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Fueled by 'Arirang,' the band's first full-group album in nearly four years, BTS more than doubled last year's 4.5 billion streams.
BTS has passed 10 billion Spotify streams in a single year, making it the first group anywhere to reach that total, BigHit Music said on Oct. 16, Yonhap reported.
The label pointed out that solo stars, among them Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Bad Bunny, have crossed the 10 billion line before, but no group had. The climb is steep: BTS songs drew 4.5 billion Spotify streams last year, so this year's count has more than doubled.
Most of that growth comes from Arirang, the band's fifth studio album, released in March. Yonhap reported that the album has drawn more than 5 billion streams on its own, the most on Spotify for any album released this year. It opened with more than 110 million streams on March 20.
Arirang is also BTS's first full-group project in nearly four years, released after every member finished mandatory military service. In the U.S., it held No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for three straight weeks, Yonhap noted. No album by a group had done that since Mumford & Sons' Babel in 2012.
The album's world tour is moving just as fast. BigHit Music said on Oct. 19 that "BTS The City Arirang" will end its 2026 run in Singapore, Korea JoongAng Daily reported. The citywide program runs Dec. 1 through 31, the longest edition of the series so far and its only stop in Southeast Asia.
The project started in Seoul in March, when the tour launched, and has since passed through Las Vegas, London and New York City, with community events built around each host city. In Singapore, the Singapore Tourism Board is a partner, and landmarks around Marina Bay and the Singapore River will glow red, the album's signature color.
The program leads into four BTS concerts at the National Stadium on Dec. 17, 19, 20 and 22. No other city on the Asia leg of the tour has as many dates.
"We look forward to welcoming BTS fans from across the world to Singapore this December," Oliver Chong said.
Before then, the tour, which runs through March 2027, stops in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Nov. 19.
First Read lands Monday at 7 a.m. ET with the week's biggest stories. The Weekend Lexicon rounds it all up on Saturday.
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