Their 5th studio album, 'Arirang', has taken over key weekly charts both within South Korea and on an international scale.
Based on data from album sales monitoring service Hanteo Chart, dated the 30th, BTS's latest album 'Arirang' claimed the top position on both the weekly world and album charts for the period of March 23-29. Notably, it soared to the top within just three days of its release on March 20, maintaining its number one status for two consecutive weeks during March's third week.
Image of BTS as a group [Photo=Big Hit Music]
As reported in a preview by American music outlet Billboard on the 30th, 'Arirang' has clinched the leading spot on the 'Billboard 200' main album chart (issue dated April 4). It debuted with 641,000 album units, breaking records as the highest weekly performance for a group album since unit tracking began in December 2014. Of these, a substantial 532,000 units were direct album sales, both physical and digital, setting a new benchmark for weekly sales of a group album in over 10 years.
On a global scale, BTS made a clean sweep of music charts. They led Spotify's weekly charts (for the period March 20-26) across 'Weekly Top Albums', 'Weekly Top Songs', and 'Weekly Top Artists' categories. Significantly, the leading track 'SWIM' captured the number one spot on the 'Weekly Top Songs Global', with all 14 other tracks from the album making it into the top 30.
The track 'SWIM' continued to hold the top position on Spotify's 'Daily Top Songs Global' and Apple Music's 'Top 100 Global' for an impressive nine days (March 20-28) and seven days (March 23-29) respectively. Furthermore, all album tracks were featured on the most recent charts of these music platforms. This ongoing popularity, even ten days post-release, demonstrates the consistent admiration from music enthusiasts worldwide.
Concurrently, BTS will commence their 'BTS WORLD TOUR 'ARIRANG'' at the Goyang Sports Complex Main Stadium in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, on April 9, 11, and 12. Their tour will also take them to South American stadiums in countries such as Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil in October. Impressively, all 46 shows, including those in Goyang, North America, Europe, and Tokyo, Japan, have completely sold out in advance, highlighting their extraordinary ticket-selling power.