The group BTS has once again topped the U.S. ‘Billboard 200’ with ‘Arirang,’ demonstrating their immense popularity by setting various new records on Billboard.
According to a chart preview article posted on Billboard’s official website on the 30th, BTS’s fifth studio album, ‘Arirang,’ claimed the No. 1 spot on the main album chart, ‘Billboard 200’ (April 4 issue). Billboard reported, “‘Arirang’ entered the chart with 641,000 album units, marking the best weekly performance among group albums since the introduction of unit counts in December 2014.”
Of these, 532,000 were pure album sales (physical and digital purchases). BTS recorded the highest weekly sales for a group album in over a decade in this category. SEA units (sales converted from streaming counts) reached 95,000, achieving the best weekly streaming performance among their works.
Physical album sales drove the first week’s sales of ‘Arirang,’ amounting to 516,000 copies. Of these, 208,000 were vinyl, setting a new weekly sales record for the group. This achievement marks the highest weekly vinyl sales among groups since Luminate’s count began in 1991. Additionally, ‘Arirang’ debuted at No. 1 on both ‘Top Album Sales’ and ‘Top Streaming Album.’
With this achievement, BTS has earned their seventh overall No. 1 on the ‘Billboard 200’. They previously topped the chart with ‘Love Yourself 轉 Tear,’ becoming the first Korean artist to do so, followed by ‘Love Yourself 結 Answer (2018),’ ‘Map of the Soul : Persona (2019),’ ‘Map of the Soul : 7 (2020),’ ‘BE (2020),’ and ‘Proof (2022).’
Released on the 20th, ‘Arirang”s influence is spreading worldwide. In Japan, it dominated the weekly charts for ‘Combined Album Ranking,’ ‘Album Ranking,’ ‘Digital Album Ranking,’ and ‘Western Music Album Ranking’ (March 30 issue). It also debuted atop the UK’s Official Albums Chart ‘Official Albums Top 100’ (March 27-April 3 issue). Furthermore, ‘Arirang’ swept the top positions on France’s SNEP ‘Top Albums’ (March 20-26 issue), Australia’s ARIA ‘Top 50 Albums’ and ‘Vinyl Chart,’ and Germany’s Offizielle Deutsche Charts (March 27 issue) for both album and single charts, making BTS the first group in chart history to achieve this feat simultaneously in both categories.
The title track ‘Swim’ held the No. 1 spot on Spotify’s ‘Daily Top Songs Global’ for nine consecutive days (March 20-28). It also reached No. 2 on the UK’s ‘Official Singles Top 100,’ marking their highest ranking to date. Domestically, without any broadcast appearances, they secured first place wins on music shows such as MBC M’s ‘Show! Champion,’ Mnet’s ‘M Countdown,’ KBS 2TV’s ‘Music Bank,’ and SBS ‘Inkigayo,’ earning a total of four music show trophies.
Meanwhile, Chairman Bang Si-hyuk oversaw the overall production of ‘Arirang,’ an album that conveys BTS’s identity and the universal emotions they face. ‘Swim’ lyrically explores the theme of continuously navigating the waves of life. RM penned most of the lyrics, conveying the stories they want to share now.
Image source: Big Hit Music
