World's first group to achieve the feat... BTS surpasses 10 billion annual streams on Spotify

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The boy group BTS has set a world-first record for a group.

As of the 16th, BTS surpassed 10 billion cumulative plays this year on the global audio and music streaming platform Spotify. Previously, world-renowned solo pop stars such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Bad Bunny had exceeded this figure. BTS is the first group to achieve 10 billion streams in a single year.

This year's cumulative play count increased by a whopping 122% compared to the previous year (4.5 billion plays). In particular, the fifth full-length album "ARIRANG," released in March last, was played more than 5 billion times, driving the achievement of the new record of 10 billion streams for a group. Daily play counts also showed a remarkable difference before and after the release of the album. The streaming count, which was at the level of 23 million plays just before the release of "ARIRANG," surged to 130 million plays on March 20, the day of the album's release. On that day, all 14 tracks from the album swept positions 1 through 14 on "Daily Top Song Global," and the title track "SWIM" was played approximately 14 million times on its first day of release alone. This is the highest single-day play count among songs released in 2026.

Currently, the fifth full-length album "ARIRANG" has a cumulative play count of 5 billion (as of the 14th), making it the most played new release of 2026 on Spotify. The gap in play counts with Olivia Rodrigo's third full-length album "you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love," which is currently in second place among releases this year, is approximately 2 billion plays.

BTS won the major category "Artist of the Year" at the "2026 MTV Video Music Awards Japan" (hereinafter "MTV VMAJ") on the 14th last. In September last, the music video for "SWIM" was selected as a winner in the "Best Group Video/International" category. "MTV VMAJ" is the Japanese version of the "MTV VMA," the largest-scale music awards ceremony in the United States, which has been held annually since 2002. It presents the most outstanding works across various aspects of the music industry. The winners are announced in advance, and the main ceremony will be held at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, on the 29th.

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original