In a surprising move, K-pop supergroup BTS scored yet another No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart with their reunion album, Arrang. This is the seventh time the team has topped the chart.
The seven-member outfit returned for their first album in nearly four years last week, after the group took a break to finish enlisting in the military in their native South Korea. Fans of the group, collectively known as ARMY, have been waiting for the group’s comeback ever since. Arrang finished the first week with the equivalent of 641,000 albums acquired, according to Billboardwhich marks the album’s biggest debut of the year and the band’s biggest opening since the chart’s debut in 2014.
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In terms of traditional album sales, BTS had the group’s biggest week for more than a decade with 532,000. They came close to dethroning One Direction, who produced their 2013 album Midnight Thoughts with 547,000 in pure sales, according to Billboard.
Arrang‘Beginning was BTS’ biggest sales week’ is still on the chart. It was also the group’s biggest weekend, according to Billboard. Arrang marks the biggest week for both album and pure sales since Taylor Swift dominated the charts with The Life of a Show last year.
K-pop’s history of globalization, BTS celebrated their comeback last week with a Netflix comeback performance in front of Gwanghwamun, the main gate and historic entrance to Seoul’s Gyeongbokgung Palace. That choice of location was no coincidence, as the new album is in many ways a reflection on the band’s culture.
album name, Arrangit pays tribute to the important Korean ballad of the same name, which was famously the first national song, sung by Korean men, ever recorded (it was preserved for posterity by American folklorist Alice Fletcher in 1896). Motifs from the beginning Arrang it features prominently in the closing minutes of the new album’s opening track, “Body to Body.” One of the most impressive songs on the album is “No. 29,” a song made only by the sound of a bell ringing once, and the resonant sound lasts for one minute and 38 seconds. The bell used in the recording is Korea’s first, the 1,255-year-old Divine Bell of King Seongdeok. The title of the song is a reference to the historic object’s official name as “South Korea’s National Treasure No. 29.”
On Friday, the group released a documentary on Netflix, which documented the balancing act of the group during the Arrang as the group looks to honor its roots in Korea and as their audience expands to encompass the entire world.
BTS returned to US television last week, appearing on two nights of The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. The first night saw the band as guest and host, performing their single “Swim” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The second episode featured the band’s song “2.0,” also filmed at the museum.
BTS is currently gearing up to embark on their first full group tour in years. The tour, which started in 2026 and 2027, will reach Asia, North America, Europe, Latin America and Australia, making it one of the most extensive tours of the band’s career.
The tour will begin with three nights in Goyang, South Korea, before heading to Tokyo for two nights. BTS is set to head to the US for a stop in Tampa. The team then zigzags around the world where US bodies are scattered everywhere. The team is expected to make 82 stops.
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