On December 23, JYP Entertainment announced that Stray Kids’ new album HOP (合) had debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, marking their sixth consecutive chart-topping album. This achievement ties them with BTS for the most No. 1 albums by a K-pop group on the Billboard 200.
Notably, Stray Kids are the first artists in the chart’s 69-year history to debut all six of their albums, including their first entry, at No. 1.
Billboard’s preview article on December 21 reported that HOP had claimed the top spot, surpassing Kendrick Lamar’s GNX and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department.
Since 2022’s ODDINARY, Stray Kids have consecutively topped the Billboard 200 with MAXIDENT, ★★★★★ (5-STAR), 樂-STAR (ROCK-STAR), ATE, and now HOP.
The Billboard 200 ranks albums based on physical album sales, streaming equivalent albums (SEA), and track equivalent albums (TEA). Stray Kids’ HOP recorded a total of 187,000 album units during the chart’s tracking period. Of this, physical album sales accounted for 176,000 units (171,000 CDs and 5,000 digital downloads), SEA contributed 10,000 units, and TEA added 1,000 units. The album also topped the “Top Album Sales” chart.
JYP Entertainment revealed that HOP introduces a new format and genre called “SKZHOP HIPTAPE,” combining their group abbreviation “SKZ” with hip-hop elements. The album features 12 tracks, including the title song Walkin’ On Water, Bounce Back, U, and solo tracks performed by the eight members during their world tour.
The majority of the album’s lyrics are in Korean, making it the 27th non-English album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
So far, the K-pop acts that have topped the Billboard 200 include BTS and Stray Kids (six times each), ATEEZ (twice), SuperM, BLACKPINK, TXT, NewJeans, and TWICE, bringing the total to eight groups.
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