I was waiting all day to post about BTS even though I could really have written this post first thing in the morning but you always want to be sure and wait for the news to be official: “Swim”, the lead single off their new album ARIRANG, has topped the Billboard Hot 100. This is now their seventh #1 hit, one for every member. And this is on top of what was announced yesterday: ARIRANG is also the #1 album on the Billboard 200, and it’s the seventh time they’ve topped that chart too, another one for every member. BTS is 7!
Let’s focus on the album achievement though… because there aren’t many artists, globally, who can achieve these numbers. ARIRANG has set the standard for the most units sold in its first week of release in 2026, with 641,000, which no group has done in over a decade. For context, ARIRANG exceeded first week sales for Harry Styles’s recent album, KISSCO, but OVER 200K. That’s TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND. And it’s not like there wasn’t anticipation for Harry’s comeback either.
Over 600,000 units happens very rarely in these times. And only a small handful of artists are capable of it. Taylor Swift, obviously, and Adele, both of whom have no plans (that we know of) to release new albums this year. So ARIRANG’s 641,000 units extremely impressive, I’m not sure we’re talking enough about it.
And of course it speaks to the dedication of BTS’s ARMY, a fanbase that has been starved for years and has now been reawakened. It certainly helps that they – we – have so much to feast on. From the album drop to the live concert in Seoul to the documentary release last week and the “Swim” music videos to all the interviews and the teaser that came this morning:
Run BTS! is back! This is their reality show which, really, is more like a comedy show because it’s always been RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook tasked by their producers to either learn an activity or complete a challenge, resulting in the kind of total chaos that BTS can deliver. Some of my favourite all-time BTS moments come from episodes of Run BTS! The more stupid the better. Like the first time I watched the now infamous “Animal Kingdom” episode, as soon as it was released, I was delirious for at least a week from laughing so hard. IYKYK. And it’s not just them, it’s their team…because the way the editors caption their videos it’s almost like they’re being clowned from the inside.
Anyway, back to the point – RUN BTS! 2.0 is premiering just a few days before they kick off the tour. Which means that not only have they been preparing the album, recording the music, photo shoots for the visuals, filming the music videos, doing interviews, rehearsing for the tour, and etc etc etc. They’ve also been filming a whole new season of their variety show?!?
Straight out the military and picking up where they left off, that’s BTS.
And by the way, if you’re wondering about more music videos, Bao Nguyen who directed BTS: The Return, the Netflix documentary, confirmed in an interview with Vogue that he’s seen the “Hooligan” video so, not that there was any doubt, but there is SO MUCH MORE BTS on the way. This tour is going to be a global takeover, considering what RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook can do for local economies. Not that we’re not staying present in this moment but it’ll be very interesting to see how much bigger their numbers – album sales and tour grosses – will climb by the end of this year.
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