BTS’ Jimin sees his first solo album, FACE, bow at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. The last artist to enter as high with a first charting effort was Olivia Rodrigo, with Sour, which debuted at No. 1 on the June 5, 2021-dated chart.
FACE starts with 164,000 equivalent album units earned — the second-largest debut week of 2023 after Wallen’s One Thing at a Time’s launch of 501,000 units. Of FACE’s opening-week sum, album sales comprise 124,000 — marking the third-biggest sales week of 2023 and the largest for a solo act this year). SEA units comprise 13,500 (equaling 19.51 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs).
TEA units comprise 26,500, the largest TEA figure for any album in four months… The last time an album had a bigger TEA figure in a single week was when Swift’s Midnights tallied 34,000 TEA units on the Nov. 19, 2022 chart.
Jimin is the third member of seven-member South Korean pop group BTS to chart on the Billboard 200, following RM and J-Hope, who have each placed two albums on the chart. RM’s Indigo peaked at No. 3 in December 2022 and Mono. hit No. 26 in 2018. J-Hope’s Jack in the Box reached No. 17 in July 2022 and Hope World hit No. 38 in 2018.