BTS Just Rewrote Music History — ARMY Celebrates As ARIRANG Conquers the Entire Billboard Global Excl. US Top 10

No one does it like BTS. After nearly four years of military service, hiatus, and solo projects, the seven-member K-pop juggernaut has returned — and they didn't just come back.…

By Reetam Bodhak

March 31, 2026

3 min read

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No one does it like BTS. After nearly four years of military service, hiatus, and solo projects, the seven-member K-pop juggernaut has returned — and they didn’t just come back. They obliterated every record in sight. ARMY, this one’s for the history books.

BTS × Billboard: The Historic Numbers at a Glance

Chart	Achievement
Billboard Global Excl. US	First act EVER to occupy entire Top 10 (+ Top 13)
Billboard Global 200	Claimed Top 9 spots — tied Taylor Swift’s record
Billboard Hot 100	Swim debuts at No. 1 (7th chart-topper)
Billboard 200 (Albums)	ARIRANG debuts at No. 1 (7th album chart-topper)
Equivalent Album Units	641,000 — biggest week of 2026 so far
Vinyl Sales	208,000 copies — massive physical pull
Total Charts Topped	9 Billboard charts in a single week

What Makes This Historic?

On the Global Excl. U.S. chart, BTS placed ten tracks from ARIRANG inside the top 10, becoming the first act in history to occupy the entire chart simultaneously.

The group claimed the top nine spots on the Global 200, tying Taylor Swift for both the most top 10s in a single week and the most titles from No. 1 on down, after songs from her The Tortured Poets Department launched at Nos. 1–9 in May 2024.

On the Global Excl. US chart, the septet held all top 13 spots — dethroning Swift’s nine last year — with all the tracks of the new album except the sixth track, which features the tolling of the Sacred Bell of Great King Seongdeok. FandomWire

ARIRANG — The Comeback Album That Shook the World

ARIRANG debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 641,000 album-equivalent units — the most for any album in one week so far in 2026 — including a staggering 208,000 on vinyl alone. PRIMETIMER

The figure surpasses their previous high set by MAP OF THE SOUL: 7, which opened with 422,000 units in 2020, meaning BTS now hold the three largest debut weeks for any K-pop act in Billboard history.

This is what a real comeback looks like.

Learn more about BTS on Wikipedia — the group that turned K-pop into a global cultural force.

For more K-pop chart records and BTS updates, explore our latest K-pop coverage on Technosports and our ARIRANG album deep-dive.

FAQs

Q: What is BTS’s ARIRANG and when was it released?

ARIRANG is BTS’s first studio album of new material since 2020, released following the group’s return from mandatory military service in South Korea.