stray kids
Looks like Troye Sivan has got a new celebrity crush, and he’s playfully made a plea to his followers on Thursday (June 15) to help reach out to him. While teasing his upcoming single “Rush,” the singer posted a thirst trap fan edit of Stray Kids‘ Hyunjin, in which the 23-year-old K-pop star is seen […]
Everything may be bigger in Texas, but Dickies Arena in Fort Worth is punching above its weight class.
The 14,000-capacity venue opened in 2019 amid a competitive Texas market. With the 20,000-capacity American Airlines Center less than 40 miles east and the San Antonio, Austin and Houston markets reachable within a few hours, the region is saturated with large venues to book big names. Still, Dickies Arena has managed to stand out as a major contender in its first full year of shows following the COVID-19 pandemic, ranking at No. 2 on Billboard Boxscore’s Top Venues (10,001-15,000 capacity) chart for the 2023 midyear report.
In the report, which is based on the touring period of Nov. 1, 2022-April 30, 2023, Dickies Arena grossed $40.1 million from 79 reported shows. Compared with the same period last year, as the touring business was still coming out of the pandemic, the venue nearly tripled the number of tickets sold (from 209,000 to 610,000) and grossed almost four times as much (up from $11.6 million). Even beyond its capacity limit, Dickies Arena out-grossed all but six venues in the 15,001-plus range, including American Airlines Center in Dallas.
Midyear Boxscore charts are based on figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. Eligible shows played between Nov. 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023.
“If you look at entertainment, there wasn’t really much on this side of the [Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex],” says Dickies Arena president/GM Matt Homan, who notes that the drive between arenas can reach up to an hour-and-a-half with traffic. “What we’ve proven is that the market is large enough for American Airlines Center and Dickies Arena.”
While American Airlines Center is the larger of the two Metroplex arenas, the venue also has two home tenants (NBA team Dallas Mavericks and the NHL’s Dallas Stars) that occupy several dates on the calendar. Dickies Arena, however, only has the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, which runs from January to the first week of February, when concerts tend to be space. This year’s event brought in over $9 million from its 25 performances.
The Dickies Arena’s arrival and success run parallel to the city’s growing population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2022, Fort Worth had the largest numeric population gain of any large city in the United States, with 19,170 people joining its population of roughly 1 million — and the venue is focused on catering to the city’s varying interests. Country music is naturally a good fit for the arena, with two sellouts from George Strait ($9.9 million) in November marking its highest-grossing run of the midyear report, with two more scheduled for later this year. “It’s a great experience for fans to see [Strait] in such an intimate venue,” says Homan, “you’re not going to a baseball stadium with 60,000 or 40,000-plus seats, which we all know George could sell out in a heartbeat.”
Beyond country, the Dickies Arena’s Boxscore totals also included shows from the Eagles, Muse, New Edition and K-pop group Stray Kids, the lattermost moving more than $2.5 million in tickets sold. “Our K-pop merch sales have been great,” says Homan. “Our merch numbers are generally amongst the top three to five on the tour, based on numbers I’ve seen recently.” Rauw Alejandro’s sold-out show in April, which grossed over $1.5 million, was also the start of Homan’s focus on the Latin market. “Going into this year, the [Latin market] was my highest priority,” he says. The arena will welcome Peso Pluma, Banda MS, Christian Nodal and Grupo Frontera in 2023. “We’re starting to finally dip our toes into those markets. We want to make sure that we have something here for everyone and that we’re really representing the major city that we are.”
Stray Kids dropped their latest EP MAXIDENT earlier this month, and it’s no accident that the project has rocketed straight to No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
MAXIDENT is the boy band’s first follow-up to fellow No. 1 Oddinary in March, and now that STAY have had 10 full days to devour the EP’s eight tracks, we want to know which song you’re shouting, “1,4,3, I love you!” about the most!
The Korean-language mini-album kicks off with hit single “CASE 143,” which has had fans swooning over Changbin asking “Can I be your boyfriend” ever since it was released as the lead track the same day the full EP dropped.
However, there’s so much more to MAXIDENT than just its opening banger. Do you prefer the classic, piano-driven pop and universal lyrics of “CHILL” or are you ready to overshare the glitch-hop of “Give Me Your TMI”? Do the octet’s “zoom” and “nyuan” sound effects on “SUPER BOARD” set your heart, well, flying “high into the sky” as Bang Chan croons on the chorus?
On the back half of the album, Stray Kids’ eight members split into sub-groups focused on production (Bang Chan, Changin and Han), dance/performance (Lee Know, Hyunjin and Felix) and vocals (youngest members — or maknaes — Seungmin, I.N). Is the production trio’s self-referential “3RACHA” the track you can’t stop playing on repeat? Are you singing along to the vocal duo’s “Can’t Stop”? Or are you counting down the days until you can see “TASTE” performed live?
Then there’s closing track “CIRCUS,” the official Korean version of the single the group released in Japanese off their J-pop EP of the same name earlier this year. Does the song’s translation into Korean make you love it that much more?
Find our critic’s ranking of every song on MAXIDENT, and then vote in Billboard‘s poll below.
Stray Kids ring up their second No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 — and second of 2022 — as MAXIDENT debuts atop the list (dated Oct. 22). The eight track set bows with 117,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 13, according to Luminate. The South Korean group notched its first chart-topper on the April 2 list, with its first charting effort, ODDINARY.
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Both ODDINARY and MAXIDENT were released via JYP/Imperial/Republic Records.
Maxident is the fourth album by a South Korean act to lead the Billboard 200 in 2022, following BLACKPINK’s Born Pink, BTS’ Proof and ODDINARY. In 2021, there were zero No. 1s by a South Korean act, and in 2020 there were two (BTS’ Map of the Soul: 7 and BE).
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, Takeoff and Quavo’s collaborative album, Only Built for Infinity Links, debuts at No. 7, G Herbo’s Survivor’s Remorse: Side A bows at No. 9, and Charlie Puth’s Charlie debuts at No. 10.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new Oct. 22, 2022-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on Tuesday (Oct. 18). For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.
Of MAXIDENT’s 117,000 equivalent album units earned, album sales comprise 110,000, SEA units comprise 7,000 (equaling 9.61 million on-demand official streams of the set’s eight tracks) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum.
MAXIDENT’s 110,000 sold marks the fourth-largest sales week of any album in 2022. Of that sum, 97% were CD sales (107,000), while 3% were digital album sales (3,000). The set was not available in any other configuration (such as vinyl LP or cassette).
The CD configuration of the album was issued in collectible packages (10 total, including exclusive variants for Barnes & Noble, Target and the group’s official webstore), each with a standard set of internal paper items and randomized elements (such as photocards, mini posters and stickers). CD sales were also aided by autographed editions sold via the act’s webstore.
MAXIDENT bows at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 only six months and three weeks after ODDINARY opened atop the list. The last act with a shorter wait between new No. 1s was Young Thug, with six months between the Young Stoner Life: Slime Language 2 (credited on the chart to Young Thug & Various Artists; May 1, 2021, chart) and Punk (Oct. 30, 2021). The last act with a shorter wait between No. 1s excluding those co-billed with a cast of various artists was Taylor Swift, who waited a more scant four months between the first weeks at No. 1 for Evermore (Dec. 26, 2020) and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) (April 24, 2021). The last group to have a shorter wait between No. 1s was BTS, with just three months and one week between its first two No. 1s: Love Yourself: Tear (June 2, 2018) and Love Yourself: Answer (Sept. 8, 2018).
ODDINARY and MAXIDENT are Stray Kids’ first two albums to chart on the Billboard 200. Thus, the group maintains a perfect record on the list, landing No. 1 albums with its first two entries. Stray Kids made their overall Billboard chart debut in 2017 on the World Digital Song Sales chart (which ranks the week’s top-selling world music digital songs) and landed their first entry on a Billboard album chart in 2018 with Mixtape. In 2018-21, the act accumulated 10 top 10-charting albums on Billboard‘s World Albums chart (which ranks the week’s most popular world music titles). Stray Kids did not reach the all-genre Billboard 200 with any release until this April with ODDINARY, which marked the act’s first release in the U.S. through JYP’s partnership with Imperial/Republic.
MAXIDENT is mostly in the Korean language, but includes a fair amount of English lyrics. Notably, itis the 16th mostly non-English language album to hit No. 1 and the fourth in 2022. Earlier in the year, there were mostly non-English No. 1s from BTS’ mostly-Korean Proof, Bad Bunny’s all-Spanish Un Verano Sin Ti and the mostly-Korean ODDINARY.
While Stray Kids have yet to chart a song on the U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100 chart (through the most recently published list, dated Oct. 15), the group has notched a trio of songs on the Billboard Global 200 and six on the Billboard Global 200 Excl. U.S. tally. The act last charted on both lists with the ODDINARY single “Maniac,” peaking at Nos. 21 and 15, respectively.
Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti falls to No. 2 on the Billboard 200 after 13 nonconsecutive weeks atop the list (76,000 equivalent album units earned; down 9%).
Beyoncé’s former No. 1 Renaissance rallies 6-3 with 75,000 equivalent album units (up 145%) after the wide release of its vinyl album on Oct. 7.
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping Dangerous: The Double Album dips 3-4 on the Billboard 200 with 46,000 equivalent album units earned (down less than 1%).
Dangerous: The Double Album has now accumulated 91 nonconsecutive weeks in the top 10 on the Billboard 200. It now solely has the fifth-most weeks in the top 10 among all albums since the chart began publishing on a regular, weekly basis in March of 1956. The all-time top 10 record-holder is the original cast recording of My Fair Lady, with 173 weeks in the top 10 between 1956-60. See list, below.
Albums With Most Weeks in Top 10 on Billboard 200 Chart (March 24, 1956-onwards):
Weeks in Top 10, Artist, Title, Year First Reached Top 10
173, Original Cast, My Fair Lady, 1956109, Soundtrack, The Sound of Music, 1965106, Soundtrack, West Side Story, 1962105, Original Cast, The Sound of Music, 196091, Morgan Wallen, Dangerous: The Double Album, 202190, Soundtrack, South Pacific, 195887, Original Cast, Camelot, 196187, Soundtrack, Oklahoma!, 195685, Peter, Paul and Mary, Peter Paul and Mary, 196284, Adele, 21, 201184, Bruce Springsteen, Born in the U.S.A., 1984(through the Oct. 22, 2022-dated chart)
The Weeknd’s compilation The Highlights falls 4-5 on the Billboard 200 with 40,000 equivalent album units earned (up 1%), while Harry Styles’ former leader Harry’s House moves 5-6 with 34,000 (down 1%).
Takeoff and Quavo’s collaborative set, Only Built for Infinity Links, bows at No. 7 with 33,500 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 31,000 (equaling 41.13 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 18 tracks), album sales comprise 2,000 and TEA units comprise 500. It’s the second top 10-charting set for Takeoff (following The Last Rocket, No. 4 in 2018) and the second for Quavo (after Quavo Huncho, No. 2, also in 2018).
Takeoff and Quavo also comprise two-thirds of Migos, which logged three top 10s, including a pair of No. 1s in Culture and Culture II (in 2017 and 2018, respectively). Migos’ third member, Offset, is due to release a solo album on Nov. 11. He’s previously logged two top 10s on the Billboard 200 (Without Warning, with 21 Savage and Metro Boomin, No. 4 in 2017; and Father of 4, No. 4 in 2019). As for Migos, the act is on an indefinite hiatus.
Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak is pushed down 7-8 on the Billboard 200 despite a 1% gain (to 28,000 equivalent album units).
G Herbo notches his third top 10 album on the Billboard 200 with the No. 9 debut of Survivor’s Remorse: Side A, which launches with 27,500 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, SEA units comprise 27,000 (equaling 36.44 million on-demand official streams of the set’s tracks), album sales comprise 500 units and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. The project was initially released as a 12-track standard album on Oct. 7, and was reissued in a deluxe form on Oct. 10 with 13 additional tracks (dubbed Survivor’s Remorse: Side A & Side B).
Charlie Puth rounds out the top 10 of the new Billboard 200 with his third full-length album, Charlie, which bows at No. 10. All three of his full-length studio projects have debuted in the top 10. The new set starts with 26,500 equivalent album units earned, of which SEA units comprise 16,000 (equaling 21.26 million on-demand official streams of the set’s 12 tracks), album sales comprise 9,500 and TEA units comprise 1,000.
Charlie was preceded by a pair of top 30-charting hits on the Billboard Hot 100: “Light Switch” and “Left and Right,” the latter featuring Jung Kook (of BTS).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
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