The popularity of the group BTS in the United States was confirmed by numbers.
BigHit Music said on the 14th, "Results of a survey that measure BTS's fame and recognition in the U.S. market by numbers have come out," and released the results of a survey conducted by global music data company Luminate of U.S. music consumers in the second quarter of this year.
According to Luminate's survey results, BTS approached a team record high by exceeding 42% in awareness, and favorability reached 46%, the highest level since the survey began. This is a point that confirms BTS's popularity in the United States is still on the rise.
BTS's awareness survey was first conducted on 2021 and was 36% at that time. Since then it has steadily risen, recording 42%, a 6 percentage point increase this year. This is an overwhelming figure even compared with other global musicians, and is about four times higher than the average awareness of 22 K-pop artist teams (11%).
It is notable that BTS's awareness was not limited to a specific generation. The percentage who answered that they know BTS was evenly distributed from 13–17 to 35–54 at 43–59%. Among those 55 and older, 28% also said they know BTS.
In addition, BTS's favorability recorded a record high of 46%.
BigHit Music said Luminate's survey results show that BTS has built a broad popular base beyond fandom in the United States based on high awareness and favorability.
BTS's presence was also proven in the U.S. vinyl market. The group's fifth full-length album released in March, Arirang (ARIRANG), sold 516,000 copies in the United States in its first week, of which about 40%, approximately 208,000 copies, were sold as vinyl. This is BTS's highest weekly vinyl sales record.
Additionally, cumulative streaming of BTS's Arirang album approached 5.7 billion plays, and including previous tracks the total reached 8.7 billion streams.
[Photo] Provided by BigHit Music (HYBE).
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