64,000 (down 14%). Noah Kahan’s Stick Season is a non-mover at No. 4 with 57,000 units (down 4%), SZA’s former leader SOS is also stationary, at No. 5, with 47,000 (up 1%), Drake’s chart-topping For All the Dogs rises 8-6 with 43,000 (up 1%), and Taylor Swift’s former No. 1 1989 (Taylor’s Version) dips 6-7 with 41,000 (down 7%).
LE SSERAFIM’s Easy starts at No. 8 with 41,000 equivalent album units earned, marking the second top 10-charting effort for the pop group. The act previously hit the top 10 with last year’s Unforgiven, debuting and peaking at No. 6. Of Easy’s 41,000 first-week units, album sales comprise 34,000, SEA units comprise 7,000 (equaling 9.86 million official on-demand streams of the set’s five songs) and TEA units equal a negligible sum. Sales of Easy were aided by its availability across 14 CD variants (including exclusives for Barnes & Noble, Target and Walmart, all with branded paper merch inside their packages, including some randomized).
Rounding out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 are a pair of chart-topping sets: Taylor Swift’s Lover falls 7-9 with 40,000 equivalent album units (down 8%) and 21 Savage‘s American Dream is steady at No. 10 with 38,000 units (up 1%).
Source: billboard.com