According to data from Hanteo Chart on March 27 (Korean time), BTS's 5th studio album ARIRANG closed its first week of release with total sales of 4,169,464 copies. This is the highest level in the group's career, far exceeding the previous record set by Map of the Soul: 7 with about 3.37 million copies.
Debuting on March 20, ARIRANG marked BTS's comeback after a 3-year and 9-month absence, with a full squad. Although not active in the peak period of the K-pop album market (2023–2024), the group still entered the Top 5 albums with highest first-week sales of all time, ranking 4th.
The top three positions currently belong to SEVENTEEN with Seventeenth Heaven (over 5.09 million copies), Stray Kids with 5-STAR (over 4.61 million copies) and continue to be SEVENTEEN with FML (over 4.55 million copies). This achievement shows that BTS still maintains strong competitiveness despite experiencing a period of interruption.
Not only successful in terms of physical sales, ARIRANG also dominates global digital music platforms. As of March 27, the album has reached number 1 on the iTunes chart in 115 countries and territories. The title track "Swim" also maintained its leading position on Spotify's Daily Top Songs Global chart for 6 consecutive days, from March 20 to 25.
Notably, BTS continues to expand their music project when announcing the release of the remix album Keep Swimming on March 27. The product includes 7 remix versions of the song "Swim", built in the personal style of each member, promising to bring diverse colors to listeners.
With this strong breakthrough, BTS not only set a new milestone in their career but also showed an irreplaceable position in the K-pop music scene. ARIRANG's achievements are predicted to continue to grow in the coming time, especially when the group promotes global promotion activities.
