BTS outdoes itself with first-week sales

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BTS outdoes itself with first-week sales

K-pop superstars BTS sold more than two million physical copies of its latest release, setting a new record for BTS first-week album sales along the way, the group’s agency Big Hit Entertainment announced on Friday.

The septet dropped its EP “Map of the Soul: Persona” on April 12 and has gone on to sell 2,130,480 physical copies internationally as of Thursday, according to Korea’s album sales tracking site Hanteo Chart.

The new album sold more than double their previous full-length album, “Love Yourself: Tear,” which was released last May and sold 1,003,524 copies in its first week.

“Persona” had already sold 2,685,030 preorder copies of the album over five days, also a record for the group. The album topped iTunes album charts in 86 regions, as well as sweeping the No. 1 spot on all local music charts in Korea. It is also estimated to sit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Britain’s Official Charts when it is updated this weekend.

In addition to the group’s album sales success, the music video for the EP’s lead track “Boy With Luv” went on to break three Guinness World Records this week.

Guinness World Records announced on Monday that the music video for “Boy With Luv” broke the record for the most-viewed YouTube video in 24 hours, the most-viewed YouTube music video in 24 hours and the most-viewed YouTube music video in 24 hours by a K-pop group. The music video was viewed over 74.6 million times within 24 hours after its release on April 12, according to YouTube.

“The group continues to wow international audiences with two sell-out performances at London’s O2 arena, a sold-out show at Citi Field stadium in New York City last October and an appearance on NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live,’” Guinness said.

“Other impressive accolades achieved by the group, whose international fan base has grown rapidly in recent years spreading via social media, include becoming the first K-pop act to reach No. 1 on the U.S. albums chart and the most Twitter engagements.”

The news comes as solid evidence of the group’s popularity and influence, according to culture critic Ha Jae-keun.

“The album sales are proof of the wide fan base BTS has,” he said. “And having broken the [three] world records is visible and clear evidence of their popularity.”

He added, “Because they have such a solid fan base, their popularity won’t easily subside in the near future.”

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]
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