KATSEYE's 'WILD' Debuts at No. 1. It's the Biggest Girl Group Opening Since 2008.
KATSEYE's third EP, "WILD," opens at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated Aug. 29, earning 170,000 equivalent album units in its first week - the largest week for an all-woman group's album in the United States since Danity Kane's "Welcome to the Dollhouse" in 2008, according to HYBE x Geffen Records.
"WILD," released Aug. 14, more than triples the opening week of KATSEYE's previous EP, "Beautiful Chaos," which debuted at No. 4 with 44,000 units in 2025. Of the new EP's 170,000 units, 145,000 came from pure album sales. The project carries writing and production credits from HYBE Chairman Bang Si-hyuk alongside Ed Sheeran, Omer Fedi and Blake Slatkin, and includes the Hot 100 hits "PINKY UP" and "Animal."
It's KATSEYE's first Billboard 200 No. 1 since the group debuted in 2024 through a partnership between HYBE and Geffen Records. "WILD" is only the fourth No. 1 album by an all-woman group this decade, following BLACKPINK's "Born Pink" (2022), NewJeans' "Get Up" (2023) and TWICE's "With YOU-th" (2025).
The six-member group - Sophia, Manon, Lara, Daniela, Megan and Yoonchae - was assembled in 2023 through "The Debut: Dream Academy," a globally streamed audition process that drew 120,000 applicants and was later chronicled in the Netflix docuseries "Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE." The members are based across Manila, Zurich, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Honolulu and Seoul.
KATSEYE is marketed as a global pop act rather than a K-pop group, but the production lineage runs directly through the K-pop system: Bang Si-hyuk has described the project as the first full test of HYBE's "multi-home, multi-genre" strategy, which applies the company's idol-development model to markets outside Korea. "Animal" debuted at No. 24 on the Hot 100 dated Aug. 8 - KATSEYE's personal best, surpassing "PINKY UP"'s No. 28 debut in April - and gives the group five consecutive Hot 100 entries dating back to "Gnarly," plus a sixth counting collaborations with LE SSERAFIM and ILLIT.
KATSEYE heads out on "THE WILDWORLD TOUR" starting Sept. 1 at Dublin's 3Arena, its first arena-scale headlining run since the sold-out "Beautiful Chaos Tour." Tour dates beyond the opening night have not yet been announced in full.
