9 of 10 most-sold music CDs in U.S. are K-pop albums, report says

Nine of the 10 most-sold music CDs in the United States this year were those by K-pop acts. Boy band Tomorrow X Together's Korean album, "The Name Chapter: Temptation," was the most-sold physical CD album in the United States in the first half of ...

Boy band Seventeen [PLEDIS ENTERTAINMENT]

Nine of the 10 most-sold music CDs in the United States in the first half of this year were those by K-pop acts.

Boy band Tomorrow X Together's Korean album, "The Name Chapter: Temptation," was the most-sold physical CD album in the United States in the first half of 2023, with 395,000 units sold, according to Luminate's 2023 Midyear Music Report.

Luminate is a U.S.-based data and statistics company most known for providing music-related data to Billboard.

The top 10 list was further dominated by K-pop acts, with Stray Kids' third full-length album, "5-STAR," coming second with 322,000 units, followed by Twice, Seventeen and Agust D, or Suga from BTS.

Boy band Stray Kids [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift was the only non-K-pop act on the list, coming in at No. 6 with her recent album "Midnights," which sold 176,000 units.

Albums from boy bands Ateez and Enhypen and BTS's Jimin also made the list.

Girl group Twice [JYP ENTERTAINMENT]

Out of the nine K-pop albums listed on the chart, five artists and groups — ranging from Suga, Jimin from BTS to Tomorrow X Together, Seventeen and Enhypen — were from HYBE and its subsidiaries, while three albums — two Stray Kids albums and one from girl group Twice — were by artists from JYP Entertainment and one by Ateez from KQ Entertainment.

The United States became the second-largest importer of K-pop albums in the first half of 2023, according to the Import and Export Statistics released by the Korea Customs Service on Tuesday, only below Japan and one rank higher than China, which held the No. 2 spot for over a decade, apart from 2020.

To find out more about K-pop, visit Celeb Confirmed!

Boy band Tomorrow X Together [BIGHIT MUSIC]

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]