First group to debut at No.1 with their first four albums (USA)

One Direction (UK) are the only group to debut at No.1 on the US Billboard 200 albums chart with their first four releases. 1D's unprecedented run of success began with Up All Night in 2012, and their debut album was followed to the top by Take Me Home (2012), Midnight Memories (2013) and the appropriately titled Four (2014), which bowed at No.1 with first-week sales of 387,000 on 6 December 2014. One Direction are the first group but the third act overall to debut at No.1 on the Billboard 200 with their first four albums. Britney Spears (USA) bowed at No.1 with ...Baby One More Time (1999), Oops!... I Did It Again (2000), Britney (2001) and In the Zone (2003), while DMX (USA, aka Earl Simmons) debuted at the top with his first five albums: It's Dark and Hell is Hot (1998), Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood (1998), ...And Then There Was X (1999), The Great Depression (2001) and Grand Champ (2003). Beyoncé* (USA) has debuted at No.1 with her first five studio albums - Dangerously in Love (2003), B'Day (2006), I Am... Sasha Fierce (2008), 4 (2011) and Beyoncé (2013) - but peaked at No.17 with the non-studio album Live at Wembley in 2004.

Only one other group has reached No.1 with their first four albums. The Monkees (USA) achieved the feat with The Monkees (1966), More of The Monkees (1967), Headquarters (1967) and Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967). The Kingston Trio's (USA) first five studio albums - The Kingston Trio (1958), At Large (1959), Here We Go Again! (1959), Sold Out (1960) and String Along (1960) - all peaked at No.1, but peaked at No.2 and No.15 respectively with their live albums ...From the "Hungry i" (1959) and Stereo Concert (1959).

The first album to debut at No.1 on the Billboard 200 was Elton John's (UK) 1975 album Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy.

First-week sales for One Direction's No.1 albums were 176,000 (Up All Night), 540,000 (Take Me Home), 546,000 (Midnight Memories) and 387,000 (Four).

Billboard's first weekly albums chart was published on 24 March 1956.

One Direction are Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. They finished third in the seventh series (2010) of The X Factor (UK).