According to the US music data statistics company Luminate, in the first 8 weeks since release, BTS's album "Arirang" recorded 3.8 billion streams on global music platforms.
In the same period, BTS's entire music portfolio exceeded 5.3 billion streams, thanks to their first full-form comeback after 3 years and 8 months, along with the launch of a world tour.
The group's appeal is distributed quite evenly globally instead of concentrated in a specific region. Latin America accounts for 27% of total streams, followed by Northeast Asia (17%), North America (14%), Southeast Asia (13%) and Europe (12%).
A representative of BigHit Music company said that this data shows that BTS's music is well received in major markets around the world, instead of only being popular in a specific region.
Both the title track and the songs in the album achieved outstanding results. "Swim" became the first song released this year to surpass the 500 million streams mark on Spotify.
Meanwhile, "Body to body" and "Hooligan" both exceeded 200 million streams, and all songs in the album "Arirang" have reached 100 million streams.
Physical album sales also remained high. BTS ranked first in physical album sales in the US, with more than 810,000 copies (including CDs and LPs) sold in this market alone.
The level of attachment of fans has also increased significantly. Luminate's survey shows that 26% of respondents are classified as positive fans, 15% are emotionally attached fans, and 9% are superfans. All of these groups increased by 2-5% compared to 2021.
Public interest in BTS also continues to increase. The survey shows that 44% of respondents have a good impression of the group's music, while 32% claim to be BTS's listeners, an increase of 10% and 4% respectively compared to 2021.
Luminate also noted that, although the K-pop listening rate among the general public is still relatively low, BTS is still continuously attracting new listeners. The report said that 38% of BTS listeners are Hispanic or Latino.
In addition, the report also identified a group of consumers who do not regularly listen to BTS but still see the group as influential and trend-leading artists. This group accounts for 19% of the people who know BTS.
BigHit Music said that the above results show that BTS not only maintains the loyalty of the existing fan base but also continuously attracts new consumers and expands its influence to the general audience.
