Larisha Paul
Contact Larisha Paul on X View all posts by Larisha Paul March 29, 2026
BTS pose together after their performance on Thursday, March 26, 2026 Todd Owyoung/NBC/Getty Images 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.”
