Play in this article ↓Stray Kids MAXIDENT: CASE 143 and a Second Billboard 200 No. 1
Published:
- Category: Album guide
- Artist: Stray Kids
KPOP NO1 Editorial · Sources checked November 10, 2026
After a No. 1 debut in March 2022, Stray Kids came back seven months later with a love song, their first as a title track. MAXIDENT, the group's seventh EP, came out on October 7, 2022, led by "CASE 143." It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, their second in a row.
Here's the idea behind the name, the title song, the eight songs and the official videos to open.
The idea: a huge incident
JYP Entertainment's album page explains the name. MAXIDENT joins "max" or "maximum" with "accident" or "incident," and it stands for a huge incident that hits without warning. The Korea Times, citing the group, gave the same reading: "maximum" plus "incident," a big incident. JYP album page Yonhap via The Korea Times (JYP's page is in Korean; the summaries here are our translation.)
The album came about seven months after ODDINARY, which had given the group their first Billboard 200 No. 1 in March 2022. The in-house production team 3RACHA (Bang Chan, Changbin and Han) wrote and composed the title track, and every member is credited somewhere on the album.
Start with CASE 143
CASE 143 is the first love song Stray Kids released as a title track. In the group's own comment, they compare the confusion of feeling something for the first time to an "incident," and "143" is a code for "I love you." JYP album page JYP describes a synth line that moves along the chromatic scale, a fast-moving structure and the group's usual intensity. Bang Chan also worked on the arrangement.
The music video went up on JYP Entertainment's channel on October 7, 2022 (Korean time).
Two short teasers came first, on October 3 and 4.
Official video · JYP Entertainment / YouTube
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Archival photo: Felix of Stray Kids on October 18, 2022, eleven days after MAXIDENT came out. The Commons file is described as "Stray Kids on topping the Billboard." Credit: 덬튜브 (DUCKtube), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. Linked from Wikimedia Commons at a smaller size; no other edits by KPOP NO.1.
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How the comeback rolled out
The campaign started in September with the album trailer, on September 6.
Official video · JYP Entertainment / YouTube
Watch the original on YouTube ↗Before the release, the channel also previewed individual songs in UNVEIL : TRACK clips. One of them is for SUPER BOARD, track 4, and it went up on September 23.
Official video · JYP Entertainment / YouTube
Watch the original on YouTube ↗The 8 songs
The release announcement names eight songs, and JYP's album page adds the group's own notes on the first five. JYP album page
| Song | What Stray Kids say |
|---|---|
| CASE 143 (title) | Their first love-themed title track; love as an "incident" |
| 식혀 | A couple whose feelings have cooled; the lyrics take the side of the one who finally brings up the breakup |
| Give Me Your TMI | Curiosity about someone you're just starting to like, with bold questions; it sets the background for CASE 143 |
| SUPER BOARD | Riding their own hover board; a cyberpunk feel from a heavy bass synth and industrial hip-hop drums, with hover-board sound effects |
| 3RACHA | 3RACHA's first drill track |
| TASTE | A song by Lee Know, Hyunjin and Felix |
| 나 너 좋아하나봐 | A song by Seungmin and I.N |
| CIRCUS (Korean ver.) | The title track of their second Japanese mini album, in Korean |
Our take: the two member-pair songs are a good way to hear different pairings of the eight. The Korean version of CIRCUS is the one track here that began life in Japan.
A second No. 1
MAXIDENT debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, with 117,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. Of those, 110,000 were album sales, and 97 percent of the sales were CDs, according to Billboard. Yonhap via The Korea Times
That made Stray Kids the second K-pop act with more than one Billboard 200 No. 1, after BTS. It was the fourth album by a Korean act to lead the chart that year, after ODDINARY, BTS's Proof and BLACKPINK's BORN PINK. The same report says it passed 2.18 million copies in its first week of sales.
The run kept going: by August 2026 Stray Kids had nine straight No. 1s. Our THIS & THAT guide covers the ninth, and the ODDINARY guide covers the first.
The title song was already a hit by the time the EP came out. JYP says "MANIAC," the lead song of ODDINARY, passed 100 million streams on Spotify by August 31, 2022. The group had just finished their second world tour, MANIAC, with 19 shows in nine cities, all sold out, and played two sold-out nights at Seoul's KSPO DOME on September 17 and 18. JYP album page
Official MAXIDENT videos
Dates are the YouTube publication dates in Korean time.
| Type | Official video | Channel | Published, KST |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trailer | "MAXIDENT" Trailer | JYP Entertainment | September 6, 2022 |
| Track preview | UNVEIL : TRACK 1 "SUPER BOARD" | JYP Entertainment | September 23, 2022 |
| Teaser | "CASE 143" M/V Teaser 1 | JYP Entertainment | October 3, 2022 |
| Teaser | "CASE 143" M/V Teaser 2 | JYP Entertainment | October 4, 2022 |
| Music video | "CASE 143" M/V | JYP Entertainment | October 7, 2022 |
Keep exploring
New to Stray Kids? The Stray Kids starter guide introduces the eight members, and the STAY fandom guide explains the fans.
The albums around this one: ODDINARY before it, and 5-STAR next.
Sources
- JYP Entertainment, MAXIDENT album page (Korean)
- Yonhap via The Korea Times, "Stray Kids scores second No. 1 on Billboard 200," October 17, 2022
- Official YouTube channel: JYP Entertainment