BTS's ARIRANG Hits 5 Billion Spotify Streams

Boy group BTS has made history once again. Their fifth studio album, ARIRANG, officially surpassed 5 billion cumulative streams on Spotify as of Wednesday (14/10/2026), according to agency Big Hit Music. The achievement makes ARIRANG the most-streamed album released in 2026 in the world.

Released on 20 March 2026, the album leads the runner-up — Olivia Rodrigo's third album, "you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love" — by around 2 billion streams. ARIRANG's figures also far exceed recent releases from global pop stars Bruno Mars and Harry Styles, which collected about 1 billion and 2 billion streams respectively.

14 Tracks, All Above 200 Million Streams

Consistency is the key to ARIRANG's dominance. All fourteen tracks on the album have each surpassed 200 million streams. Title track "SWIM" is even nearing 1 billion streams. Notably, the unique track "No. 29" — consisting solely of the tolling of the Sacred Bell of Great King Seongdeok, an artifact of the Silla kingdom (57 BC–935 AD) — also crossed 200 million streams, proving the appeal of traditional Korean aesthetics to global listeners.

From day one, ARIRANG was already breaking records: over 110 million streams in a single day, with all 14 songs occupying the top 14 positions on Spotify's Daily Top Songs Global. "SWIM" topped the chart with around 14 million streams in a day — the highest single-day record for a song released in 2026.

Three Weeks Atop the Billboard 200, First Since 2012

In the United States, ARIRANG debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and stayed there for three consecutive weeks. That makes it the first album by a group to hold the top spot for three straight weeks since Mumford & Sons' "Babel" in 2012.

ARIRANG is BTS's first full-group project in nearly four years, released after all seven members — RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook — completed their military service and reunited. Since April 2026, BTS has been on the ARIRANG world tour, visiting cities around the globe including SoFi Stadium in California last September.