The drought is officially over.
By entering the Billboard 200 at No. 8, KPop Demon Hunters becomes the highest-charting soundtrack since Wicked ranked No. 8 on the chart dated Jan. 25, on its way down from its No. 2 peak.
This ends a nine-week stretch in which there wasn’t a single soundtrack in the top half of Billboard’s flagship albums chart. Things were particularly bleak the last two weeks, when the highest-charting soundtrack (Twisters: The Album) was way down at No. 175. That album had debuted and peaked at No. 7 in August 2024, but was leading Billboard’s Top Soundtracks chart in recent weeks largely because there was no fresh competition.
There is now. The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack was released through Republic Records on June 20, the same day the film premiered on Netflix. The album was preceded by Twice‘s version of “Takedown” as the lead single.
KPop Demon Hunters is the highest-charting soundtrack from an animated film since Metro Boomin’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ranked No. 7 on the Billboard 200 dated July 1, 2023, on its way down from its No. 5 peak.
Billboard’s Keith Caulfield reports that it’s the first soundtrack from a Netflix program to reach No. 1 on Top Soundtracks in more than two years — since Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Series, Season 4, re-entered atop the list dated Nov. 19, 2022.
And when it rains, it pours: Another hot soundtrack, F1: The Album, was released on June 27 and is expected to debut high on next week’s Billboard 200. Five singles have been released from the album – Don Toliver’s “Lose My Mind” (featuring Doja Cat), Rosé’s “Messy,” Myke Towers’ “Baja California,” Tate McRae’s “Just Keep Watching” and Ed Sheeran’s “Drive.”
If both KPop Demon Hunters and F1: The Album appear in the top 10 on next week’s Billboard 200, it will mark the first time that two soundtracks have appeared in the top 10 simultaneously since the chart dated Jan. 8, 2022, when Encanto ranked No. 7 and the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s legendary soundtrack from 1965’s A Charlie Brown Christmas ranked No. 8.
F1: The Movie was the weekend’s top-grossing film in the U.S. and Canada, with an estimated gross of $55.6 million, according to boxofficemojo.com. It bumped How to Train Your Dragon, the boxoffice leader the two previous weekends, down to No. 2.
Here’s the full tracklist from KPop Demon Hunters:
“TAKEDOWN” – Twice (Jeongyeon, Jihyo, Chaeyoung)
“How It’s Done” – HUNTR/X (EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and REI AMI)
“Soda Pop” – Saja Boys (Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, and samUIL Lee)
“Golden” – HUNTR/X (EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and REI AMI)
“Strategy” – Twice
“TAKEDOWN” – HUNTR/X (EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and REI AMI)
“Your Idol” – Saja Boys (Andrew Choi, Neckwav, Danny Chung, Kevin Woo, and samUIL Lee)
“Free” – Rumi and Jinu (EJAE and Andrew Choi)
“What It Sounds Like” – HUNTR/X (EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and REI AMI)
“Love Maybe” – MeloMance
“Path” – Jokers
