Stray Kids score their sixth No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart as HOP debuts atop the list dated Dec. 28. It’s the sixth leader for the group, making the pop ensemble the first act to debut at No. 1 with its first six chart entries in the nearly 69-year history of the chart. The Billboard 200 began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in March 1956.
Stray Kids previously opened atop the chart with ODDINARY and MAXIDENT (both in 2022), ROCK-STAR and 5-STAR (both in 2023) and ATE (earlier in 2024).
Further, with a sixth No. 1, Stray Kids tie BTS, Linkin Park and Dave Matthews Band for the most No. 1s among groups on the Billboard 200 in this century (since 2000).
HOP arrives with 187,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Dec. 19, according to Luminate, largely driven by traditional album sales.
Also in the top 10 of the latest Billboard 200, Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas jingles back to the top 10 for a seventh consecutive holiday season, as the 1994 release climbs 14-10. The set, which contains the Billboard Hot 100-topping “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” peaked at No. 3 in 1994.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Dec. 28, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday, Dec. 24. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of HOP’s 187,000 first-week equivalent album units, album sales comprise 176,000 (it debuts at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart), SEA units comprise 10,000 (equaling 14.83 million on-demand official streams of the sets songs) and TEA units comprise 1,000.
HOP’s album sales were bolstered by its availability across seven different CD variants, all containing collectible items such as photocards, posters, stickers and trading cards (including some randomized items), with variants exclusive to Barnes & Noble, Target, Walmart and the act’s official webstore. Of the album’s 176,000 album sales, CD sales comprise 171,000, while digital download albums comprise 5,000.
Previously, Stray Kids were tied with late rapper DMX as the only acts to see their first five chart entries debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. DMX did it in 1998-2003 with It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot (1998), Flesh of My Flesh Blood of My Blood (1999), …And Then There Was X (2000), The Great Depression (2001) and Grand Champ (2003).
As HOP is mostly in the Korean language, it is the 27th mostly non-English-language album to hit No. 1, and the fourth of 2024. Three other mostly-Korean-language sets topped the chart earlier this year, all by also debuting at No. 1: On the Nov. 30-dated list, ATEEZ landed its second leader with Golden Hour: Part.2; on the Aug. 3 chart, Stray Kids’ ATE arrived; and on the March 9 chart, TWICE notched its first leader in With YOU-th. Of the 27 mostly non-English-language albums to reach No. 1, 18 are mostly Korean, five mostly (or all) Spanish, one mostly Italian, one entirely French and two mostly a blend of Spanish, Italian and French. Of the 27 mostly non-English-language albums to reach No. 1, 23 have topped the chart since 2018 (the year that K-pop superstars BTS scored their first of six No. 1s, the chart’s first Korean-language leaders).
The rest of the Billboard 200’s top five comprises former No. 1s: Kendrick Lamar’s GNX is a non-mover at No. 2 (100,000 equivalent album units earned; down 20%), Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department falls 1-3 (85,000; down 65%), Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet steps 5-4 (69,000; down 9%) and Michael Bublé’s Christmas climbs 7-5 (68,000; up 10%).
The most recently released holiday album in the top 10 is Bing Crosby’s Ultimate Christmas compilation, which ascends two spots to a new peak at No. 6 (65,000 equivalent album units; up 15%). The Wicked film soundtrack falls 6-7 (nearly 65,000; down 13%), Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft rises 9-8 (62,000; up 11%) and Chappell Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess climbs 11-9 (56,000; up 12%).
Closing out the top 10 is Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas, rising 14-10 with 56,000 equivalent album units earned (up 22% with a 10,000 unit gain — the largest unit increase on the chart). The set returns to the top 10 for a seventh consecutive holiday season. It peaked at No. 3 during its initial chart run in 1994, shortly following its release that year.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.