BTS have returned to the top of the Billboard 200 with "ARIRANG", while shattering multiple records across Billboard’s metrics.
According to Billboard’s March 30 preview on its official site, BTS’s fifth studio album "ARIRANG" debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 (dated April 4). Billboard reports the set enters with 641,000 equivalent album units―the biggest week for a group album since the current units system launched in December 2014. Of that total, 532,000 come from pure album sales (physical and digital), marking the highest one-week sales for a group in over a decade. "ARIRANG" also posts 95,000 SEA units (from streaming), the group’s best weekly streaming total to date.
Physicals powered the album’s first-week numbers, with 516,000 copies sold. Vinyl alone accounts for 208,000 copies―BTS’s largest one-week vinyl sales ever and the biggest weekly vinyl tally for a group since Luminate began tracking in 1991. "ARIRANG" also opens at No. 1 on Top Album Sales and Top Streaming Albums.
This marks BTS’s seventh No. 1 on the Billboard 200. They previously topped the chart with "LOVE YOURSELF 轉 'Tear'" (2018), "LOVE YOURSELF 結 'Answer'" (2018), "MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA" (2019), "MAP OF THE SOUL : 7" (2020), "BE" (2020), and "Proof" (2022).
Released on March 20, "ARIRANG" is scaling charts worldwide. In Japan, it swept Oricon’s weekly Combined Albums, Albums, Digital Albums, and Western Music Albums rankings (dated March 30). In the U.K., it debuted at No. 1 on the Official Albums Chart Top 100 (week of March 27-April 3). It also took No. 1 on France’s SNEP Top Albums (March 20?26) and Australia’s ARIA Top 50 Albums and Vinyl Chart. In Germany’s Offizielle Deutsche Charts (dated March 27), BTS claimed No. 1 on both the albums and singles charts―the first group ever to lead both simultaneously in the chart’s history.
Title track "SWIM" held No. 1 on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs Global for nine straight days (March 20-28). It also rose to No. 2 on the U.K.’s Official Singles Chart Top 100, a new peak for the group. In Korea, without any TV promotions, BTS still swept first place on four music shows: MBC M’s "Show! Champion," Mnet’s "M Countdown," KBS2’s "Music Bank," and SBS’s "Inkigayo."
Executive produced by Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, "ARIRANG" captures BTS’s identity and the universal emotions they face. "SWIM" speaks to pushing forward through life’s waves without stopping. RM led the lyric-writing, delivering the messages the group wants to share right now.
Photo Credit: BIGHIT MUSIC
(SBS Entertainment News | Kang Kyung-youn)