Stray Kids Make History as ‘KARMA’ Becomes Their Seventh Straight No.1 on the Billboard 200
Stray Kids have made U.S. chart history again. The group's new full-length KARMA debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (chart dated Sept. 6, 2025), giving the act seven consecutive No. 1 debuts-the first time in the chart's 70-year history that an artist's first seven entries have all opened at the top.
According to Billboard and Luminate data, KARMA launches with 313,000 equivalent album units, of which 296,000 are traditional album sales. That breakdown underscores how the group's fandom still converts physical demand at scale in the streaming era-pre-orders, multiple configurations, and fast logistics remain central to their week-one strategy.
The streak began in 2022 and has run clean through seven projects, with KARMA now extending a record most K-pop acts haven't approached in the U.S. market. Trade coverage in the U.S. and Korea framed the milestone as both a fandom feat and further evidence that the group's U.S. infrastructure-labels, distribution, retail partners-can mobilize on short notice and deliver outsized first-week sales.
For American readers, the takeaway is demand. A seven-for-seven run points to a touring base that can support bigger rooms, second-night adds in top metros, and more dynamic pricing experiments as promoters test elasticity heading into the holidays. It also gives radio programmers and year-end listmakers a clean narrative hook; if even one single shows sticky cross-format signals, expect pilot adds and remix packages to follow.
KARMA itself plays to the group's strengths-percussive builds, chant-ready hooks, and production that leaves space for rap-vocal interplay-while packing enough tempo shifts to fit both arena staging and Shorts/TikTok challenges. In practical terms, that means you'll likely see a steady drip of content: performance films, dance practice clips, behind-the-scenes shorts, and an alternate MV cut rolled out over the next two weeks as the label stretches the first-week headline into a multi-week story.
For Korea Inc., the U.S. result reinforces the export engine around K-pop: physical manufacturing and retail partners that can scale on a deadline; shipping windows that sync global pre-orders with stateside chart windows; and a content cadence designed to capture algorithmic lift beyond the core fandom. As long as that trilogy-product, distribution, content-stays aligned, Stray Kids' U.S. ceiling likely rises again in 2026.
Bottom line: With KARMA, Stray Kids become the only act to see their first seven Billboard 200 entries debut at No. 1, landing 313K units on opening week with a heavyweight sales component. That's not just a K-pop stat; it's a modern-era outlier that keeps the door open for bigger North American bets in the months ahead.