KATSEYE’s ‘WILD’ Debuts at No. 1 on Billboard 200 With Record Week

KATSEYE has reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for the first time, with the group’s new EP WILD opening at the top of the U.S. albums chart. The release earned 170,000 equivalent album units in the week ending August 20, giving the six-member act its strongest chart week to date.

The debut represents a rapid step forward for KATSEYE, whose first two charting releases established an upward path without reaching the summit. It also places the group in a rare position among all-female acts during the modern era of the Billboard 200, when sales, streams, and track downloads are combined into one weekly ranking.

Because this is the group’s first No. 1, the result adds a new career milestone while also offering a direct measure of its growing U.S. audience. Each chart entry has reached a substantially higher peak than the release before it, making the opening of WILD the clearest evidence yet of that expansion.

Sales lead a 170,000-unit opening

Traditional album purchases supplied most of the EP’s first-week total. WILD recorded 145,000 album sales, making it the best-selling album in the United States during the tracking week. That figure is also KATSEYE’s biggest sales week so far and accounts for more than four-fifths of the release’s total equivalent units.

Streaming made the second-largest contribution. The EP generated 24,500 streaming-equivalent album units, representing 26.95 million on-demand audio streams across its songs during the week. A further 500 track-equivalent album units came from individual song purchases, completing the 170,000-unit score.

Equivalent album units provide a common measurement for several ways listeners consume music. Traditional sales count complete albums, while streaming-equivalent and track-equivalent units convert qualifying streams and digital song sales into album-sized totals. For WILD, the balance shows that direct album buying powered the No. 1 result, with streaming adding a substantial second source of activity.

A modern-era record for an all-female group

The 170,000-unit launch is the largest single week by total units for an all-female group since the Billboard 200 adopted its current unit-based methodology in December 2015. The achievement measures the full combination of sales and consumption rather than traditional purchases alone.

On pure album sales, WILD posted the biggest week for an all-female group since TWICE released READY TO BE in 2023. That earlier EP opened with 146,000 traditional sales, leaving KATSEYE’s 145,000 tally just below it while still establishing the strongest such sales week in the three years since.

The distinction between the two records highlights the different strengths within the new result. KATSEYE did not surpass the 2023 pure-sales benchmark, but the addition of streaming and track-equivalent activity pushed WILD to the largest overall unit week by an all-female group in the chart’s unit era.

In practical terms, the EP paired a near-record purchase total with enough digital consumption to establish a separate overall record. The two benchmarks therefore are not contradictory: one isolates albums sold, while the other captures the broader mix of sales and listening activity used for the main chart.

Three releases trace a steep chart rise

WILD is KATSEYE’s third Billboard 200 entry and second top-10 release. The group first appeared on the chart with SIS (Soft Is Strong), which peaked at No. 98. Its follow-up, BEAUTIFUL CHAOS, climbed to No. 4, setting the stage for the new EP to complete the ascent to No. 1.

That sequence—No. 98, No. 4, and now No. 1—shows a sharp expansion in the group’s U.S. album performance across three charting projects. The latest result combines a career-best total with a clear sales lead and tens of millions of streams, giving KATSEYE both its first chart-topper and a new benchmark for future releases. Those future projects will now be measured against an opening week that led the national sales market and set a modern record within its category.