ITZY's 5th EP "Checkmate" Rises To #8 On Billboard 200 Chart

ITZY returned with their highly anticipated EP, “CHECKMATE”, which took the #8 spot on the Billboard 200 chart this week, marking the group’s first top-10 ranking on the chart. Further, the group has become the 4^th K-Pop girl group to achieve a top 10 ranking on the Billboard 200.

ITZY, 美 빌보드 메인 차트 '빌보드 200' 8위 기록! 자체 최고 순위 찍고 글로벌 인기 가속!https://t.co/Y9LTwIKmF9 #ITZY #MIDZY @ITZYofficial #ITZY_CHECKMATE #ITZY_SNEAKERS #SneakersChallenge pic.twitter.com/rlKwl2945y

— ITZY (@ITZYofficial) July 27, 2022

ITZY recently performed the EP’s lead single, ‘SNEAKERS’, on both “MTV Fresh Out Live” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Late Show Me Music”. The track’s music video has already amassed over 78 million views since release and currently holds the #5 ranking on YouTube’s Top 100 Global Music Videos.

Quickly following this achievement, it was announced today that the group has been nominated for their first MTV VMA in the category of “Best K-Pop” for their ‘LOCO’ music video.

MTV

Next up, ITZY will be embarking on their first world tour, the “CHECKMATE” tour, beginning with back-to-back shows in Seoul in August before heading to the United States in October. The group will be visiting eight cities through November including Los Angeles’ YouTube Theater and New York’s Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden.

For fans curious about “CHECKMATE” tour schedule, here are the tour dates:

Wednesday, October 26^th – United States / Los Angeles / YouTube Theater
Saturday, October 29^th – United States / Phoenix / Arizona Federal Theatre
Tuesday, November 1^st – United States / Dallas / The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
Thursday, November 3^rd – United States / Sugar Land / Smart Financial Centre
Saturday, November 5^th – United States / Atlanta / Fox Theatre
Monday, November 7^th – United States / Chicago / Rosemont Theatre
Thursday, November 10^th – United States / Boston / MGM Music Fall at Fenway
Sunday, November 13^th – United States / New York / Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden

“CHECKMATE” follows a momentous 2021 for ITZY, as the group broke numerous personal records on both the charts and with streams and helped solidify ITZY as one of K-Pop’s dominating forces thus far. With the release of their first full-length studio album, “CRAZY IN LOVE”, in September, the group took the #1 spot across multiple Billboard charts upon debut, including Top Album Sales, Top Current Album Sales, World Albums, Tastemaker Albums, and Independent Albums charts. The release also made a strong debut on Billboard’s Top 200-album chart where it reached #11, making ITZY only the third female K-pop group that scored within the chart’s top 15. This release followed their spring EP release of “GUESS WHO”, which marked the group’s debut on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart, peaking at #148.

ITZY continues to elevate their star power stateside making their first national US broadcast appearance with “MTV’s Fresh Out Live” in January 2021, racking in the largest performance views MTV had received for the platform. They followed that up with a performance of “CRAZY IN LOVE”’s lead track, ‘LOCO’ on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” in September. Some recent features for the group include Rolling Stone, who featured the group in their June 2021 “The Future of Music” Issue, TIME Magazine, ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar, Seventeen, and Teen Vogue, to name a few.

“CHECKMATE” is out now via all digital and streaming platforms. Get the full album here.