These 7 K-Pop Groups Broke Their Past First Week Sales Records In 2021

2021 was an incredibly successful year for a lot of K-Pop artists, especially for those of the fourth generation! Records were broken for several different artists in terms of album sales, including how many sales were made within the first week of release. Here are 7 K-Pop groups who broke their past sales records for first week album sales in 2021!

1. ATEEZ

ATEEZ actually broke their past sales records twice in 2021 (and could possibly do it a third time with their upcoming ZERO: FEVER Epilogue album, coming out on December 10!). Prior to 2021, their best first week of sales was with ZERO: FEVER Part.1, which came out July 29, 2020, and made 233.4k sales in the first week.

Their next album, ZERO: FEVER Part.2 (released March 1) made 304.6k sales in the first week, but it was their most recent album released on September 13 — ZERO: FEVER Part.3 — that became their first to break the half-million mark with 665.4k sales in the first week! It remains the second best-selling K-Pop album by a fourth generation group in the first week of sales.

2. TXT

Prior to 2021, TXT’s best-selling album was their album that came out on October 26, 2020: Minisode1: Blue Hour. It made 303.2k sales in the first week, which definitely isn’t a number to scoff at!

2021 brought them even more sales, however, with the release of The Choas Chapter: Freeze on May 31. For the first week of sales, it sold around 630.6k total copies, over double that of their previous album!

3. NCT DREAM

NCT DREAM became the group with the best-selling album in the first week of sales in 2021 after only two other artists — BTS and SEVENTEEN. Prior to this year, their best-selling album was Reload, released on April 29, 2020 and making 412.5k sales in the first week.

Not only did their May 10 release in 2021, Hot Sauce, become their best-selling album to date, but it also became their first to break 1 million sales in the first week! Overall, the album saw 1.01 million copies sold in that amount of time.

4. NCT 127

Another NCT subunit that broke records in 2021, NCT 127’s previous best-selling album was Neo Zone, which came out on March 6 last year and made 276.6k sales in the first week.

Their first week sales for their September 17 release this year, Sticker, completely left those numbers in the dust, with 929.5k copies sold in that short period of time!

5. ENHYPEN

ENHYPEN may be the youngest K-Pop group on this list, but despite only being about a year into the K-Pop industry, they’ve already made incredibly impressive sales numbers. Like ATEEZ, they too broke their past records twice this year! Their first album released in November 2020, Border: Day One, made 280.9k sales in the first week, which was already huge, especially for a debut album.

Their second album Border: Carnival, released on April 26 this year, already leapt in sales with 384.7k copies sold in the first week. Their most recent album, however — Dimension: Dilemma — which came out on October 12, now holds the record for most first-week sales by a fourth generation K-Pop group with 818.7k copies sold in those first seven days!

6. Stray Kids

Stray Kids’ popularity seemed to really start to take off in 2020, especially with the release of their September 14 reissued album, In Life. In its first week, the album made 233.4k sales, which is especially impressive for a reissued album!

Their 2021 album release, however, completely blew their past record away. Released on August 23, NOEASY made nearly three times as many sales in the first week as their previous record, with 641.6k copies sold in that time!

7. THE BOYZ

And finally, THE BOYZ also saw a huge upward trend in their popularity in 2021! Before this year, their best first week of sales was for their September 21, 2020 album, Chase, which made 212.7k sales in that time.

When they dropped their Thrill-ing album on August 9 this year, it became obvious just how much their popularity had grown! In the first week, the album sold well over twice as many copies as their previous record with 523.6k sales in those first seven days!