Stray Kids returns to the peak of Billboard’s 200 albums chart with its eight-song mini album “Rock-Star.” It becomes the eight-member K-pop outfit’s second No. 1 album this year with the equivalent of 224,000 albums sold throughout the United States.
“Rock-Star,” with lyrics in both English and Korean, is only the sixth mostly non-English album to have hit No. 1 on the albums chart in 2023 behind collections from Latin hitmakers like Karol G and Bad Bunny, along with releases from K-pop acts NewJeans, Tomorrow X Together and their own “Five-Star,” which met the mark earlier this June. Like “Rock-Star,” “Five-Star” landed at the summit powered by its impressive album sales (213,000 copies sold) and 16 million streams, according to Luminate. Stray Kids also appeared at No. 1 in 2022 with “Maxident” and “Oddinary.”
With Stray Kids up top, Taylor Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” retreats to No. 2 while Chris Stapleton’s “Higher” debuts at No. 3. Stapleton appears in the top three for the fifth time in his career with 90,500 units earned (a majority of that sum coming from physical album sales including vinyl) and 42 million streams. Also new to the top 10 this week is Chris Brown’s “11:11” which clocks in at No. 9 with 45,000 units earned and nearly 51 million streams.
Drake’s 10th studio album “For All the Dogs” is at No. 4 after the set’s highest-performing single, “First Person Shooter” with J. Cole, got its matching music video late last week. Drake also announced the surprise release of “Scary Hours 3,” which features music from “For All the Dogs,” along with six new songs. The latter includes a second collaboration with J. Cole, who will serve as a co-headliner with Drake for the “It’s All A Blur Tour – Big As The What” tour next year. The previous chapters in the “Scary Hours” series were EPs, with the first coming out in 2018 and “Scary Hours 2” dropping in 2021.
Despite getting no Grammy love, Morgan Wallen is one of the most commercially successful artists to have ascended this year. His full-length “One Thing at a Time,” which was released earlier this March, is at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and two of the set’s singles, “Last Night” and “Thinkin’ Bout Me,” are No.s 9 and 10 on the songs chart respectively.
The Hot 100 is still ruled by Swift’s “Cruel Summer” and its 74 million radio impressions though Jack Harlow comes in at a close second with “Lovin on Me.” Harlow’s single is impacting mostly DSPs where it leads with 22.2 million streams.
Tate McRae’s “Greedy,” released in September, is at No. 8 as the Canadian singer-songwriter’s first top 10 single in the U.S. The single arrived in anticipation of her second LP, “Think Later,” due Dec. 8.
The 20-year-old pop artist also recently released “exes” as a follow-up and promoted her upcoming record as the musical guest on the Nov. 18 episode of “Saturday Night Live,” with Jason Mamoa as the host.
