BTS returned with “ARIRANG” on March 20 and dominated the charts dated the first week of April. “ARIRANG” debuted at No. 1 on the “Billboard” 200, the group’s seventh chart-topper. It’s been four years since BTS put out “Proof” in 2022 and this is their first studio album in six years, since 2020’s “BE.” “ARIRANG” moved 641,000 units in its debut week, a record for any group since “Billboard” began tracking streaming and album sales in combination in December 2014. Since 2020, only 12 albums have crossed the 500,000-unit mark in their debut week. The top seven mostly belong to Taylor Swift—the exception being Adele’s “30” at sixth—and “ARIRANG” comes in at eighth.

“ARIRANG” sold 532,000 copies in combined physical and digital sales, marking BTS’s best sales week to date. In fact, it’s the highest weekly sales for a group since the 547,000 copies of “Midnight Memories” One Direction moved in 2013. “ARIRANG” is BTS’s seventh album to debut atop the Top Album Sales chart, with vinyl alone having accounted for 208,000 copies. That’s the sixth-highest figure since electronic tracking began in 1991—the top five all belong to Swift, making this the most by a group.
On-demand streams hit 99.1 million, BTS’s best streaming week for any of their albums and placing it at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart.

Over on the Hot 100, “SWIM” debuted at No. 1. The song is BTS’s seventh chart-topper. The other six all happened in the 13-month span from September 2020 (“Dynamite”) to the following October (“My Universe” with Coldplay), and with the exception of “Savage Love,” all debuted directly at the top. For groups with songs debuting at No. 1, BTS reigns supreme. For total No. 1s, BTS now ranks fifth behind the Beatles (20), the Supremes (12), the Bee Gees (nine), and the Rolling Stones (eight). Given that the Bee Gees last topped the chart in 1979 and the Rolling Stones in 1980, BTS is the first group to pose any real competition to the title in nearly half a century.

“SWIM” was streamed 15.3 million times in its first week and debuted at No. 2 on the Streaming Songs chart, marking a new high for the group since “Dynamite” debuted at No. 3 in 2020. Digital and physical single sales came to a combined 154,000 copies. Downloads alone hit 95,000, putting it at No. 1 on the Digital Song Sales chart. That’s BTS’s 13th No. 1 for digital songs—more than any other group. “SWIM” also entered the Radio Songs chart at No. 18. Given how slow radio tends to move, that’s a remarkable feat regardless of genre or country of origin, and is the highest any song has entered the chart in the past month, as well as BTS’s highest debut on Radio Songs to date, blowing their former record—2021’s “Butter,” which debuted at No. 39—out of the water. “Dynamite” went on to peak at No. 10.

Of the 14 tracks off “ARIRANG,” all but “No. 29” charted on the Hot 100. It likely cleared the streaming threshold, but “No. 29” is a simple recording of the Divine Bell of King Seongdeok with no credits, and was apparently ruled ineligible on that basis. “SWIM” went to No. 1, followed by “Body to Body” at No. 25 and the rest of the tracks until “Into the Sun” at No. 68. BTS has now had 39 songs chart on the Hot 100, including seven No. 1s and a total of 11 Top 10s.

“SWIM” also debuted at No. 1 on both the Global 200 and the Global Excl. US charts, BTS’s eighth chart-topper on each. Globally, it was streamed 108.8 million times and moved 221,000 units in its first week. Tracks off “ARIRANG” took up nine of the Global 200 Top 10, matching the record Swift set when “The Tortured Poets Department” dropped in May 2024. On the Global Excl. In the US chart, BTS swept Nos. 1 through 13—the first artist ever to claim the entire Top 13, let alone the Top 10, and surpassing Swift’s sweep of Nos. 1 through 9 with “The Life of a Showgirl” last October.

BTS returned to No. 1 on the Artist 100, their 22nd week atop the chart and first time since June 2022. For all-time weeks at No. 1, BTS ranks fifth after Swift (137), Drake (38), Morgan Wallen (34), and the Weeknd (29).

Bruno Mars proved he’s the peak of pop with the release of “The Romantic,” his first album in 10 years. “The Romantic” debuted at No. 1 on the “Billboard” 200 for the second week of March and is his second No. 1 album after 2013’s “Unorthodox Jukebox,” which took three months to reach the top. Bruno’s latest album is his first to debut directly at No. 1. “Doo-Wops & Hooligans” (2010), his debut album, peaked at No. 3, “24K Magic” (2016) at No. 2, and “An Evening With Silk Sonic” (2021) with Anderson .Paak also at No. 2. The 13-year gap between his two No. 1 albums is the longest for any living male solo artist after Paul McCartney’s 36 years between “Tug Of War” in 1982 and “Egypt Station” in 2018.

“The Romantic” moved 186,000 units in its first week, with album sales accounting for 93,000 of those—including 48,000 on vinyl—and pushing it to No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart. On-demand streams hit just short of 94 million, the best streaming week for any album of Mars’ career, landing it at No. 1 on the Top Streaming Albums chart as well.

The single “I Just Might” is No. 1 on the Hot 100. The song was released in January ahead of the album and debuted at No. 1, held the top spot for two weeks, then climbed back from No. 5 last week to log its third week at the top. It’s Mars’ 10th No. 1, tying him with Janet Jackson and Stevie Wonder after nine other artists. The new single “Risk It All” debuted at No. 4, becoming the singer’s 22nd Top 10 hit.

“I Just Might” was streamed 18 million times over the week, landing at No. 4 on the Streaming Songs chart, while it continued to reign supreme in airplay for a third week. “Risk It All” debuted at No. 1 on Streaming Songs with 23.2 million streams but has yet to appear on the Radio Songs chart. No other artist has sat atop both the streaming and radio charts simultaneously with two different songs since Swift in 2023, when “Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)” dominated the Hot 100 and streaming while “Cruel Summer” held No. 1 on radio. Mars’ current situation is similar, where “I Just Might” had cemented itself as a radio staple since its earlier release, while “Risk It All” became a streaming juggernaut—just as Swift already had a hit on her hands with “Cruel Summer” before “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” flooded streaming.

“Risk It All” also debuted at No. 1 on the Global 200 to become Mars’ third chart-topper and his first as a solo act. He’s now No. 1 on the Hot 100 and the Global 200 simultaneously but with different songs, a feat he actually pulled off last January with duets “Die With A Smile” with Lady Gaga on the former chart and “APT.” with ROSÉ on the latter. Kendrick Lamar did something similar last February with “luther” on the Hot 100 and “Not Like Us” on the Global 200. What makes this week's paired domination of the streaming, radio, Hot 100, and Global 200 charts unprecedented is that both of Mars’ songs are off the same album.

Mars also jumped to No. 1 on the Artist 100, his eighth week atop the chart and first time since July 2017. It’s also the first time he’s topped the “Billboard” 200 and Hot 100 in the same week—and with the Artist 100 included, the first time he’s swept all three at once.

Harry Styles’ fourth album, “Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.” has spent two weeks at No. 1 on the “Billboard” 200 since its debut in the third week of March. All four of the albums Styles has released since going solo in 2017 have debuted right at No. 1, making him the first solo artist to achieve that since Alicia Keys (starting with “Songs in A Minor” in 2001 and ending with “As I Am” in 2007). Styles is only the second male soloist to do it, after DMX’s run of five straight No. 1 debuts from 1998’s “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot” through 2003’s “Grand Champ.”

“Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.” moved 430,000 units in its debut week, the most for a male solo artist since Morgan Wallen’s “I’m the Problem” hit 493,000 units last May. “Kiss All the Time” sold 291,000 copies, topping the Top Album Sales chart—the highest for a male solo artist since the Weeknd with 359,000 copies of “Hurry Up Tomorrow” last February. Styles broke his own record for vinyl sales by a male solo artist, with his latest selling 186,000 copies to narrowly edge out the 182,000 moved by 2022’s “Harry’s House.” Streams hit 140.3 million, equivalent to 138,000 units and placing “Kiss All the Time” at No. 1 in streaming.

All 12 tracks off Styles’ new album charted on the Hot 100, from “American Girls” at No. 4 to “Paint By Numbers” at No. 45, bringing the singer’s total Hot 100 entries to 34 and surpassing the 29 he helped rack up as a member of One Direction between 2012 and 2015. “American Girls” debuted at No. 1 on both the Global 200 and Global Excl. US charts, Styles’ third Global 200 chart-topper and second on the latter. He also hit No. 1 on the Artist 100, returning for the first time since 2022 for a sixth week overall.

Ella Langley’s song “Choosin’ Texas” topped the Hot 100 in the third and fourth weeks of March for a total of four weeks at No. 1, having previously hit the top in the second week of February and the first week of March. Langley now holds the record for the female artist with the longest run atop the Hot 100 with a song that has also hit No. 1 on Hot Country Songs, breaking Taylor Swift’s three-week record set with “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” in 2012. Previous two-week runs at the top of both charts were held by Beyoncé’s “TEXAS HOLD ’EM” in 2024 and, going further back, Dolly Parton’s song “9 to 5” and her duet with Kenny Rogers, “Islands in the Stream,” in the early 1980s.

This is a different achievement altogether from simply having a country song top the Hot 100. Consider, for example, some historical cases where the two charts diverged. Debby Boone’s song “You Light Up My Life” spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1977 but only reached No. 4 on Hot Country Songs, and Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe” was No. 1 on the Hot 100 for four weeks in 1967 but only No. 17 on the country chart. The genre-specific charts share the same general methodology as the Hot 100, but they differ in that they give more weight to radio stations, platforms, and retailers focused on those specific genres—and country radio in particular is known to stick fairly close to genre expectations, meaning the more a country artist crosses over into pop, the less traction they tend to get in spaces designed specifically for country music. In short, the Hot 100 reflects actual consumption while Hot Country Songs is shaped by how the country music world feels more specifically.

You can see why dominating both charts simultaneously has always been the exception, not the rule, limited to huge names with crossover appeal on the scale of Taylor Swift, or experiments in genre that seize the attention of the entire music world like Beyoncé’s country turn. “Choosin’ Texas” is therefore one of those exceptional cases. It gained traction in the mainstream while digging its heels in on the sound and storytelling approach typical to country. The song kept on at No. 2 on Streaming Songs, No. 9 on Radio Songs, and a mix of No. 1 and 2 on Digital Song Sales across the third and fourth weeks of March.

• BLACKPINK’s EP “DEADLINE” debuted at No. 8 on the “Billboard” 200 chart dated the second week of March, the group’s third Top 10 album and first since “BORN PINK” debuted at No. 1 in 2022. “DEADLINE” moved 52,000 units in its opening week, with album sales accounting for 41,000 to land it at No. 2 on the Top Album Sales chart, and with streams hitting nearly 11.5 million, or 11,000 units. “GO” debuted at No. 63 on the Hot 100—the group’s 11th song on the chart—and No. 21 on Digital Song Sales. The girl group themselves also returned to the Artist 100 at No. 11. That same week on the Global 200, “GO” debuted at No. 17, “Champion” at No. 76, and “Me and my” at No. 119, while “JUMP” jumped from No. 166 to No. 49.
  
  
• P1Harmony’s EP “UNIQUE” debuted at No. 4 on the “Billboard” 200 during the fourth week of March, giving the group their second album on the chart and their highest position yet. “UNIQUE” moved 58,000 units, becoming the second-best-selling album with 56,000 copies. The remainder came from 2.2 million streams, equivalent to 2,000 units. P1Harmony also returned to the Artist 100 at No. 10.
  
  
• The IVE EP “REVIVE+” debuted at No. 11 on the Top Album Sales chart dated the third week of March, with the group returning to the Emerging Artists chart at No. 6.
• In the fourth week of the month, ZEROBASEONE also returned to the Emerging Artists chart, this time at No. 44.