Members Lucas and Winwin were unable to participate.

[2][3] Universe is NCT's final album to feature Shotaro and Sungchan, who both withdrew from the group in May 2023.

The music video for "Universe (Let's Play Ball)" was released on December 10.

The music video for "Beautiful" was released alongside the album itself on December 14.

[5] Universe surpassed more than 1.7 million pre-orders on the day of release, breaking their previous record of 1.1 million pre-orders for NCT 2020 Resonance Pt.1[6] Credits adapted from Naver and QQ Music.