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Babymetal Is 1st Japanese Act to Rank on Billboard's U.S. Weekly Top 10 Albums

Japanese metal idol group Babymetal confirmed on Tuesday that their latest album, Metal Fourth. had reached the top 10 in several charts globally after its August 8 debut. Metal Fourth reached #3 in Japan (Billboard Japan), #5 in Germany (Offizielle Charts), #9 in the United States (Billboard), and #17 in the United Kingdom (Official Charts). Billboard Japan noted Metal Fourth is the first Japanese album ever to reach the top 10 on the weekly Billboard 200 albums chart in the United States.

The group posted a video message to thank fans for their support:

Billboard reported the album debuted with 36,000 equivalent album units earned in the United States. 33,500 of those were sales of full albums, 2,500 were from Streaming Equivalent Albums (SEA) which translates to 3.28 million on-demand official streams, and the "negligible" remainder came from Track Equivalent Albums (TEA) or digital sales of individual tracks.

Billboard attributed part of Metal Fourth's success to its 15 vinyl variants (including two signed editions), six CD editions (of which five are signed), two deluxe CD box sets (one of which is signed), three cassette tapes, a standard digital download version, and three deluxe, expanded digital download versions.

Other Japanese musical acts to reach the Billboard 200 (but not the top 10) were Hikaru Utada and Kyū Sakamoto. Utada saw her 2004 album Exodus reach #160 and 2009 album This Is The One at #69. Utada's 2019 song “Face My Fears” also reached #98 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in February 2019. Sakamoto saw his 1963 album Sukiyaki and Other Japanese Hits reach #26 on Billboard 200, with his songs “Ue wo Muite Aruko” (known as “Sukiyaki” in the United States) and “China Nights (Shina No Yoru)” reaching the top spot and #58 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart in June and September 1963.

Sources: Babymetal's X/Twitter account, Billboard (link 2, link 3), Billboard Japan via Hachima Kikō