The second EP of NewJeans sold over 2 million units as of last month, said agency Ador on Friday.

It is the group’s first album to hit the milestone and the quintet achieved the feat in 17 months since its debut, setting a record for a K-pop female artist.

The EP was rolled out in July last year and sold more than 1.65 million copies in the first week, becoming the second-most sold album from a K-pop female act. 

The album debuted atop Billboard 200 and is staying on the main albums chart for 24 weeks straight. The rookie group notched the top spot in only a year since debut, setting a record for a K-pop group.

The physical album logged 332,000 copies sold in the US, ranking No. 5 on the annual US Top CD Album Sales chart tallied by Luminate.

Riize to launch new season of web novel

A new chapter for the web novel portraying the birth and rise of Riize will be unveiled from Saturday, according to label SM Entertainment on Friday.

The second season of “Rise and Realize” will consist of three episodes that will be dropped every week. The new installment will evolve around the bandmates going through a range of situations after debut, giving fans a closer look at the evolution of the six members, especially in terms of emotions.

The first part of the web novel was released in August last year, before the band officially debuted.

Meanwhile, the four-month-old band picked up another trophy as the rookie of the year Thursday and the total number of the rookie awards it won rose to four. Its latest single “Love 119,” from last week, topped iTunes' top songs chart in nine regions.

Le Sserafim’s Huh Yunjin featured in MAX’s 3rd LP

Huh Yunjin of Le Sserafim collaborated with American singer MAX for his upcoming third studio album, according to agency Source Music on Friday.

MAX shared the list of 12 tracks for LP “Love in Stereo” on Thursday in the US which showed that one of the five featuring artists is the idol. She sang the first track “Stupid in Love.”

“I feel so honored to have such incredible collaborators like Huh Yunjin of Le Sserafim,” wrote the singer and actor, naming other featured artists as well. The album will be released on Feb. 16.

Separately, Le Sserafim made news for logging the highest revenue for a rookie in Japan, according to Oricon’s annual ranking 2023 published last week. The group raked in 2.12 billion Japanese yen (US$14.61 million) in the country last year, the first female group to surpass the 2-billion-yen mark in 20 years.

CIX to drop 1st single

Single “0 or 1” will consist of two tracks: main track “Lovers or Enemies” and B-side track “Shadow.” It will be the first part of a new album series, added the agency. The upcoming album comes about eight months after its sixth EP “‘OK’ Episode 2: I’m OK” that topped the iTunes top albums chart in four regions.

The five-member debuted in 2019 with EP “Hello Chapter 1. Hello, Stranger” and hosted its second international tour “Save me, Kill me” that brought the members to Europe, the US and Japan. They also greeted fans in person for the first time at its fan meet in Seoul in August and in Japan the following month.