BTS has Korea’s best-selling album

BTS has been recognized by Guinness World Records for having the best-selling album ever in Korea, according to the organization on Tuesday.

“‘Map of the Soul: Persona,’ their latest album, has achieved the record by selling 3,399,302 copies in their homeland as of May 2019,” Guinness said.

According to Guinness, the achievement breaks a 24-year record set by Kim Gun-mo’s third album “Mis-Encounter,” which sold 3.3 million copies after its release in 1995.

“Map of the Soul: Persona,” the septet’s seven-track EP that came out on April 12, sold 3,229,032 copies in just the first month of its release.

Tuesday’s feat comes after a streak of new records set by BTS with the boy band’s latest EP and its lead track, “Boy With Luv.”

Not only is the album sitting on the Billboard’s albums chart for the 10th week in a row, the band currently ranks No. 1 on Billboard’s Social 50 chart for the 102nd week in a row and its 132nd week in total.

“Boy With Luv” also broke the Guinness World Records for the most viewed YouTube video in 24 hours, with 74.6 million views.

“We can’t wait to see what record they break next,” Guinness said.

Meanwhile, Netmarble’s mobile game, “BTS World,” became available on Wednesday in 14 languages across 176 countries.

An original song, titled “Heartbeat,” will be available only through the game, for the first 48 hours after its release. BTS will release an EP titled “BTS World OST” on Friday.

Big Hit Entertainment also announced on Wednesday that it will release its third BTS documentary in August.

“‘Bring The Soul: The Movie’ will be released globally on Aug. 7,” the agency said.

The movie follows the boy band’s two earlier movies - “Burn the Stage: The Movie” (2018) and “Love Yourself in Seoul” (2018) - and will feature performances and behind-the-scene footage of BTS during their “Love Yourself” world tour.

By Yoon So-yeon