BTS’ comeback concert at Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Plaza set new marks across the board―live viewership, global rankings, social buzz, and even interest in Korean culture keywords.
BTS released its fifth studio album, ARIRANG, on March 20 and held “BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE: ARIRANG” on March 21 across the Gwanghwamun Plaza area in Seoul. According to data released by Netflix on the 25th, the live broadcast drew 18.4 million viewers worldwide in a single day.
After the event, the “BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE: ARIRANG” video on Netflix hit No. 1 on the weekly chart in 24 countries and regions, and placed in the weekly Top 10 in 80. Netflix calculates its weekly rankings based on cumulative viewing from Monday to Sunday (U.S. time). The BTS comeback live topping the chart with just two days of data makes the feat even more notable.
Online reaction was just as explosive. Netflix reports that social mentions related to BTS before and after the show reached approximately 2.62 billion. That’s more than double the previous record for a Netflix live project (Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua, about 1.25 billion), setting a new all-time high. Fans around the world amplified the impact by sharing the same hashtags and messages in real time.
The concert also helped fuel global curiosity about Korean culture. Social listening analysis shows that from March 17 to 23, English mentions of Gyeongbokgung, Sungnyemun, gugak (Korean traditional music), the Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok, and King Sejong the Great surged online. Notably, about 80?90% of total mentions over the past 30 days clustered around BTS’s comeback period.
Mentions of “King Sejong the Great” spiked about 630% on show day versus the day prior, likely tied to the symbolism of Gwanghwamun Plaza. Connected to BTS’s new album "ARIRANG," lesser-known Korean history and culture terms―such as the Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok and Baekbeom Kim Koo―also drew concentrated attention in a short span.
Meanwhile, on March 24, BTS successfully wrapped the “Spotify X BTS: SWIMSIDE” event in collaboration with global streaming platform Spotify. The group will continue its global activities with a group appearance on NBC’s "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," airing at 12:35 p.m. on March 26 and 27.
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)