K-pop superstar BTS has notched its third No. 1 in just 11 months on the Billboard 200 album chart as its newest seven-track set ‘Map of the Soul: Persona’ goes on a roll to win the hearts of their fans across the globe.

Map of the Soul: Persona, released on April 12, ranked the most popular album on the Billboard 200 for the week of April 27, scoring its third No. 1 on the album chart since it collected its first No.1 in June 2018 with ‘Love Yourself: Tear.’ It won its second No. 1 in September with ‘Love Yourself: Answer.’

“It’s uncommon for any act to tally three Billboard 200 No. 1s in less than a year,” said the Billboard. The last act that accumulated three No. 1s in less than a year was Beatles whose three archival albums released in 1995-1996 topped the chart in a stretch of 11 months and a week.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks albums based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, which are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).

The South Korean pop group’s new album earned 230,000 equivalent album units – 196,000 in album sales, 8,000 in TEA units and 26,000 SEA units - in the U.S. in the week ending April 19, according to data compiled by Nielson Music. The Billboard chart equates 10 digital track sales from an album to one TEA as well as 1,500 on-demand song streams to one SEA.

The Billboard will update its new Billboard 200 chart where BTS’s new album enters at No. 1 on its website on April 23.

By Park Chang-young and Cho Jeehyun

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