KUALA LUMPUR, July 28 — K-pop acts have dominated the United States’ midyear list of best-selling CD albums for 2025, with five groups landing in the top 10.
According to Soompi, which cited data from American music tracking firm Luminate, the five K-pop artists making the list were Stray Kids, ENHYPEN, ATEEZ, SEVENTEEN and LE SSERAFIM.
Luminate, formerly known as Nielsen Music and the data supplier for Billboard charts, tracked sales from January 3 to July 3 this year.
Stray Kids’ special album (Hop) was the best-selling CD album by a group and the second overall in the United States, with 149,000 copies sold—just behind The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow with 163,000.
ENHYPEN’s DESIRE : UNLEASH, released just a month before the end of the tracking period, ranked third with 145,000 copies sold.
ATEEZ followed at No. 4 with GOLDEN HOUR : Part.3, selling 116,000 units despite being released less than a month before the cut-off.
SEVENTEEN’s HAPPY BURSTDAY placed seventh with 79,000 copies, while LE SSERAFIM, the only girl group on the list, claimed the No. 9 spot with 73,000 copies sold for their mini album HOT.
The full top 10 list for CD album sales in the United States in the first half of 2025, as reported by Soompi, is as follows:
The Weeknd – Hurry Up Tomorrow (163,000)
Stray Kids – (HOP) (149,000)
ENHYPEN – DESIRE : UNLEASH (145,000)
ATEEZ – GOLDEN HOUR : Part.3 (116,000)
Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet (93,000)
Lady Gaga – MAYHEM (83,000)
SEVENTEEN – HAPPY BURSTDAY (79,000)
Kendrick Lamar – GNX (75,000)
LE SSERAFIM – HOT (73,000)
Morgan Wallen – I’m the Problem (71,000)
