BTS' 'Arirang' hits 5 bln Spotify streams, topping 2026 releases

Seoul, Oct. 14 (Yonhap) -- BigHit Music announced on Wednesday that BTS's fifth studio album, Arirang, has crossed the 5 billion-stream mark on Spotify, becoming the most-streamed album of 2026. The record-setting album surpassed the second-place album, Olivia Rodrigo's third studio release You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, by 2 billion streams.

Arirang outpaced recent albums from global pop stars Bruno Mars and Harry Styles, which accumulated around 1 billion and 2 billion streams, respectively. The album's lead single, Swim, is closing in on 1 billion streams, while all 14 tracks on the collection have topped 200 million streams. Notably, No. 29, a solo track featuring the ancient Korean Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok, has also achieved 200 million streams.

Arirang gained significant traction as the first full-group project from the K-pop powerhouse in nearly four years, released after its members completed their mandatory military service and reunited. The album surged past 110 million streams on its March 20 debut and became the first group album to top the Billboard 200, the leading U.S. albums chart, for three straight weeks since Mumford & Sons' Babel in 2012.