BTS' 'Arirang' Is 2026's Spotify Giant, 2 Billion Streams Clear of Olivia Rodrigo

BTS' fifth studio album, Arirang, has topped 5 billion streams on Spotify, making it the platform's most-streamed album released this year. The group's label, BigHit Music, announced the milestone Oct. 14, Yonhap reported.

The lead is a wide one. Arirang sits 2 billion streams ahead of the year's second-place album, Olivia Rodrigo's third studio record, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love. The newest albums from Bruno Mars and Harry Styles have drawn roughly 1 billion and 2 billion streams, respectively.

The numbers hold up across the whole record. Lead track "Swim" is closing in on 1 billion streams, and each of the album's 14 songs has crossed the 200 million mark.

That count includes "No. 29," which consists entirely of the Sacred Bell of King Seongdeok ringing out. The bell is named for a king of Silla, the ancient Korean kingdom that lasted from 57 B.C. to A.D. 935. It may be the least likely 200-million-stream track of the year.

Arirang is the first full-group project from BTS in nearly four years. It arrived after every member had finished mandatory military service and the group reunited, and it pulled in more than 110 million streams on its March 20 release day.

The U.S. charts saw the same thing. Arirang held No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for three straight weeks, the first album by a group to do that since Mumford & Sons' Babel in 2012.

The reunion is making money on the road as well. Yonhap has reported that BTS is the first pop group to pass $500 million in tour ticket sales, and that the group is about to play its first-ever concerts in Peru, where Lima is rolling out a "BTS Avenue."