The group BTS swept major domestic and international weekly charts with their fifth studio album 'Arirang' (ARIRANG).
On the 30th, Hanteo Chart, a site that tallies album sales, reported that BTS's new release 'Arirang' rose to No. 1 on the weekly world chart and the album chart (tracking period: Mar. 23-29). After its release on the 20th, it reached the top of the chart for the third week of March with just three days of sales and then defended the No. 1 spot for a second consecutive week.
On the 30th, Billboard, a U.S. music trade publication, published a preview article reporting that 'Arirang' topped the main album chart, the Billboard 200 (Apr. 4 issue). It entered the chart with 641,000 album units, the best weekly figure for a group album since Billboard began reporting unit counts in Dec. 2014. Of those, 532,000 were pure album sales (physical and digital purchases). That is the largest weekly sales record for a group album in about 10 years.
It also swept global music charts. BTS dominated Spotify's weekly charts (tracking period: Mar. 20-26) for the global audio and streaming platform, topping the Weekly Top Albums, Weekly Top Songs and Weekly Top Artists global charts. In particular, on the Weekly Top Songs Global chart the title track SWIM reached No. 1, and all 14 tracks included on the new release landed inside the top 30, showing remarkable strength.
SWIM held the top spot for nine consecutive days (Mar. 20-28) on Spotify's Daily Top Songs Global and for seven consecutive days (Mar. 23-29) on Apple Music's Top 100 Global. In addition, every track on the album appeared on the latest rankings of both platforms. Even ten days after release, not only the title track but the entire tracklist enjoyed steady popularity, proving the love of global music fans.
BTS will hold 'BTS WORLD TOUR "ARIRANG"' at the main stadium of Goyang Sports Complex in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province on Apr. 9, 11 and 12. In October, they will perform stadium shows in Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Chile and Brazil in South America. They have already shown astonishing ticket power, with early sellouts for Goyang and a total of 46 shows including stops in North America, Europe and Tokyo, Japan.
[Photo] Provided by BigHit Music.
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