aespa 'Girls' Enters No. 3 on US Billboard Album Chart... "Career High"

Group aespa. Photo by SM Entertainment

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Girl group aespa has entered the US Billboard main album chart 'Billboard 200' at number 3 for the first time with their second mini-album 'Girls'.

On the 17th (local time), Billboard announced the top 10 albums on the 'Billboard 200' (as of July 23) through an online chart preview article, reporting that "aespa ranked 3rd on the 'Billboard 200' with their second mini-album 'Girls', entering the top 10 for the first time."

This achievement is the second highest among K-pop girl groups, following BLACKPINK's first full album 'The Album' which reached number 2 on the same chart in 2020, alongside TWICE's record of number 3.

Previously, aespa set the highest ranking for a K-pop girl group’s first album by reaching number 20 on the 'Billboard 200' with their first mini-album 'Savage', and now with this album reaching number 3, they have achieved the highest ranking for a K-pop girl group this year.

The 'Billboard 200' ranks album consumption by combining traditional album sales such as physical albums, SEA (streaming equivalent albums) which converts streaming counts into album sales, and TEA (track equivalent albums) which converts digital track downloads into album sales.

Aespa recorded album sales equivalent to 56,000 units this time. Among these, 53,000 were physical album sales, making it the best-selling album in that week.

Billboard explained, "Like many other K-pop releases, the CD configuration of 'Girls' consists of a collectible deluxe package with 12 types of random elements such as set items, photo cards, stickers, and posters," adding, "98% of the first-week album sales were physical CDs, and the remaining 2% were digital albums."

Additionally, aespa achieved the highest pre-order record for a K-pop girl group with 1.61 million pre-orders for 'Girls'. According to the Circle Chart, the first-week album sales reached 1,426,487 copies, setting the all-time highest first-week sales for a girl group, and simultaneously earning the title of the first K-pop girl group to achieve a first-week million seller, writing a new record.

Meanwhile, aespa's second mini-album 'Girls' includes a total of 9 tracks, featuring the intense and energetic title track of the same name, the pre-released first English song 'Life's Too Short' and its Korean version, 'Dokkaebi Bul', 'Lingo', 'ICU', and more.

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