Nine albums receive coveted certifications in South Korea this month, with Stray Kids’ recent EP Christmas Evel collecting its first win. The K-pop boy band was included in the monthly announcement of titles that score the special honors in the Asian nation, and with one more prize to their credit, the vocal outfit matches with several other beloved acts and accrues a historic count of titles.
Christmas Evel is Stray Kids’ sixth album certification in their home country of South Korea, and it helps them tie with a handful of other popular acts for the fifth-most such prizes ever among boy bands. They are now on the same level as NCT Dream, NCT 127 and Got7, who have thus far also snagged half a dozen awards at various levels for their releases.
Stray Kids collected their first album certification in South Korea back in 2020, when their debut full-length Go Live was officially named a platinum bestseller. The band earned four more awards in 2021, with both Clé: Levanter and Clé 1: Miroh going platinum, In Life increasing that sum and collecting a double platinum honor while Noeasy became their first million-seller in October.
Looking at all South Korean boy bands, BTS and Seventeen are now tied for the most album certifications. The two beloved acts have accrued eight titles that have at least gone platinum, with BTS snagging their eighth this month as their Butter single album hits triple million-seller status. Behind them in third place together are Monsta X and Tomorrow X Together, with seven prizes each.
In South Korea, albums are certified platinum, the lowest award, once they have sold a confirmed 250,000 copies. Double and triple platinum status kick in at obvious multiples of that sum, while a lucky few titles have advanced to the million level. A very, very small number of titles have hit double, triple or even quadruple million sales.
This month’s list of newly-certified albums includes titles from Treasure, Kai, Ive, Ateez, Itzy, NCT, BTS and SM Town.
