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Blackpink’s ‘The Album’ surpasses 2NE1’s ‘Crush’ as the highest-charting K-pop girl group album on Billboard

Blackpink’s ‘The Album’ ranked 4th on the Billboard Year-end Charts World Albums list where BTS’ ‘Map of the Soul’ snagged the No. 1 position

Blackpink’s ‘The Album’ has made yet another milestone by surpassing K-pop girl group 2NE1’s ‘Crush’, which previously ranked as the highest-charting K-pop album by any female group on Billboard’s Year-end World Albums chart at number 11.

Blackpink’s ‘The Album’ ranked 4th at the Billboard Year-end Charts World Albums list where BTS’ ‘Map of the Soul’ snagged the number 1 position followed by BTS’ ‘Love Yourself: Answer’ at number 2, and  ‘NCT #127: Neo Zone, The 2nd Album’ stood at 3rd spot. Reportedly, it is the first time for any K-pop girl group since 2NE1 in 2014 to rank higher than them.

A Blackpink fan group has shared the news on Twitter, stating, “BLACKPINK’s ‘THE ALBUM’ (#4) has now surpassed 2NE1’s ‘Crush’ (#11) and is now the highest charting Kpop female act album in history on Billboard’s World Albums Year End Chart, 2NE1 held the record for over 6 years!” It also added, “@BLACKPINK & Beyoncé are the only female artists to have an album on Billboard’s World Albums Year-End Chart in 2020!”

Blinks, as the Blackpink fans are known, took to Twitter to pour support for the group. A fan posted, “2NE1 is the only girl group I am fond of until blackpink came into the picture. Go girls dominate the world.” Another posed concern at the dearth of female albums in the list, stating, “Am I the only one concerned out of 200 albums only two are female artists? When we say the industry is sexist we’re called whiners…” Another user shared, “It’s really not... This is ranked by album sales, the industry doesn’t decide who is on it and who isn’t. On top of this being the WORLD albums chart, which doesn’t include american albums. Notice how the list is basically only kpop. The general album chart has a lot more women.”

Blackpink’s ‘The Album’, which released on October 2, also made history by debuting at No 2 on the US Billboard 200 with 110,000 units sales plus it became the highest-charting female Korean album and the highest-charting album by an all-female group since Danity Kane's Welcome to the Dollhouse (2008). They also became the first-ever girl-group with sales of more than 1.2 million copies including 871,355 unit sales in South Korea and 319,300 internationally within a month. 

‘The Album’ also features in Billboards Top Current Albums Sales at 30, in Top Album Sales at 34, and also in Billboard Top 200 albums. Three tracks from the album have also ranked high in Billboards Hot 100 chart including lead single 'How You Like That', which stood at the No 33 spot; 'Ice Cream' peaked at number thirteen and turned out to be Blackpink's highest-charting song in the United States plus the third single, 'Lovesick Girls'. stood at 59 on the chart.