BTS has become the first overseas group to top Japan's Oricon chart's annual album rankings.

Oricon announced Wednesday the album "BTS, the Best" sold 993-thousand copies, more than any other album in Japan this year.

It marks the first time an overseas group claimed the honor. It is the first in 37 years for an overseas artist to do so since Michael Jackson for "Thriller" in 1984.

"BTS, the Best" sold 782-thousand copies in its first week of release, a record high for a male foreign artist.

The album is a compilation of the band's singles and regular album tracks released in Japan over the four years since 2017.