RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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KATSEYE and their loyal EYEKONS have a lot to celebrate this week, including the group’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. After the group’s new mini-album, WILD , earned 170,000 equivalent units in the United States in the week ending Aug. 20 (on the chart dated Aug. 29), according to Luminate, members Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, Daniela Avanzini, Yoonchae Jeong and Sophia Laforteza hopped into their Instagram Story on Sunday (Aug. 23) to share the good news and the love.
In a post cued to their Ed Sheeran co-written single “Animal,” the women wrote , “EYEKONS, this is so surreal!! thank you for showing WILD so much love. While the EP features contributions from Laforteza, she and fellow founding member Manon Bannerman are both currently on hiatus from the group.
The good chart news for the five-track WILD marks the group’s second top 10-charting release, coming on the heels of the No. 4 peak for their June 2025 second EP, Beautiful Chaos . It also put up KATSEYE’s biggest week by equivalent album units earned , and by pure album sales (145,000), to date. WILD also tallied the largest week by units for an all-woman group since the Billboard 200 began ranking by units in December 2014 and WILD had the largest pure album sales week for an all-woman group in more than three years, since TWICE’s Ready To Be: 12th Mini Album debuted with 146,000 (March 25, 2023).
The album’s big first week was helped by a pair of Billboard Hot 100-charting pre-release singles, the frenetic “Pinky Up,” which peaked at No. 28 in April and “Animal,” which was at No. 24 on the Aug. 8 chart. A colorful video for the third single, “ Hootie Fruitti ,” dropped two weeks ago.
WILD ‘s first-week sales were largely driven by its availability across dozens of formats, including more than 30 CD and vinyl configurations — all containing collectibles such as photocards, bonus tracks and signed editions.
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