BTS’ RM raises the bar for Korean solo artists as his recently released ‘mono’ debuts at a record-breaking #26 on the Billboard 200.
After breaking multiple records set by his own group upon its release, on October 30, Billboard had revealed that RM had set another phenomenal record with ‘mono’ becoming the highest charting album by a Korean soloist on its album chart.
‘mono.’ has debuted at #26 on Billboard 200 with 16K pure sales, 21K total units! (3 days of tracking) ?? pic.twitter.com/VbpSHogjvw
— BTS Charts • News (@btschartdata) October 30, 2018
Despite being a free digital release with no physical album, ‘mono’ had been able to achieve the momentous feat within three days with its impressive 21,000 equivalent album units of which 16,000 was reported to be traditional album sales.
#mono. debuts at #26 on Billboard200! The highest charting Korean solo act! Namjoon did that with THREE DAYS of tracking and purely digitals. Legend!#RMonoBB200 pic.twitter.com/6YfNgQ8kZe
— voodoo. | waste it on me (@amorfatist) October 30, 2018
The previous record for the highest charting solo act on the Billboard chart belonged to fellow BTS member j-hope and his debut mixtape, ‘Hope World’. Released in March earlier this year, j-hope’s first solo album had debuted at #63 and had, later on, peaked at #38.
“Mono is now the highest charting album by a Korean soloist on Billboard 200, breaking the previous record held by Hope World.” @BTS_twt #RMonoBB200
pic.twitter.com/umDBXfzeSr— Nessa mono? (@sopeiology) October 30, 2018
ARMYs were also able to draw meaningful parallels with ‘mono’ debuting at #26 on the album chart on the same Billboard week that BTS had debuted at #26 with their second Korean studio album, ‘WINGS’, two years ago. With 16,000 copies sold and 11,000 in traditional album sales, ‘WINGS’ was the highest-charting best-selling Kpop album at the time.
Oct 29 2016 – Wings #26 on Billboard 200
Oct 29 2018 – Mono #26 on Billboard 200 pic.twitter.com/BV4PqKKBsc— Mare | Moonchild ? (@MareOT7) October 30, 2018
In traditional ARMY fashion, fans trended #RMonoBB200 to celebrate the ground-breaking accomplishment.
#RMonoBB200 trends worldwide as @BTS_twt's RM becomes the highest charting Korean soloist on the Billboard 200 (#26) with 'mono.' ?
Stream/Buy here: https://t.co/PsDZpJvZuB pic.twitter.com/Hcy51L7pWe
— worldwideBTS ? (@btsanalytics) October 30, 2018
namjoon’s great lyrics spoke to millions of people around the world. he created such a beautiful masterpiece and shared it with the world. millions of people felt what namjoon felt when he was writing each song and that’s special. a true artist at its best.@BTS_twt #RMonoBB200
— shania | mono (@namjoonsunrise) October 30, 2018
Numbers should not be the only purpose of music, but they often serve as good evidence. Your words, voice and breath resonated with so many of us when we didn’t know we needed them.
Thank you for sharing with us your monologue.
?
— 둘셋 ·‿· mono? (@doolsetbangtan) October 30, 2018
mono debuted at #26 of BB200. no promotion, no physical sales, joon didn’t even hype it up, and dropped it in the middle of tracking week, and yet it charted #1 on 88 countries and became the highest charting korean solo act with a free playlist. LEGEND. #RMonoBB200 pic.twitter.com/h7OzyEj3FX
— . (@dreamyseokjins) October 30, 2018
namjoon wakes up to some awesome news#btsfanart #BTS #RMonoBB200 #RM pic.twitter.com/rrC8fjWGEx
— claire//semi-hiatus! (#MONO 10/23) (@Randomsplashes) October 30, 2018
Thoughts? Did you see this record-breaking feat coming? Don’t forget to stream, ARMYS! For good skin! For good grades! For our galactic president! Tweet us at @ForeverBTScom!