When BTS‘ latest album ARIRANG debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (dated April 4), it did so in grand fashion. Not only did it mark the seven-member group’s lucky seventh No. 1 album, but it also launched with a massive 641,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States in the week ending March 26, according to Luminate. That figure not only marks the biggest week for any album in 2026 thus far, but it is also the biggest week for an album by a group since the chart began ranking titles by units in December 2014.

Further, ARIRANG‘s opening week ranks among the top debuts of the 2020s decade, joining fellow superstars like Adele and Taylor Swift. As of the April 4, 2026-dated chart, there have been just a dozen albums that have debuted with at least 500,000 units. Check out the list below for every album that debuted with at least 500,000 units in a single week since January 2020, through the tracking week ending March 26, 2026 (as reflected on the Billboard 200 chart dated April 4).

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 2,500 ad-supported or 1,000 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album.