K-Pop · NewsFP-076 · Side A
ILLIT Land Their First Billboard 200 Top 10 as BREAK EVEN Debuts at No. 1 on Top Album Sales
The girl group's fifth mini album opened at No. 6 with 37,000 units, its best US week, on the strength of 32,500 album sales.
Disclosure: First Press operates independently but shares ownership ties with EG Management and LUSIVEX. EG Management is a US management company for international artists, in particular Asian and Korean artists, founded by Eshy Gazit, US managing partner for BTS from 2016 to 2018, working alongside Big Hit Entertainment, and US partner for Starship Entertainment since 2018, among others.
ILLIT have their first top 10 on the Billboard 200. BREAK EVEN opens at No. 6 on the chart dated November 14, with 37,000 equivalent album units in the US, according to Billboard. It is the group's best week by units and its fifth charted entry on the chart.
The bulk of it is physical. Album sales account for 32,500 of the units, ILLIT's best sales week, and that total sends the set to No. 1 on Top Album Sales, the group's first time at the top of that chart. Streaming adds 4,500 units, equal to 4.87 million on-demand streams. Billboard attributes the sales largely to the set's availability across more than 24 CD variants, each with collectible items such as photocards and posters.
A jump from No. 26
ILLIT's previous high on the Billboard 200 was No. 26, set in May with MAMIHLAPINATAPAI. Before that came SUPER REAL ME at No. 93, I'LL LIKE YOU at No. 94 and bomb at No. 171. BREAK EVEN is the first of the five to reach even the top 20, and it went straight into the top 10.
The Korean numbers moved the same way. Hanteo counted 444,072 copies in the first week, from October 26 to November 1, up from the 411,654 the group set with its last mini album.
What the top 10 looks like around it
ILLIT arrive in a crowded week. Olivia Rodrigo returns to No. 1 for a fourth week, and Michael Jackson's Thriller climbs to No. 2, its highest rank in more than 40 years. BigXthaPlug debuts at No. 7 and Queens of the Stone Age at No. 10, Billboard reports.
The split inside ILLIT's number is the familiar one for a fifth-generation K-pop release in the US: a large sales figure and a much smaller streaming figure. First Press has looked at what that means for the groups coming up now in The Fifth Generation Problem, and at the wider move into American venues in K-pop's November US arena run.