TWICE earns the highest first week sales for an album by any Korean female act in Billboard 200 history

TWICE just made K-pop history in the US!

On March 19 local time, Billboard officially announced that TWICE's new mini-album "READY TO BE" debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart after setting the biggest sales week for any female K-pop artist in history in the United States. 

According to Luminate (formerly Nielsen Music), "READY TO BE" racked up 153,000 album-equivalent units in the week ended March 16, the highest-selling week ever for a K-pop girl group. The album's total tally includes 145,500 traditional album sales (a new record for a female K-pop artist) and 7,000 streaming-equivalent album (SEA) units -- which translates to 10.28 million on-demand audio streams in one week. The mini-album also received a 500-track Track Equivalent Album (TEA) unit in its first week.

While such impressive numbers would have easily ensured another week at the top, TWICE faced stiff competition from Morgan Wallen's "One Thing at a Time," The album racked up a whopping 259,000 album-equivalent units this week.

TWICE is now the first female K-pop artist in history to enter the top three of the Billboard 200 with three albums, and the first female artist to enter the top ten with four albums.

"READY TO BE" is also TWICE's sixth comprehensive entry after "MORE & MORE" (No. 200 debut), "Eyes wide open" (No. 72), and "Taste of Love" (No. 6) , "The formula of love: O+T=<3" (3rd place) and "BETWEEN 1&2" (also 3rd place). Currently, no other K-pop female artist has more than four entries.

Congratulations to TWICE for their historic achievement!