K-pop boy band BTS has once again topped the U.S. Billboard 200 with its fifth studio album “Arirang," while also setting a string of new Billboard records.

“Arirang,” the band's first group project in three years and nine months, debuted atop the Billboard 200 for the week of April 4, Billboard said in a chart preview released Sunday.

It marks BTS's seventh No. 1 debut on the chart, following "Love Yourself: Tear" (2018), "Love Yourself: Answer" (2018), "Map of the Soul: Persona" (2019), "Map of the Soul: 7" (2020), "Be" (2020) and the anthology album "Proof" (2022).

The Billboard 200 ranks the most popular albums of the week in the United States, measured by equivalent album units, which comprise physical album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). SEA units comprise 95,000, BTS's biggest streaming week ever for an album, and TEA units comprise the remainder.

“The set opens with 641,000 equivalent album units earned — the largest week for an album by a group since the chart began measuring by units in December 2014,” Billboard said Sunday. “Of that sum, 532,000 are in pure album sales [purchases of physical and digital albums], landing BTS the biggest sales week for an album by a group in more than a decade.”

“BTS claims the biggest week for an album by units earned since Taylor Swift's 'The Life of a Showgirl' [2025] debuted at No. 1 with a historic 4.002 million units on the Oct. 18, 2025-dated chart," it said.

Physical albums drove first-week sales for “Arirang,” according to BTS’s agency BigHit Music. Physical sales reached 516,000 copies. Of those, 208,000 were vinyl, setting a new weekly sales record for the group, marking up to be the biggest weekly vinyl sales total for a group since market tracker Luminate began tracking the data in 1991.

The seven-member group made its long-awaited comeback with the 14-track album on March 20 and celebrated the release with a free concert at Seoul's Gwanghwamun Square the following day in front of tens of thousands of fans.

Earlier on Friday, "Arirang" also debuted atop the British Official Albums Chart Top 100, while the lead track "Swim" landed at No. 2 on the Official Singles Chart Top 100.

"Swim" also has a strong chance of arriving at No. 1 upon its debut on the Hot 100 main singles chart, placing it ahead of Ella Langley's "Choosin' Texas." In that case, it will also be the group's seventh song to reach the top of the chart.

BTS has released a seven-track remix collection of “Swim,” the lead track from "Arirang," on Friday, featuring multiple versions reflecting the individual styles of its members.

The members are set to embark on their “Arirang” world tour, starting with three concerts at the Goyang Stadium in Gyeonggi in April.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG, YONHAP [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]