From selling only 430 albums in first-day sales for their debut album TREASURE EP.1 : All To Zero to now having multiple albums surpass a million sales, ATEEZ is a rare success story of a K-Pop group from a small label whose passion and determination alone — along with the love of their supportive fans — have propelled them into the well-deserved success they have today.

Now, they can proudly claim the title of being the best-selling K-Pop group from a non-“Big Four” label (which includes SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and HYBE Labels). Not to mention they’re now on their fourth world tour with Towards the Light : Will To Power, which has seen tens of thousands of fans in attendance so far!

They’re a prime example of “organic growth” in the K-Pop industry, and it’s impressive to look back on just how far they’ve come and how each album they released became more successful than the last.

As mentioned above, their debut album released on October 24, 2018 made only a couple hundred sales in the first day, and around 5,200 by the end of the first week. Though TREASURE EP.1 : All To Zero has now sold around 108,000 copies due to rereleases by KQ Entertainment, they clearly started small and without the marketing, budget, and promotional abilities of a larger label.

They released three Korean-language albums in 2019 — two EPs and one full-length studio album — which is a ton of content for any group to produce! They were undoubtedly working long days and nights just to get their name out there, with little more than their dream to keep them going.

Their first album released in 2019 was TREASURE EP.2: Zero To One, with the title track “Say My Name” (still an absolute bop to this day), released on January 15. It did a little better in sales, selling around 6,900 copies in the first week (though it has now sold around 135,000 copies).

TREASURE EP.3: One To All came next, released on June 10 with the title song “Wave” (which ended up getting the group their very first music show win!). Their sales with this album saw a much more noticeable increase, with 45,000 sold in the first week (and now with 225,000 units sold).

Nearing the end of 2019, ATEEZ released their first full-length album, TREASURE EP.Fin: All To Action, on October 8. Once again, this album performed better than the last, making around 55,000 first-week sales. “Wonderland”, the title track of the album, became a huge hit among fans (especially internationally), with the members blowing viewers away whenever they performed the hard-hitting, intense song. Currently, the album has sold around 260,000 copies.

Despite the pandemic that began in 2020, the year was still another busy one for ATEEZ! They started off the year strong with the last part in their TREASURE series, TREASURE Epilogue: Action To Answer, which was released on January 6. With the enchanting and beautiful song “Answer” as the title track, this bittersweet end to the beloved TREASURE series made 63,000 first-week sales, following the trend of each of ATEEZ’s albums seeing a gradual upward trend in sales.

Later in 2020, they released one more album, and the beginning of their FEVER series: ZERO: FEVER Part. 1. With the double title tracks “Inception” and “THANXX”, this phenomenal start to a new era saw a huge uptick in ATEEZ’s popularity, making 233,000 first-week sales! It currently has sold around 409,000 units.

They started out 2021 with the second part in their FEVER series, ZERO: FEVER Part. 2, released on March 1. With the explosive lead single “Fireworks (I’m The One)”, this part was even more successful than the first, making 305,000 first-week sales (and currently with 515,000 sales)!

Next, on September 13, ATEEZ released ZERO: FEVER Part. 3. With “Deja Vu” and “Eternal Sunshine” working as the title songs on the album, this EP saw the group’s album sales increase by more than double, with 665,000 sold in the first week.

On December 10, ATEEZ gifted fans with yet another album to wrap up 2021: ZERO: FEVER Epilogue, the end to the FEVER saga. The album was a bit of a surprise and came with little promotions, but still made 344,000 first-week sales and gave us the beloved tracks “The Real” and “Turbulence”.

Moving into 2022, the K-Pop group began their next series with THE WORLD EP.1 : MOVEMENT, released on July 29. Despite having a slightly longer break than they usually had previously, they once again went above and beyond with sales, this time selling 936,000 in the first week. “Guerilla”, the title track, was a hit among the fandom, and was a brilliant start to the group’s new era!

On December 30, ATEEZ finished off 2022 with their first single album, SPIN OFF : FROM THE WITNESS. Another album that had little promotion, the legendary lead single “HALAZIA” is still one of the most iconic among fans, so much so that ATEEZ even added it to their setlist for their current tour. The album sold around 385,000 units in the first week.

The second part of the THE WORLD series came out on June 16, 2023: THE WORLD EP.2 : OUTLAW with title track “BOUNCY (K-HOT CHILI PEPPERS)”. With this addicting bop, this became ATEEZ’s first album to surpass the million-sales mark, selling a whopping 1.52 million copies in the first week alone!

Continuing their two-albums-per-year trend, the boy group finished off the album trilogy with THE WORLD EP.FIN : WILL, released on December 1 with the lead single “Crazy Form”. This is their best-selling album to date, making around 1.71 million sales in the first week.

2024 saw the start of ATEEZ’s new era, with the release of GOLDEN HOUR : Part.1 on May 31. While K-Pop albums as a whole have been seeing a decline in sales over the past year or so — with some artists seeing a decrease of as much as a million or more albums sold than their last — ATEEZ still sold an incredible 1.51 million units in the first week. This is also despite their then-upcoming tour, which often leads to fewer album sales as fans are saving up to see them live!

All-told, ATEEZ has now sold around 10.1 million albums, making them the 11th best-selling K-Pop group in the music genre’s history. Despite their success, they continue to remain humble, kind, and selfless to their fans, making it no wonder that their fandom is only continuing to grow. We can’t wait to see what the future has in store for the group, who is now coming up on their 6th debut anniversary this October!