K-pop idols RM, j-hope, Jimin, V, Jung Kook, Jin, and SUGA have set a new record by becoming the first foreign artists to bag the top spot on Japanese music chart Oricon in its year-end album rankings, garnering almost $162 million in the East Asian country alone.

The chart-topping singles, albums, music DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, digital singles, digital albums, and most-streamed tracks last year in Japan comprise the Oricon Annual Ranking 2021. As reported by Oricon, the “BTS, The Best” album, which has been released last year on June 16, topped the year-end album chart with 992,837 sold copies. This advances BTS to be the first foreign group to dominate the year-end chart and the first foreign artists on the top spot 37 years since the late King of Pop Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album with 575,000 sold copies in 1984. Based on Oricon’s data, BTS’ sales in Japan last year amounted to $161.6 million or 18.48 billion yen. “This time, we won first place in the Oricon Annual Ranking 2021’s total ranking of sales division by artist. We are really happy that you love our songs. It is also a great honor to receive such a wonderful award. Thanks to ARMYs who always support us. Thank you very much,” said BTS via Oricon.