Fans Discuss The “Real” Reason Behind Stray Kids’ Drastically Lower Album Sales

On July 19, Stray Kids returned with their most recent album, ATE, featuring the title track “Chk Chk Boom.”

As with all of their releases, the track has performed well since, going viral for the celebrity cameos and catchy beat. On both domestic and international charts, both the album and the song have remained even a month after release.

🌎 "Chk Chk Boom" is now Stray Kids' 2nd longest charting song on Spotify Weekly Top Songs Global, surpassing "S-Class"!

#1 MANIAC — 5 weeks
#2 Chk Chk Boom — 4 weeks (+1) 🥠
#3 S-Class — 3 weeks
#4 LALALALA — 2 weeks@Stray_Kids #StrayKids #스트레이키즈 pic.twitter.com/F0a2ROWTvc

— Stray Kids Chart Data (@skzchartdata) August 16, 2024

Hanteo Album Chart — Weekly (24.07.29~24.08.04)

1. #TONY SPATIAL RECORDER ㅡ 56,120 copies
2. #StrayKids ATE ㅡ 44,703 copies
3. #NCT127 WALK ㅡ 25,418 copies
4. #ENHYPEN ROMANCE : UNTOLD ㅡ 22,769 copies
5. #BABYMONSTER BABYMONS7ER ㅡ 21,913 copies
6. #RedVelvet Cosmic ㅡ… pic.twitter.com/zOl4VB9NHq

— KOREAN SALES (@koreansales_twt) August 5, 2024

However, many noticed that with this comeback, Stray Kids seemed to join the ongoing trend of lowered album sales that many artists have been facing. For comparison, the group’s first week sales for their highest performing album, 5-STAR, reached a whopping 4.62 million first-week sales and ROCK-STAR, the latest before ATE, saw a bit of a dip in first-week sales, reaching 3.70 million.

ATE hit 2.37 million first week sales, a massively impressive amount, but lower than previous albums.

One explanation given for all groups’ album sales involves multiple different factors post COVID, but fans have pointed out another possible explanation for the drop in sales.

A tweet quickly gaining attention on X has shared this reason, placing the blame on JYP Entertainment. The tweet compares several physical albums released by other groups to ATE, commenting on the lack of creativity in the design.

"why did skz album sales going down" take a guess pic.twitter.com/lnTdNsMOc8

— n a t ¡! (@seungscience) August 16, 2024

jype doesnt give a fuck abt making actual high quality albums for stray kids anymore, big artists these days even in other companies have cool albums and ours are just not up to the standard of music and success skz have pic.twitter.com/cgSootE2pI

— n a t ¡! (@seungscience) August 16, 2024

The regular version of ATE has the album’s contents inside of a slip sleeve, and is actually more packaging than the last two albums. ROCK-STAR and 5-STAR were both book-style made up of just a photobook with inclusions inside, even the special limited editions.

Comparing these to some of the albums listed in the tweets, like aespa’s CD version of Armageddon and Day6’s upcoming release Band Aid, there is a large difference in variety.

Fans have commented on the lack of creativity in the album’s designs, sharing they believe Stray Kids deserve more creativity. Some also feel that the way the albums are made play a part in an individual’s decision to purchase them.

like I'm not asking for skz to come out of the box when I buy an album but can they make the price feel a bit more worth it? 1 photocard and a booklet held together by staples is just… https://t.co/nz3N1sFlRE

— ae 🥠 Ghost Noirevel (@noirevel) August 16, 2024

it genuinely sucks bc the boys put SO much love and passion into the music they create & div1 can't even give them decent packaging?? pisses me off so bad https://t.co/WeUpS7nRQd

— maya 🦜 (@RACHAdog) August 16, 2024

a lot of people will be mad if i say this but the one thing skz lacks is physical album design. why am i spending 40 bucks for a 10 pages photobook with 1 pc barely stapled together https://t.co/0gCmiCx4wa

— ivana🐰🍊 (@linoringtokki) August 16, 2024

even if ate album was half decent, 樂-STAR album being the first physical album for many stays made them not wanna buy another one… and stays who have been buying skz albums for years now and also bored with the same thing over n over again https://t.co/PTmQLoM6U5

— nimbu 🍋 (@ijbolhan) August 16, 2024

Ultimately, with as talented and popular Stray Kids is, it seems fans just want the group’s albums to visually show the hard work put into them with more creativity.