BTS Ties Kenny Rogers And The Beatles For The Most Bestselling Albums This Week

There are two albums charts in America that are typically regarded as the most important. First, the Billboard 200, which ranks the most-consumed titles in the country looking at sales and streams, and then the Top Album Sales list, which looks solely at which releases music fans paid for in the past tracking frame. 

On the latter, three musicians tie one another for the most currently-charting albums, and one is not like the others. Legendary acts Kenny Rogers and The Beatles, both of whom have been selling albums for decades, claim a trio of positions this time around, as does BTS, who continue to prove they can sell a title like the best of them.

After his passing, three of Kenny Rogers’ compilations find their way to the tally for the first time, with The Best Of Kenny Rogers: Through The Years, Daytime Friends: The Very Best Of Kenny Rogers and Greatest Country Hits debuting at Nos. 5, 23 and 78, respectively. 

The Beatles, who are no strangers to owning several positions at one time, also keep three titles on the ranking once again. Up first from the Fab Four is Abbey Road, down to No. 43, followed by their 1 compilation at No. 72 and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band at No. 91, which also falls from where it stood last week.

BTS, the youngest of the names by far, keeps up with the two powerhouses thanks to a fan base that continues to purchase older albums in healthy numbers, even as the band focuses on newer titles. The septet’s latest chart-topper Map of the Soul: 7 continues to hold on inside the top 10 on the Top Album Sales chart, where it has lived since it was released last month. The title dips to No. 7, but it remains the bestselling full-length that isn’t new to the list.

Last year’s success Map of the Soul: Persona slides to No. 64, while an even older collection, 2018’s Love Yourself: Answer, is also present once again, coming in at No. 79. That release actually gains slightly this week.

Rogers’ presence is to be expected, as fans have rushed to purchase his songs and albums as they mourn his passing, and The Beatles remain perhaps the bestselling band in U.S. history, so the fact that they own several positions is also business as usual. The fact that a pop vocal group, especially one that performs primarily in a language other than English, can keep up with those two titans on the sales-only chart, which is typically reserved for newer launches and catalog albums from decades past, highlights that fact that BTS is a true anomaly in today’s music industry.