This list is mostly comprised of BTS’s recent sales and streaming accomplishments on the Billboard charts from 2017 on. There is a separate page for all of their streaming and sales achievements in South Korea. There are several reasons why this page starts at 2018. The first is that my main news resource is Soompi, and they didn’t start extensively summarizing charts like Billboard until 2018. And – perhaps most importantly – there are so many BTS related posts on Soompi that the website malfunctions and won’t let me check any BTS news past 2017.
This is not a complete list – it is as comprehensive as possible, but not complete. There are so many Billboard charts that BTS ranks on these days, and it seems like each ranking comes with a new accomplishment. It’s really a lot for me to keep track of – I’m only one person – so I’ve tried to keep it to the highlights. This page mostly covers popular charts like the Billboard 200, the Hot 100, and several others that K-pop artists don’t typically appear on. (K-pop artists tend to be on anything that is “World” or “Global” all the time – BTS in particular – so I’ve mostly skipped those because there are way too many to note.) BTS also tends to break their own records a lot, so I might only mention what the latest record is and not every single time they ever broke it. If you want further details, you can read the articles I linked in my bullet point lists and/or in the source notes.
BTS’s Billboard Accomplishments in Previous Years
Click on the year in the table to go the designated page.
BTS’s Billboard Accomplishments in 2020
“ON” / Map of the Soul: 7
- “Black Swan,” the pre-release for this comeback period, charted at #57 on the Hot 100. It also topped the World Digital Song Sales chart and placed #2 on the Digital Song Sales chart.
- Map of the Soul: 7 is BTS’s 4th album to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200. It also had the biggest debut week of any album by a group since One Direction released “Made in the A.M.” in 2015. It ranked within the Top 40 for its first ten weeks on the chart.
- Besides “ON” debuting at #4 on the Hot 100, Jungkook’s solo song “My Time” debuted at #84 and Jimin’s solo song “Filter” debuted at #87. “ON” moved to #68 in its second week.
- BTS took over the Top 10 of the World Digital Song Sales chart with tracks from Map of the Soul: 7, and all of the albums songs managed to place within the Top 25.
- Map of the Soul: 7 was listed on Billboard‘s article “The 50 Best Albums of 2020 (So Far): Staff Picks.”
| Time Spent on Billboard 200 | Chart Ranking |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | #1 |
| Week 2 | #3 |
| Week 3 | #8 |
| Week 4 | #11 |
| Week 5 | #24 |
| Week 6 | #25 |
| Week 7 | #37 |
| Week 8 | #28 |
| Week 9 | #33 |
| Week 10 | #36 |
(Map of the Soul: 7 has almost definitely continued to chart on the Billboard 200 for more than ten weeks – I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s still been charting all this time – but the Soompi summary articles I use only thoroughly cover up until this point.)
“Dynamite”
- “Dynamite” debuted at #30 on the Pop Songs (Radio Airplay) chart, which is currently BTS’s highest debut on said chart. After spending several months rising in the rankings, it reached #5. Not only is that BTS’s highest ranking on the Pop Songs chart, but it also set a record as the highest ranking for any Korean group.
- “Dynamite”made history when it debuted at #1 on the Hot 100, becoming the highest ranking on the chart by a fully Korean group. It went on to accumulate three #1 rankings in total. It has also spent fifteen weeks on the chart, making it both BTS’s longest-charting song on the Hot 100 and the longest-charting song on the Hot 100 by a Korean group.
- BTS also topped the new Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global 200 Excl. U.S. charts with “Dynamite,” becoming the first artist to top them along with the Hot 100 in one week.
- “Dynamite” was BTS’s first entry on the Radio Songs chart when it debuted at #49, and it became BTS’s first Top 40 hit when it rose up to #39. It also became BTS’s first Top 10 hit and set a record for highest ranking song by a Korean artist, passing “Gangnam Style” at #12.
| Time Spent on Hot 100 | Chart Ranking |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | #1 |
| Week 2 | #1 |
| Week 3 | #2 |
| Week 4 | #2 |
| Week 5 | #1 |
| Week 6 | #2 |
| Week 7 | #2 |
| Week 8 | #5 |
| Week 9 | #7 |
| Week 10 | #12 |
| Week 11 | #16 |
| Week 12 | #17 |
| Week 13 | #14 |
| Week 14 | #3 |
| Week 15 | #10 |
| Week 16 | #24 |
| Week 17 | #9 |
| Week 18 | #44 |
“Life Goes On” / BE
- BE was BTS’s fifth album to debut at #1 on the Billboard 200, making BTS the first and only Korean artist to have five different albums reach #1 on the chart. They also accomplished this feat pretty quickly, in about two and a half years. The only other group to get five #1 albums so quickly was The Beatles in the 1960s.
- “Life Goes On” debuted at #1 on the Hot 100. This is BTS’s third song to reach #1 on this chart after “Dynamite” and “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” (see “Other Items of Note” below).
- “Life Goes On” is the first non-English song – and first (mostly) Korean song – to reach and debut at #1.
- BTS is the first group to have two songs debut at #1 on the Hot 100. (I guess “Savage Love” doesn’t count because it’s a remix.)
- The last group to have three #1 songs on the chart so quickly was the Bee Gees back in the 1970s.
- The last group to get their first three #1 songs so quickly was the Beatles back in the 1960s.
- All of the songs on BE debuted on the Hot 100 (except for “Skit,” which technically isn’t a song). “Blue & Grey” was #13, “Stay” #22, “Fly to My Room” #69, “Telepathy” #70, and “Dis-ease” #72. Along with “Life Goes On” at #1 and “Dynamite” at #3, that totals seven songs on that week’s chart.
- “Life Goes On” also topped the Global 200 and the Global Excl. US charts.
- BTS became the first artist in history to simultaneously hold the Top 6 spots on the Digital Song Sales chart when all of the songs on BE debuted on it (except for “Skit”). “Life Goes On” topped the chart and was followed “Blue & Grey,” “Stay,” “Telepathy,” “Dis-ease,” and “Fly to My Room.” “Dynamite” ranked at #8.
NOTE: All Billboard 200 rankings in the chart below refer to BE (as the chart ranks albums). All Hot 100 rankings refer to the title track “Life Goes On” (as the chart ranks songs).
| Billboard 200 Ranking (album) | Hot 100 Ranking (song) | |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | #1 | #1 |
| Week 2 | #3 | #28 |
| Week 3 | #18 | #93 |
| Week 4 | #19 | |
| Week 5 | #26 |
Other Items of Note
- In early 2020, BTS passed Justin Bieber to become the artist with the most weeks at #1 on the Social 50 chart. (Justin Bieber’s previous record was 163 non-consecutive weeks.) They have since passed 200 non-consecutive weeks at #1 and continue to extend their record.
- BTS is the first artist in Billboard‘s history to have 20 #1 songs on the World Digital Song Sales Chart. They have since added several other songs to that total, and will probably continue to do so with the release of their latest album.
- Love Yourself: Tear became the first Korean album to spend over 100 weeks on the World Albums Chart (non-consecutively), followed shortly by Love Yourself: Answer. This means that BTS is the first and only Korean artist to have more than two albums on the World Albums Chart for more than 100 weeks.
- BTS’s fourth Japanese album, Map of the Soul: 7 ~The Journey~ debuted at #115 on the Billboard 200. When the physical edition became available for sale sometime later, it rose to #14.
- BTS ranked #74 on “The 100 Greatest Music Video Artists of All Time: Staff List.”
- The remix of “Savage Love (Laxed – Siren Beat)” featuring BTS ranked #1 on the Hot 100, becoming BTS’s second song to top the chart.
- BTS’s re-release of Skool Luv Affair Special Addition debuted at #12 on the Billboard 200.
Year End Chart Rankings (2020)
- “Dynamite” set a record for the highest ranking on the year end Hot 100 by a Korean artist by coming in at #38, beating out “Gangnam Style” which peaked at #47.
- As of 2020, BTS has been #1 on the year end Social 50 Artists four years in a row.
- Big Hit Entertainment also ended up on several year end charts:
- #1 Digital Song Sales Imprints
- #4 Digital Song Sales Labels
- #2 Independent Imprints
- #3 Independent Labels
- #1 World Album Imprints
- #1 World Album Labels
| Billboard 2020 Chart | Ranking |
|---|---|
| Hot 100 Songs | #38 (“Dynamite”) |
| Hot 100 Artists | #42 |
| Hot 100 Artists – Duo/Group | #3 |
| Top Artists | #18 |
| Top Artists – Duo/Group | #1 |
| Billboard 200 | #20 (Map of the Soul: 7) #156 (Love Yourself: Answer) |
| Billboard 200 Artists | #18 |
| Billboard 200 Artists – Duo/Group | #1 |
| Digital Song Sales | #1 (“Dynamite”) #44 (“ON”) |
| Digital Song Sales Artists | #1 |
| On-Demand Streaming Songs | #50 (“Dynamite”) |
| Pop Songs | #45 (“Dynamite”) |
| Independent Albums | #2 (Map of the Soul: 7) #13 (Love Yourself: Answer) |
| Independent Artists | #2 |
| Top Album Sales | #3 (Map of the Soul: 7) |
| Top Album Sales Artists | #2 |
| Top Current Albums Sales | #3 (Map of the Soul: 7) #36 (Map of the Soul: Persona) #81 (Map of the Soul: 7 ~The Journey~) #106 (BTS World OST) #167 (Love Yourself: Answer) |
| Social 50 Artists | #1 |
| Tastemakers Albums | #2 (Map of the Soul: 7) |
| World Albums | #1 (Map of the Soul: 7) #2 (Love Yourself: Answer) #6 (Map of the Soul: Persona) #9 (Map of the Soul: 7 ~The Journey~) #10 (Love Yourself: Tear) #13 (BTS World OST) #14 (You Never Walk Alone) |
| World Albums Artists | #1 |
SOURCES: Billboard (1) (2), Soompi*
*For “ON” and Map of the Soul: 7 (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14)
*For “Dynamite” : (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) (22)
*For “Life Goes On” and BE: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
*For other items of note: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9)
*For year end chart rankings: (1)
Cover Image is of BTS performing at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards. The original photo was published in this article by People.
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