BTS’s Suga Scores The Highest-Charting Album By A Solo Korean Musician On The Sales Ranking

BTS member Suga, who releases mixtapes under his Agust D alter ego, is back on the charts on his own this frame with his new project D-2, which appeared with little proper warning a little over a week ago. The set was immediately snapped up by fans all around the world, and in the U.S., the title was not only a streaming success but also a strong seller. In fact, the title begins as the second-bestselling release in the country this time around, coming in behind only The 1975’s Notes on a Conditional Form.

In its first full tracking frame of availability, D-2 sold just over 14,000 copies, a very impressive sum for almost any musician these days, especially one who is primarily known not as a soloist but as a member of a successful group and whose new release is performed in a language other than English.

By debuting his new mixtape at No. 2 on the new Top Album Sales chart (Billboard’s ranking of the bestselling titles in the country, which is different from the Billboard 200, which also incorporates streaming equivalent units), Suga has landed the highest-charting title ever by a South Korean musician working on their own.

Before this week, fellow BTS member RM held the highest-charting album by a South Korean soloist record, which he snagged two years ago with his mixtape Mono. That set rose as high as No. 5 on the tally, becoming the first from an artist from the country to reach the top 10 on the Top Album Sales chart.

As a member of BTS, Suga has reached No. 1 on the same ranking four times (with Map of the Soul: 7, Map of the Soul: Persona, Love Yourself: Answer and Love Yourself: Tear), and he’s entered the highest tier with two additional releases (BTS World, No. 4 and Love Yourself: Her, No. 6). That brings the musician’s total count of top 10 titles to seven, a noteworthy figure for any artist who only rose to national prominence a few years ago.

D-2 is also the second-highest-charting album by any South Korean act, as three different musicians from the Asian country have risen to the summit with seven different full-lengths between them. Aside from Suga’s latest, no other effort by a South Korean act has stalled one rung shy of running the show.