LE SSERAFIM for ‘PUREFLOW’ PT. 1
Photo Courtesy: SOURCE MUSIC
LE SSERAFIM continue to prove their staying power around the world as they share their second full-length project.
The HYBE girl group lands its fifth career Top 10 on the Billboard 200 with PUREFLOW Pt. 1 while simultaneously moving more than half a million physical copies worldwide in the album’s first week — a dual showing that underlines the quintet has cemented itself as one of K-pop’s most consistent chart forces.
According to Billboard, PUREFLOW Pt. 1 debuts at No. 10 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with 41,000 equivalent-album units in the U.S. The bulk of that figure comes from traditional album sales (which account for 34,000 units) followed by 7,000 streaming-equivalent album units (reflecting 7.1 million on-demand official streams of the album’s 11 tracks), with track-equivalent album units making up the rest. Billboard notes that the opening-week numbers were boosted by more than 30 physical packaging variants.
The No. 10 debut marks LE SSERAFIM’s fifth Top 10 entry on the Billboard 200, continuing one of the steadiest U.S. chart runs and becoming only the eighth K-pop artist to earn five or more Top 10 entries in the States.
Led by their 2024 EP Crazy, take a look at the group’s Billboard 200 and first-week U.S. sales history:
- Crazy — No. 7 peak on the Billboard (47,000 units)
- HOT — No. 9 peak (45,500 units)
- Unforgiven — No. 6 peak (45,000 units)
- Easy — No. 8 peak (41,000 units)
- PUREFLOW Pt. 1 — No. 10 (41,000 units)
Globally, the numbers were even bigger, clearing the half-million mark within one week’s time.
According to South Korea’s real-time album sales chart Hanteo, PUREFLOW Pt. 1 sold 559,207 physical copies worldwide in its first week. A look at how it stacks up against LE SSERAFIM’s previous first-week physical totals including their best-selling album, their first full-length Unforgiven, released in 2023, below:
- Unforgiven — 1,258,001 units
- Easy — 989,268 units
- Crazy — 677,687 units
- HOT — 636,281 units
- Antifragile — 567,673 units
- PUREFLOW Pt. 1 — 559,207 units
- Spaghetti — 464,698 units
- Fearless — 307,450 units
The group’s second full-length album — and its first in three years — PUREFLOW Pt. 1 builds its 11 tracks around a deceptively layered concept: the title is a new anagram of “powerful.” Sonically, the set opens in celebratory mode with the Latin-house title track “Boompala” — which reimagines Los del Río’s 1993 hit “Macarena” — and the techno-driven pre-release single “Celebration” before diving into moodier, more introspective material like the self-reflective R&B cut “iffy iffy,” friendship ballad “Need Your Company” and pop waltz “Sonder.”
Looking ahead, LE SSERAFIM will carry the PUREFLOW songs to the stage on their upcoming PUREFLOW World Tour, set to launch July 11 in Incheon, South Korea before continuing across Asia and the United States with the group visiting and performing across Europe for the first time. The “Pt. 1” in the album title designates that more music in the powerful-vulnerable style of PUREFLOW on the way, with all signs indicating LE SSERAFIM will keep building on the U.S. and global charts.
Watch “BOOMPALA,” the latest music video from LE SSERAFIM