BTS Achieves Highest Sales on Japan Oricon for First Half of Year... First Time in 36 Years Since Michael Jackson

Group BTS / Photo by Big Hit Entertainment

[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kang Juhee] BTS has ranked first in album sales on the Oricon chart for the first half of the year in Japan.

According to the Oricon chart in Japan on the 19th, BTS's fourth full-length album released last February, "MAP OF THE SOUL: 7," took first place in the "Album Ranking" category of the "Oricon First Half Ranking 2020 by Work Sales." The album recorded total sales of 429,000 copies.

This is the first time in 36 years since American pop singer Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in 1984 that a foreign artist's album, not a Japanese singer, has topped the Oricon first half album ranking.

BTS has been very active in Japan, with their Japanese single album "Lights/Boy With Luv" becoming the first by a Korean artist to receive a million certification. At the 34th Japan Gold Disc Awards held last February, they won four awards, including being named "Best Asian Artist" for the second consecutive year.

BTS is also set to release their fourth full-length Japanese album "MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 ~THE JOURNEY~" on the 15th of next month. The title track "Stay Gold" will be pre-released on the 19th. "Stay Gold" is also included as an OST track for the Japanese TV Tokyo drama "Nascent Labyrinth - DNA Forensics."

This album will include a total of 13 tracks, including original Japanese songs such as "Your Eyes Tell."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.