BTS's New Album 'Arirang' Surpasses 4 Million Pre-Orders

BTS 'Arirang' Release Announcement. Provided by Big Hit Music

Big Hit Music announced on January 23 that pre-orders for BTS's new album have surpassed 4 million copies within just one week.

According to album distributor YG Plus, BTS's fifth full-length album "Arirang," which began pre-sales on January 16, exceeded 4.06 million pre-orders as of January 22. This breaks the group's previous record set by their fourth studio album "Map of the Soul: 7," which was their best-selling album to date. "Map of the Soul: 7" recorded 3.42 million pre-orders within one week of pre-sale in 2020 and later surpassed 5 million copies sold, based on Circle Chart data.

On the same day, the fan platform Weverse reported that the number of membership sign-ups tripled following announcements of the new album release and the upcoming world tour. On the music streaming platform Spotify, the new album surpassed 2 million pre-saves within four days of the pre-save launch. There is growing interest in whether BTS will break Taylor Swift's all-time record of 6 million pre-saves, set with her twelfth studio album "The Life of a Showgirl."

"Arirang" marks BTS's first album as a complete group in three and a half years and is set to be released at 1 p.m. on March 20. The new album explores universal emotions such as the group's identity and longing.