SEVENTEEN’s 10th mini-album ‘FML’ was the biggest-selling global album of 2023, according to the recorded music industry representative body International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Album dominance
The winner of the IFPI Global Album Award for 2023 surpassed the likes of Morgan Wallen’s ‘One Thing At A Time,’ SZA’s ‘SOS,’ and Travis Scott’s ‘UTOPIA.’
The trade body ranked the best-selling albums of 2023 based on an artist’s or group’s global physical sales, downloads, and streaming.
Following its release in April 2023, ‘FML’ became the best-selling K-pop album ever with over 6.2 million albums sold within two months of release. It stayed nine weeks on the Billboard 200 chart.
The 13-piece group’s follow-up October release ‘SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN’ was also named the eighth top-selling album by IFPI. It became the first K-pop album to sell over 5 million copies during the first week of release.
“We are delighted to present this year’s IFPI Global Album Award to SEVENTEEN, following the incredible performance of FML across the world. The global appeal of K-Pop continues to extend and S.Coups, Jeonghan, Joshua, Jun, Hoshi, Wonwoo, Woozi, DK, Migyu, The8, Seungkwan, Vernon and Dino continue to push the boundaries with their concepts, performances and talent,” said Lewis Morrison, Director of Global Charts & Certifications at IFPI.
“FML and SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN were both huge hits across continents and our congratulations go to the group, their team and of course CARATs all over the world!
SEVENTEEN sold 15.9 million albums in 2023, according to HYBE’s fourth quarter financial report, citing South Korea’s Circle Chart. This in return makes them the best-selling artists in Korea.
IFPI rankings
While is SEVENTEEN’s first IFPI Global Charts Award, they are no strangers to the annual chart.
The K-pop boy group —consisting of S.COUPS, VERNON, JUN, THE 8, MINGYU, HOSHI, WONWOO, WOOZI, DK, SEUNGKWAN, JEONGHAN, JOSHUA, and DINO—was named the second best-selling artist of 2023 right after Taylor Swift. They ranked sixth the year prior.
Their previous works ‘Face the Sun’ and ‘SECTOR 17’ were the seventh and eighth best-selling albums, respectively, in 2022.
Other K-pop albums
IFPI said its Global Album chart held the best ranking performance for K-pop as South Korean acts made up five of the top 10 albums.
Stray Kids’ two albums ‘5-STAR’ and ‘ROCK-STAR’ place second and ninth, respectively. NCT DREAM (#6), ZEROBASEONE (#18), and IVE (#20) debuted on IFPI’s album chart. BTS’ Jung Kook made his first solo appearance following the success of his album ‘GOLDEN’ at number 14.