K-pop supergroup BTS’ fifth studio album, “ARIRANG,” has surpassed 5 billion streams on Spotify, the group’s label, BigHit Music, addressed on Wednesday.
This officially marks the most streams among albums released this year, registering 2 billion more than the runner-up, Olivia Rodrigo’s third studio album, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.”
The streaming figures for “ARIRANG” outpaced the latest albums from global pop stars Bruno Mars and Harry Styles, which collected about 1 billion and 2 billion streams, respectively.
“Swim,” the lead track off “ARIRANG,” is approaching 1 billion streams, while all 14 tracks on the album have surpassed 200 million streams. Notably, “No. 29,” which features only the mysterious tolling of the Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok of the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla (57 B.C.-A.D. 935), has also reached 200 million streams.
“ARIRANG” has attracted major attention for being the first full-group project from the global K-pop sensation in nearly four years, released after all its members completed their mandatory military service and reunited. It surpassed 110 million streams on its release day on March 20.
It also now stands as the first album from a group to top the Billboard 200, the main U.S. albums chart, for three consecutive weeks since Mumford & Sons’ “Babel” in 2012.
Source: The Korea Times
