Stray Kids' tenth EP THIS & THAT entered the Billboard 200 at No. 1 on the chart dated August 22, 2026, extending a streak that has no precedent in the chart's 70-year history: nine releases, nine debuts at the top, zero misses.
What Happened: THIS & THAT Debuts at No. 1
THIS & THAT is Stray Kids' 10th EP, and it opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart dated August 22, 2026 — the group's ninth career chart-topper and its ninth consecutive No. 1 debut . The EP earned 369,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. tracking week ending August 13, 2026, according to Luminate figures reported by Billboard — a career high for the group .
Quick Answer: Stray Kids have never missed No. 1 on the Billboard 200. All nine of their charting releases debuted at the top, most recently the EP THIS & THAT on the chart dated August 22, 2026, which opened with 369,000 equivalent album units — the first act in the chart's 70-year history with nine straight No. 1 debuts.
The unit breakdown is unusually sales-heavy. Of the 369,000 total, 357,000 came from traditional album sales — the largest pure-sales week of the group's career — alongside 11,000 streaming equivalent album units (equal to 12.21 million on-demand official audio streams) and 1,000 track equivalent album units . Multiple U.S. retail variants in JYP Entertainment's official pre-order campaign help explain that split. Pre-chart trade projections had run lower — Headline Planet reported 351,000 in sales and 362,000 total units on August 14, before the official count .
The record itself is an eight-track set released August 7, 2026 through JYP Entertainment, timed to 1 p.m. KST / 12 a.m. ET and listed with the same date on Apple Music . It was produced in full by the group's in-house unit 3RACHA — Bang Chan, Changbin and Han — and led by a hip-hop-based title track of the same name .
The members framed the title track around a "chill" and "cool" mood, describing the eight-track EP as a hip-hop-led set rather than a maximalist one — as reported by The Korea Times.
Billboard characterized the week as the sixth-largest by units for any album in 2026 and the second-largest by traditional album sales this year, trailing only BTS' ARIRANG, which opened with 532,000 sales in March 2026 .
Nine for Nine: Every Stray Kids No. 1, in Order
Stray Kids is the first act in the Billboard 200's 70-year history to see its first nine chart entries all debut at No. 1 . Every full-length or EP release the group has placed on the all-genre albums chart since 2022 has entered at the top, with no lower-charting entry breaking the run. The streak now stands at nine consecutive No. 1 debuts across four and a half years, from ODDINARY on the chart dated April 2, 2022 through THIS & THAT on the chart dated August 22, 2026 .
The group had already been setting the benchmark at earlier intervals. ATE (chart dated August 3, 2024) made Stray Kids the first act whose first five chart entries all opened at No. 1, and SKZ IT TAPE DO IT (chart dated December 6, 2025) extended that to eight before THIS & THAT pushed it to nine . The nine No. 1s also tie The Rolling Stones for the second-most chart-topping albums by any group in Billboard 200 history, behind The Beatles' 19 .source
| # | Title | Billboard 200 chart date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ODDINARY | April 2, 2022 |
| 2 | MAXIDENT | October 22, 2022 |
| 3 | ★★★★★ (5-STAR) | June 17, 2023 |
| 4 | ROCK-STAR | November 25, 2023 |
| 5 | ATE | August 3, 2024 |
| 6 | 合 (HOP) | December 28, 2024 |
| 7 | KARMA | September 6, 2025 |
| 8 | SKZ IT TAPE "DO IT" | December 6, 2025 |
| 9 | THIS & THAT | August 22, 2026 |
One dating note for fans cross-checking the run: some outlets place KARMA in mid-2025 based on its release week rather than its chart week. The figure to use is the official Billboard chart date of September 6, 2025 . Chart dates run ahead of the tracking week they measure, so a release and its chart entry rarely share a date .
Where THIS & THAT Sits on K-pop's Billboard 200 Timeline
THIS & THAT is the 25th K-pop album or EP to reach No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200, a run that began when BTS' Love Yourself: Tear topped the chart dated June 2, 2018 . The archive stood at 22 titles at the close of 2025 and reached 25 by August 2026, with BTS' ARIRANG (chart dated April 4, 2026) and ATEEZ's GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5 (July 11, 2026) filling the two slots between Stray Kids' last two entries .source
Broken out by artist, the 25 titles concentrate in a small number of names :
- Stray Kids — 9 (ODDINARY through THIS & THAT)
- BTS — 7 (Love Yourself: Tear through ARIRANG)
- ATEEZ — 3 (THE WORLD EP.FIN: WILL, GOLDEN HOUR: Part.2, GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5)source
- One each — SuperM (SuperM: The 1st Mini Album), BLACKPINK (Born Pink), TOMORROW X TOGETHER (The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION), NewJeans (Get Up), TWICE (With YOU-th)
- Various Artists — 1 (KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, chart dated September 20, 2025)
The chronology is unusually steady. A K-pop act has placed an album at No. 1 in every year since 2018 with one exception — 2021, the only blank year in the run . The busiest year was 2023, which produced five different No. 1 titles: TOMORROW X TOGETHER's The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION (February 11), Stray Kids' 5-STAR (June 17), NewJeans' Get Up (August 5), Stray Kids' ROCK-STAR (November 25) and ATEEZ's THE WORLD EP.FIN: WILL (December 16) . Longevity at the top remains rare: ARIRANG is the first K-pop album to spend three weeks at No. 1, ahead of the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack's two .
One structural detail defines the whole list: no K-pop solo artist, duo or trio has ever led the Billboard 200. All 25 entries belong to a group, a collective such as SuperM, or a soundtrack credit . That pattern reflects how the chart rewards physical album sales — THIS & THAT drew 357,000 of its 369,000 equivalent album units from traditional sales, supported by multiple U.S. retail variants in JYP Entertainment's pre-order campaign . Member-count and fandom scale, in other words, still shape who reaches the summit.
Why This No. 1 Matters Beyond the Streak
The ninth No. 1 moves Stray Kids into company usually reserved for classic-rock catalog acts: with THIS & THAT, the group tied The Rolling Stones for the second-most No. 1 albums by any group in Billboard 200 history, trailing only The Beatles' 19 . That ranking is cumulative rather than genre-specific, which is why the comparison carries weight beyond K-pop coverage — it places a group that debuted in 2018 among the most-charting album acts of the chart's 70-year run .
Two further tallies follow from the same week. Stray Kids extended their own record for the most Billboard 200 No. 1s by any act this century, and reporting on the debut noted they are now tied with Taylor Swift for the most No. 1 albums of the 2020s . Decade-scoped records are a smaller sample than all-time ones, but they measure release cadence and fandom conversion at the same time — two things that determine which acts can sustain arena and stadium routing.
The commercial scale is the second reason the week registers outside chart-trivia terms. The 357,000 traditional album sales behind THIS & THAT rank as the second-largest pure-sales week for any album in 2026, behind only BTS' ARIRANG, which opened with 532,000 sales in March 2026; by units, the 369,000 total was the sixth-largest of the year .
Streaming moved in the same direction, if at a smaller absolute scale. The EP reportedly opened with more than 12.8 million first-day Spotify streams, described as the biggest Spotify opening by a fourth-generation K-pop act in 2026 . That still translated to 11,000 streaming equivalent album units, or 12.21 million U.S. on-demand official audio streams, in the tracking week ending August 13, 2026 — a reminder that the debut was built on purchases, not passive listening.
The creative credit matters for how the streak reads. THIS & THAT was produced in full by 3RACHA — Bang Chan, Changbin and Han — the same in-house trio behind the previous eight No. 1s, with the hip-hop-based title track framed by the members around a "chill" and "cool" mood, per The Korea Times . For fans tracking tour and comeback cycles, that self-contained production model is the practical variable: it keeps release intervals short, which is what nine No. 1s in roughly four and a half years requires.
How Fans Are Marking the No. 1: Albums, Lightsticks and Photocards
The sales-heavy split behind this debut traces directly to how the release was packaged: JYP Entertainment's pre-order campaign for THIS & THAT ran multiple U.S. retail variants ahead of the August 7, 2026 release , and 357,000 of the week's 369,000 equivalent album units came from traditional album sales rather than streaming . Physical ownership, not playlist adds, is what moved this chart week.
That mechanic is why variant collecting stays central to comeback cycles. Streaming converted to just 11,000 streaming equivalent album units — the equivalent of 12.21 million on-demand official audio streams — while a single purchased copy counts as one full unit . Hanteo and Circle in Korea work on the same principle, which is why album buying, photocard trading and version completion drive the numbers reported after every release week.
Fans following the streak can pick up physical copies, lightsticks and photocards through NAMANE's K-pop merchandise store at officialnamane.com, which stocks Stray Kids releases alongside other fourth-generation acts.
On the live side, there is nothing to book yet. No U.S. tour dates or Billboard-linked live events have been announced alongside this chart run as of this report. Fans planning travel should wait for confirmation on JYP's official Stray Kids channels rather than acting on aggregator listings, since the group's release cadence — nine EPs and albums since ODDINARY in 2022 — has historically preceded tour announcements by weeks or months.
The concrete takeaway: THIS & THAT reached No. 1 on the chart dated August 22, 2026 on the strength of physical sales, so the next Stray Kids chart milestone will hinge on the same variable — how many copies move in week one, not how the title track streams.
Frequently asked questions
How many Billboard 200 No. 1 albums does Stray Kids have?
Nine . The run started with ODDINARY on the chart dated April 2, 2022 and continues through THIS & THAT on the chart dated August 22, 2026, with MAXIDENT, ★★★★★ (5-STAR), ROCK-STAR, ATE, 合 (HOP), KARMA and SKZ IT TAPE DO IT in between . Every one of those nine entries opened at No. 1, making Stray Kids the first act in the Billboard 200's 70-year history whose first nine chart entries all debuted in the top spot .
Is THIS & THAT Stray Kids' best first-week performance?
Yes. THIS & THAT earned 369,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. during the tracking week ending August 13, 2026, of which 357,000 were traditional album sales — both figures are group career highs, per Luminate figures reported by Billboard . The remainder was 11,000 streaming equivalent album units (12.21 million on-demand official audio streams) and 1,000 track equivalent album units . Pre-chart trade projections had run lower, at 351,000 sales and 362,000 total units ; the official Luminate count supersedes them.
How many K-pop albums have topped the Billboard 200 overall?
Twenty-five, as of the chart dated August 22, 2026 . The count begins with BTS' Love Yourself: Tear on the chart dated June 2, 2018 and closes with THIS & THAT. By act, the leaderboard reads Stray Kids 9, BTS 7, ATEEZ 3, and one each for SuperM, BLACKPINK, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, NewJeans and TWICE, plus the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack under a Various Artists credit . A K-pop title has reached No. 1 in every year since 2018 except 2021, and 2023 was the busiest year with five.
Has a K-pop soloist ever hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200?
No. All 25 K-pop No. 1 albums to date belong to groups, a collective, or a soundtrack — no solo artist, duo or trio has topped the Billboard 200 . The closest structural exceptions are SuperM, a multi-agency project group whose SuperM: The 1st Mini Album topped the chart dated October 19, 2019, and the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack, credited to Various Artists, which reached No. 1 on the chart dated September 20, 2025 . Solo K-pop acts have charted inside the top 10, but the No. 1 spot remains group territory.
Where can fans buy Stray Kids albums and merch tied to this release?
Physical variants of THIS & THAT — the EP that JYP Entertainment released on August 7, 2026 at 1 p.m. KST with multiple U.S. retail versions in its pre-order campaign — plus related merchandise such as lightsticks and photocards are stocked by K-pop retailers including NAMANE's K-pop store. The digital edition is listed on Apple Music under JYP Entertainment with the same release date. Because the album's No. 1 week was driven by physical sales rather than streaming, sell-outs are common; JYP's official Stray Kids notice board is the place to check for restock and re-press announcements.
Enjoyed this article? Subscribe to get new stories by email whenever they're published.
This article was written using information collected and analyzed by NAMANE's in-house K-pop research AI engine. We use AI technology to bring you faster, broader coverage, and in the process some details may occasionally differ from the latest facts. For important information such as dates, venues, and prices, please double-check with official sources.
