Super Junior marks 20th anniversary with career-high album sales

The members of Super Junior mark the band's 20th anniversary with career-high album sales. Courtesy of SM Entertainment

K-pop veteran group Super Junior has achieved a career high with the release of its 12th full-length album, celebrating the group’s 20th anniversary with a strong show of global popularity.

The album, titled “Super Junior25,” sold 309,959 copies in its first week after release on July 8, according to Hanteo Chart, the group’s highest first-week sales to date. The milestone underscores Super Junior’s enduring appeal two decades into their career.

The album's title track, “Express Mode,” also made a strong impact overseas, sweeping the top spot on Taiwan’s largest music platform KKBOX in three categories: real-time chart, K-pop new releases daily chart and K-pop singles daily chart.

The remaining eight tracks from the album also occupied top spots on the charts, resulting in a rare full-chart domination by a single artist.

International response to the album has been similarly enthusiastic. “Super Junior25” topped iTunes Top Albums charts in 20 regions including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Singapore and Thailand.

It also ranked No. 1 on China’s QQ Music and Kugou Music digital album sales charts, as well as Hanteo’s daily album chart and Bugs’ real-time chart.

To mark their comeback, Super Junior has also been featured in several major international media outlets. These include Brazil’s first K-culture magazine HIT! Magazine, Billboard Brazil and Italian newsweekly Panorama.

One review praised the group as “having rewritten K-pop history even before the world knew what K-pop was.”

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.