It is now the 15th week since Jimin released his second album ‘MUSE‘ and he continues to soar to new heights with his success as a solo artist each week. The album’s lead single ‘WHO‘ has just recently snatched new monumental streaming records on the world’s #1 music streaming platform Spotify, owing to its consistency in maintaining good streaming numbers since its release. In this era of media consumption primarily via streaming services, staying among the top most streamed artists/songs on such a major music consumption platform is undoubtedly strong indication of the popularity and demand for an artist’s music, which further speaks to their captivating skill and artistry.
Additionally, Jimin now holds records never achieved before by any solo artist in K-pop’s history both on the domestic and international scale.
As of the Spotify daily charts dated Oct 25, Jimin spent his 456th day atop the Spotify South Korea Daily Top Artists chart to become the longest charting act in history at #1 on this chart, surpassing his own group BTS with 455 days. As of the latest chart updates on Oct 28, he has now been #1 for 459 days, the only artist to reach this milestone.
In another impressive chart performance, on October 26, it was reported that Jimin’s hit song ‘WHO‘ had now become the #1 best-selling K-pop song in the USA in 2024 by total units, achieving this incredible feat in less than 100 days since its release!
Notably, his title track ‘Like Crazy‘ from his first album ‘FACE’ closed the year as the best-selling download of 2023 in the USA by a K-pop artist.
Therefore, Jimin is the first and only K-pop soloist to have the best-selling song in the USA, the world’s largest music market by revenue, for two consecutive years!
Looking at streaming records recently set by ‘WHO’, the much that the song has achieved is no small feat either, especially when you consider the fact that it does not have any major playlisting, nor does it have extensive exposure to the general public through massive radio plays. Both of these are tools used by labels to expose their artist’s songs to the public more and increase the probability of them streaming the song. That is why Jimin is legendary for breaking historic records without the help of such tools.
As of the Spotify charts dated Oct 28, industry reports indicated that ‘WHO‘ had now risen into the Top 10 most streamed songs on 2024 on Spotify worldwide, with 868 Million streams currently. It achieved this in just over 100 days since its release (102 days).
Moreover, ‘WHO’ also became the first and only song by a Korean solo artist in history to spend 100 or more days ranking within the Top 10 of Spotify Global Daily Top Songs chart. What is more, it was also the most streamed song by a Korean artist on the 100th day on Spotify Global Daily Top Songs chart in history with over 6 Million filtered streams!
Other notable achievements include that ‘WHO’ extended its records on various charts as follows:
Billboard Streaming Songs chart: Longest charting song by a Korean act this decade (14 weeks)
Billboard Hot 100: Highest ranking song by a Korean soloist in the 14th week of release this decade
UK Official Singles chart: Longest charting solo song by a Korean soloist this decade (14 weeks)
Billboard World Albums: Longest charting 2024 album by a Korean soloist (MUSE: 14 weeks) and longest charting album of all time by a Korean soloist (FACE: 63 weeks)
Jimin is indeed living up to his “King” name, and he has only just begun. His future as a solo artist holds unlimited potential and his fans are eager to witness his future greatness.