BTS are back in a big way. The supergroup’s comeback album Arirang, their first full-length LP in six years, brought in record-breaking first week sales.
Arirang sold 641,000 total copies in its first week of release — the most by a group since Billboard started tracking streaming numbers in 2014 — including 532,000 in pure album sales. That latter figure is the biggest by a group in over a decade, Billboard reports; it’s the most pure album sales by a group since One Direction’s Midnight Memories in 2013.
Within 24 hours of arrival, Arirang racked up the most single-day streams for an album released this year on Spotify. BTS also brought in their all-time biggest streaming day on Apple Music. The numbers show that the record was worth the wait. BTS spent the past few years on hiatus as RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook completed their mandatory military service in South Korea and explored solo projects.
“During the time away, ironically, the world got to know these seven men better than ever as individuals. They all got to display sides they’d never gotten to show in public before,” Rob Sheffield wrote in Rolling Stone‘s review of Arirang. “All seven spent the interregnum learning how to go somewhere new on their own. But now, they finally get to take everything they learned, everything they explored, and bring it all back to the group where it began. That’s the power of Arirang — seven different voices, but united again and stronger than ever.”
The 14-track album brought BTS together with an inspired slate of collaborators, from Ryan Tedder and Tyler Johnson to Teezo Touchdown, JPEGMafia, Flume, Diplo, Mike Will Made-It, and more. In a new documentary, the band revealed that Jin is absent from the songwriting credits on the record because of prior tour obligations that kept him from the bulk of their writing sessions. “They made a really nice album while I was on tour,” he said. “Coming in late and not really knowing where everyone’s at is scary, because I have to figure out where I fit into all of this. But having spent the last 12 years together, I’ve kind of known what to do without being told.”
They all share the victory of their return.
