BTS once again displayed their immense power on domestic and global music charts, as well as in sales, with their 5th mini album, ‘ARIRANG‘.
Immediately upon its release on March 20 at 1 PM KST / 12 AM EST, all 14 songs on ‘ARIRANG’ swiftly landed in the top 50 on Melon‘s impenetrable ‘TOP 100’ chart. The title track “Swim” slid into the #1 spot with ease, while “Body to Body” fell in at #3 in the first hour of release, before quickly climbing up to #2 within a few hours. “Hooligan” and “Aliens” also landed in the top 10 and have since retained their spots as of the 23rd hour of release.
Additionally, according to Hanteo Chart as of March 21 KST, the group’s 5th full album sold approximately 3,980,000 copies on its first day of sales, surpassing 1 million copies within the first 10 minutes of release based on media outlet reports. ‘ARIRANG’ has now surpassed BTS’s ‘Map of the Soul : 7‘ as the best-selling album by the group in terms of first-week sales, as the previous album recorded approximately 3,370,000 copies in the first-week of sales. (As of 2026, the best-selling K-Pop album of all time in first-week sales is Seventeen‘s ‘Seventeenth Heaven‘ with an impressive record of 5,091,800 copies.)
Around the globe, ‘ARIRANG’ demonstrated its power by topping iTunes album charts in 88 countries, while “Swim” rose to the top of iTunes song charts in 90 countries on its first day of release.
On March 21 at 8 PM KST, BTS will kick off their highly-anticipated ‘BTS Comeback Live: ARIRANG‘ at Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul, streaming the event live worldwide via Netflix.
