[SBS Star] BTS Tops the Billboard 200 for the Second Time with 'LOVE YOURSELF 結 Answer'

K-pop boy group BTS has topped the Billboard 200 albums chart with its repackaged album 'LOVE YOURSELF 結 Answer' that was released on August 24.

On September 3, Billboard announced that BTS hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart for the second time this year with 'LOVE YOURSELF 結 Answer', as the album reached the top of the chart dated September 8.

Billboard added that BTS is the first pop act since English-Irish pop boy band One Direction to hit No. 1 with two separate albums in less than 12 months. 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.

Units are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA), and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

According to Nielsen Music, 'LOVE YOURSELF 結 Answer' topped the chart with 185,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending August 30, out of which 141,000 of those units were made in traditional album sales. Previously in June, BTS scored the top spot on the Billboard 200 chart with its third album 'LOVE YOURSELF 轉 Tear' with 135,000 units, 100,000 of which were in album sales.

Not only it was the first time for a K-pop act to top the chart, but it was also the first non-English album to hit No. 1 on the chart in over 12 years, since classical crossover quartet Il Divo's second studio album 'Ancora' in 2006. Once again, BTS has amazed everyone by its impressive achievement and proven its soaring popularity in the U.S.

Meanwhile, BTS' latest title track 'IDOL' of 'LOVE YOURSELF 結 Answer' recently set the YouTube record for most views in 24 hours with over 45 million views.
 
(Lee Narin, Credit= Big Hit Entertainment, 'ibighit' YouTube)

(SBS Star)