Stray Kids have not simply returned to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. With “THIS & THAT,” the group earns its ninth consecutive chart-topping album and ties the Rolling Stones for second place among groups with the most No. 1 albums in the chart’s history. With 369,000 equivalent album units and 357,000 pure sales, the release also delivers the biggest opening week of their career.

Stray Kids are back at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and this time the achievement places them beside one of the most famous bands in music history. “THIS & THAT” debuts at the top of the chart with 369,000 equivalent album units in the United States, giving the group its ninth No. 1 album and extending a run that remains unlike anything else in Billboard 200 history. Every Stray Kids release that has entered the chart has started at No. 1.

That streak now stands at nine.

The milestone also ties Stray Kids with the Rolling Stones, who have nine Billboard 200 No. 1 albums. Among groups, only the Beatles remain ahead with 19. The comparison does not mean that different eras, markets and release strategies can be measured in exactly the same way, but it does show how far Stray Kids have moved inside the American music business. They are no longer being discussed only in terms of K-pop records. Their numbers now place them directly alongside some of the biggest groups ever to appear on the chart.

The journey began in 2022 with “ODDINARY.” At the time, a Stray Kids No. 1 could still be understood as part of the larger wave of K-pop breaking into the United States. What happened next changed that interpretation completely. Release after release entered at the top, turning what first looked like a breakthrough into a pattern.

By 2024, “HOP” had already made Stray Kids the first act in Billboard 200 history whose first six chart entries all debuted at No. 1. “THIS & THAT” pushes that record to nine. Considering that the Billboard 200 has been published weekly since 1956, the consistency is not simply impressive. It is historically unusual.

The tie with the Rolling Stones is perhaps the clearest symbol of how much the group’s position has changed. Stray Kids are now the K-pop group with the most No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 and sit in second place among all groups in the history of the ranking. They have also earned more No. 1 albums than any other group during the 21st century.

That does not erase the huge differences between the careers involved. The Rolling Stones built their chart history across decades, during a completely different commercial era. Stray Kids are operating inside a market shaped by streaming, collectible physical editions, global fandoms and digital distribution. But chart history is still chart history, and nine No. 1 albums puts the group inside an extremely small category.

“THIS & THAT” did not reach the top through a narrow victory either. Its 369,000 equivalent album units represent the biggest weekly total of Stray Kids’ career. Of that number, 357,000 came from traditional album sales, also a new personal record for the group.

Streaming activity accounted for 11,000 units, generated by roughly 12.21 million official on-demand streams of songs from the album, while another 1,000 units came from track-equivalent album activity. Within 2026, the overall total represents the sixth-largest week for any album and the second-biggest pure sales week, behind only BTS’ “ARIRANG.”

Those figures reveal a lot about how the Stray Kids audience operates. “THIS & THAT” was available across 17 different physical CD and vinyl editions, many featuring collectible extras including photo cards, posters and stickers. Some versions were also signed. Eight digital variations were available as well.

This kind of release strategy is deeply connected to the way modern K-pop fandom works. The album is still treated as a physical object, a collectible and a direct connection to the artist rather than simply a collection of songs available on streaming services. Fans do not only listen. They buy, collect, compare editions and participate in each comeback as a larger event.

Stray Kids have become particularly effective at turning that relationship into consistent commercial power. The enormous sales are not appearing randomly around one especially successful album. They are part of a repeatable pattern. Every new era arrives with a built-in audience prepared to engage immediately.

The achievement becomes even more significant when placed inside the wider history of K-pop on the Billboard 200. “THIS & THAT” is the 25th K-pop release to reach No. 1 on the chart. That story began in June 2018, when BTS’ “Love Yourself: Tear” became the first K-pop album to top the Billboard 200.

At the time, that No. 1 was treated as a genuine breakthrough. It was the moment when K-pop crossed one of the clearest barriers in the American album market. Only eight years later, K-pop has produced 25 chart-topping releases. What once looked like an exception is now an established part of the market.

Stray Kids account for nine of those No. 1 albums, putting them ahead of BTS, who have seven. ATEEZ follow with three, while SuperM, BLACKPINK, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, NewJeans and TWICE have also reached the top. The “KPop Demon Hunters” soundtrack is part of the same broader list.

BLACKPINK added another major milestone in 2022 when “Born Pink” became the first album by a female K-pop group to reach No. 1. Despite the growth of the genre, however, no K-pop solo artist, duo or trio has yet topped the Billboard 200.

The speed of the expansion is also visible from year to year. Since 2018, every year except 2021 has produced at least one K-pop No. 1 album. The peak came in 2023, when five different K-pop releases reached the top.

The trend has continued strongly in 2026. BTS’ “ARIRANG” became the first K-pop album to spend three consecutive weeks at No. 1. ATEEZ followed with “GOLDEN HOUR: Part.5,” and now Stray Kids have added “THIS & THAT” as the 25th K-pop release to take the top position.

There is, however, an interesting contradiction inside Stray Kids’ American success. Despite having nine No. 1 albums, the group has still never entered the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Their best-performing single remains “Chk Chk Boom,” which reached No. 49 in 2024.

That makes their commercial path very different from the traditional model of a pop group breaking America through one huge radio or streaming single. Stray Kids have not needed a Top 10 Hot 100 hit to build one of the strongest album-selling careers of their generation.

Their power is concentrated somewhere else.

The group’s strength comes from the catalog as a whole, from the loyalty of the fan base and from the ability to turn each album into a complete chapter rather than simply a delivery system for one major single. Fans buy the physical releases, follow each comeback closely and engage with songs beyond the promoted track.

That behavior creates huge first-week momentum every time Stray Kids return. It also makes their success less dependent on the kind of crossover single that often determines whether an international artist becomes commercially important in the United States.

A single can explode for several weeks and disappear. The Stray Kids model is built around something more durable: an audience that returns for the entire project.

That may be the most important reason the No. 1 streak has lasted this long. Their fans do not appear only when one song breaks through. They treat the album itself as the main event. That is a very different relationship from the one created by a viral hit, and it produces a different kind of chart power.

“THIS & THAT” therefore represents more than another successful release. It brings together two larger stories. One is the rise of a group that has entered the Billboard 200 nine times and has never started anywhere except No. 1. The other is the transformation of K-pop from a surprising international success into a permanent force in the American album market.

Tying the Rolling Stones makes that transformation especially visible. A South Korean group that first topped the chart only four years ago now sits beside a band whose career is one of the longest and most famous in rock history.

Only the Beatles remain ahead among groups.

That creates an unusual next question for Stray Kids. Their ability to return to No. 1 no longer feels surprising. The record now is about how far the streak can continue and how high they can climb on an all-time list that once would have seemed completely outside the reach of a K-pop act.

Nine releases have entered the Billboard 200. Nine have gone straight to No. 1. With “THIS & THAT” delivering the biggest opening week of their career, there is still no sign that the pattern is slowing down.