‘Pioneers of a New Continent in K-pop,’ BTS. Their record of ‘4 million copies in 3 days’ and the recent ‘Gwanghwamun performance’ were not events of a single day, but the result of 10 years.

 

Hanteo Global (CEO Kwak Young-ho), which operates Hanteo Chart, released its annual report titled ‘Hanteo Rewind: 2025, K-pop Invasion’ on the Hanteo Chart website on the 3th.

 

This report, published by Hanteo Chart, compiles the achievements of K-pop artists over the past year through data. Among the five chapters of the report, the first released section, ‘Chapter 1: K-pop Dynamite That Broke Down the Walls of the World,’ features BTS as the ‘pioneer.’ It is structured to examine how K-pop’s influence has expanded through approximately 10 years of accumulated data from 2016 to 2026.

 

According to Hanteo Rewind, BTS recorded cumulative album sales of 38.09 million copies, reached up to 97 countries in album sales, attracted a total of 4.11 million attendees on tour, and made 51 appearances in major overseas media outlets. Even these four figures alone show that BTS’s globalization was not merely an expansion of popularity, but closer to ‘industrial expansion,’ where distribution, concerts, and media exposure all grew simultaneously.

 

► 5th Full Album ‘ARIRANG’ Surpasses 4 Million Copies in 3 Days… Total Album Sales of 38.09 Million Over 10 Years

According to Hanteo Chart, the world’s only real-time music chart, BTS’s 5th full album ‘ARIRANG,’ released on the 20th, sold 3.98 million copies on its first day and recorded a cumulative 4,006,600 copies by the third day on the 22nd. The previous record for highest initial chodong sales of a BTS album was 3.37 million copies set by ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : 7’ in 2020. ‘ARIRANG’ broke that record in just one day.

 

The most striking point in Chapter 1 of Hanteo Rewind, which summarizes BTS’s 10-year history, is the explosive growth in album sales. According to yearly trends compiled from Hanteo Chart’s cumulative data, BTS’s album sales surged from around 780,000 copies in 2016 to 8.5 million copies in 2023.

 

Hanteo Rewind interprets this not as a simple peak curve, but as a long-term growth structure that did not rely on the success of a single album. It suggests that rather than the market shaping BTS, BTS redefined the upper limits of the market.

 

► From Korea to 97 Countries Worldwide… The Number of Countries Where BTS’s Music Reached

BTS’s global conquest was not achieved through album sales alone. Hanteo Rewind compiled country-specific data through Hanteo Global’s album authentication system (HATS), showing that BTS’s global album sales expanded from 11 countries in 2016 to 97 countries in 2022.

 

The rapid increase in the number of countries, alongside the steep rise in album sales since 2017, indicates that BTS began receiving global recognition. Notably, this was not concentrated consumption in a few regions, but a broad global expansion including North America, Europe, South America, and the Middle East.

 

It also demonstrates BTS’s global influence in that actual album purchases and verifications occurred worldwide, not just streaming buzz.

 

► Global Frenzy… K-pop Concerts Expanded into the ‘Stadium Industry’

Performance data further illustrates this expansion in a multidimensional way. According to Hanteo Rewind, BTS’s 2017 tour had an Asia-centered structure with Japan accounting for 48.3%, but starting with their expansion into Europe in 2018, the audience composition diversified rapidly.

 

Then, in 2019, BTS reached a peak with their ‘SPEAK YOURSELF’ tour, drawing a total of 1.28 million attendees. At that time, the audience composition included 23.3% from the United States and 17.3% from Europe. It marked the moment when K-pop concerts transitioned from ‘overseas expansion’ to a ‘stadium industry.’

 

This is also why the Gwanghwamun performance was symbolic. It was a stage where a group that had already experienced global stadiums returned to a symbolic location in Korea and broadcasted to the world once again.

 

► 57 Appearances in Major Global Media… A Global Top Star at the Center of the Mainstream

Changes in the media landscape were also led by BTS. Hanteo Rewind counted a total of 57 appearances in major overseas media by BTS from 2017 to 2024. In 2017, they made their U.S. TV debut on ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ and ‘Jimmy Kimmel LIVE,’ and in 2018, they established themselves on key Western platforms such as ‘The Graham Norton Show’ and ‘The Tonight Show.’

 

In 2019, they became the first Korean artist to perform on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ and in 2020, through ‘BTS Week,’ ‘Carpool Karaoke,’ and ‘Tiny Desk Concert,’ they moved beyond subculture into the center of the mainstream.

 

In 2021, ‘MTV Unplugged’ was also a first for a Korean artist. This continuity proves that BTS was not merely a K-pop group ‘invited’ into overseas markets, but artists who changed the very grammar of local media.

 

The 10-year history of BTS described by Hanteo Rewind is not just a success story. It is a journey from 780,000 to 8.5 million album sales, from 11 to 97 countries, from Asia-focused tours to global stadiums with 1.28 million annual attendees, and from a first U.S. TV appearance to 57 major overseas media appearances.

 

And at the end of that journey, BTS once again sold 4 million copies and turned Gwanghwamun purple. BTS today is not a team that ‘went toward’ the world, but a team that ultimately made the world ‘follow and read’ BTS.

 

Meanwhile, Hanteo Global, which operates the world’s only real-time music chart ‘Hanteo Chart,’ releases its annual report ‘Hanteo Rewind,’ reviewing K-pop artists’ achievements through data each year. This series, titled ‘K-pop Invasion,’ looks back at 2025 through data. It consists of five chapters and is released every Friday at 6 PM on the Hanteo Chart website.

 

The second chapter, ‘Chapter 2: From Penetration to Domination, DNA That Connects the Flow,’ to be released next week, will revisit the 2025 activities of BTS’s successors, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ENHYPEN, BOYNEXTDOOR, and KORTIS.