Monster (EP)

On April 21, 2020, SM Entertainment confirmed that Irene and Seulgi would form Red Velvet's first sub-unit and that the duo was in preparation for their first major release in around June 2020. The release of the mini album was postponed from June 15 to July 6, 2020 on the grounds that it needed additional production on the album, in order to achieve a higher quality of music.[2] The physical release contains two different versions with a CD, a photo booklet, a lyric book and collectibles.[3]

According to Hanteo, Monster sold over 80,000 copies on its first day of availability, beating Red Velvet's first day and first week album sales records of the group's sixth extended play The ReVe Festival: Day 1, which set the record at 45,080 copies for its first day, and 71,431 copies for its first week. It also became the best-selling girl group sub-unit album of all time, surpassing Twinkle (2012) by Girls' Generation-TTS.[4] The EP reached 100,000 copies sold on Hanteo in under 3 days, making it the first Red Velvet album to do so.[5] It was certified Platinum for selling over 55,000 copies on China's biggest music platform QQ Music, and Gold for selling over 5,000 copies on Kugou Music in China.[6] The EP also reached No 1 on the iTunes top album for 52 countries.[7]

The EP debuted at number five on the Billboard World Album Chart, becoming the duo's top-five entry.

Credits adapted from Naver

Notes:

• "Naughty" in only available in the EP as a CD-only track. It was omitted from the digital release of the EP until July 20, 2020, when it was released on Korean music sites as part of the EP and as a standalone digital single in international music sites.