BTS Becomes First Group to Reach 10 Billion Spotify Streams in a Single Year

SEOUL — K-pop group BTS has become the first musical group to accumulate more than 10 billion streams on Spotify in a single calendar year, its label said Friday.

BigHit Music announced that the seven-member group surpassed the milestone as of Oct. 16. Solo artists including Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Bad Bunny have previously exceeded 10 billion annual streams, but no group had done so before, according to the company.

The achievement represents more than a doubling of BTS's Spotify streams from about 4.5 billion in 2025. The primary driver was the group's fifth studio album, "Arirang," released in March. That album alone has generated more than 5 billion streams and ranks as the most-streamed album released on Spotify this year.

"Arirang" marked BTS's first full-group project in nearly four years after all members completed mandatory military service. It surpassed 110 million streams on its release day of March 20. On that day, all 14 tracks from the album occupied the top 14 positions on Spotify's Daily Top Songs Global chart. The title track "SWIM" drew roughly 14 million streams on its first day, the highest single-day total reported for any song released in 2026.

The album also topped the Billboard 200 for three consecutive weeks, the first time a group album has done so since Mumford & Sons' "Babel" in 2012.

BTS is currently on its "Arirang" world tour. The group was scheduled to perform in Santiago, Chile, with additional shows planned in Buenos Aires and São Paulo later this month. The final shows in those cities will be available for live cinema viewings worldwide.

BigHit Music, a subsidiary of HYBE, has not released further details on the exact stream count beyond the 10 billion threshold. Spotify did not immediately comment on the milestone. The record underscores BTS's continued global reach following the members' return from military service and the release of their first full-group album in years.