Since its debut in 2018, K-pop boy band Stray Kids have released more than 20 albums, with all nine of their albums to make the Billboard 200 debuting at No. 1. — a first for any act. The group's latest release, "THIS & THAT," debuted atop the chart on Aug. 22. The eight-track EP also earned 369,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Aug. 13, according to Luminate. Traditional album sales accounted for 357,000 units, marking the biggest sales week of the group's career. By now, the pattern is familiar enough that the more interesting question is not how Stray Kids did it again, but why it keeps happening. Since its 2018 debut, the eight-member group has built its identity around an unusually high degree of creative control. Its inhouse producing unit 3RACHA — composed of members Bang Chan, Changbin and Han — writes and produces much of the group's music, while its relationship with its official fandom, STAY, has grown alongside its global reach. Those two elements have become central to understanding the group's sustained chart performance. Some 8,000 kilometers away from Seo