Face it: It's only a matter of time before each and every one of us falls in love with BTS, so you may as well stop fighting it and hop on the ARMY bandwagon. If I had to guess what, exactly, it is that's enthralled so many unsuspecting fans over the past few years, it has to be the band's mix of talent, charm, and authenticity — a combination truly hard to come by. While BTS makes every intricate dance move and angelic high note look like it was effortlessly achieved, these guys work countless hours perfecting each and every one of their performances and continue to push themselves to do more. It's no wonder they keep shattering expectations left and right. These 20 records BTS has broken show BTS' non-stop effort and dedication is truly paying off.
From YouTube and the Billboard charts to Spotify, SoundCloud, and the music award show circuit, BTS has essentially taken over every platform imaginable. But it takes two to break records: the artist and their fans. BTS has a lot of fans, and gain new ones every day, which means they'll likely be breaking more records with their next comeback (whenever that is *sob*). Until then, let's appreciate these 20 records BTS has broken so far.
BTS Love Yourself: Tear, released in May 2018, immediately topped the Billboard 200 chart, becoming the first K-Pop album to do so, and only the second K-Pop album to crack the top 10 overall.
When Love Yourself: Tear reached No. 1 in May 2018, it became the first foreign-language No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 in 12 years. The last foreign-language album to reach No. 1 was II Divo's Ancora album in 2006.
BTS' lead single from Love Yourself: Tear, "Fake Love," debuted at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, making BTS the first K-Pop group ever to have a Top 10 hit on the chart. Since then, BTS topped themselves when their April 2019 single, "Boy With Luv" debuted at No. 8.
A week after BTS dropped Love Yourself: Tear on May 18, the group went from being No. 4 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart to No. 1. According to Billboard, the Artist 100 chart "measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity."
After Love Yourself: Answer went No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in August 2018, BTS earned a third No. 1 album with Map of the Soul: Persona in April 2019.
Love Yourself: Tear, Love Yourself: Answer, and Map of the Soul: Persona were all released and hit No. 1 within 12 months, which is a huge achievement. The last group to do so was The Beatles, who had three No. 1 albums between November 1995 and October 2016.
After BTS' Love Yourself: Tear, Love Yourself: Her, and Love Yourself: Answer reached No. 8, No. 14, and No. 14 respectively on U.K.'s Official Album chart, the band finally hit No. 1 with Map of the Soul: Persona in April 2019 — the first Korean act to do so.
BTS' Love Yourself trilogy ended with a bang, as Love Yourself: Answer recorded half a million units and helped BTS become the first Korean act to receive a gold album certification by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Less than three months after BTS released Love Yourself: Answer on Aug. 24, 2018, Love Yourself: Answer recorded 2.03 million sales on Korea’s Gaon Music Chart (basically Korea's version of the Billboard charts), making it the highest-selling album in history in Korea.
BTS is the first K-Pop group and the first Asian artist overall to surpass 5 billion streams on Spotify. The feat coincided with the release of Map of the Soul: Persona.
On Oct. 2, Forbes reported that BTS' "Boy With Luv," featuring Halsey, was played on Spotify almost 285 million times, making it the most-streamed K-Pop song ever on the platform.
After performing at the American Music Awards in 2017, BTS became the first Korean act to ever be nominated for an AMA when they were recognized in the Favorite Social Artist category in 2018. They went on to become the first K-Pop group nominated for a main award when they landed a Favorite Duo or Group nomination in 2019.
In May, BTS' joint Twitter account, @BTS_twt, became the first Korean account to hit 20 million followers. BTS' second Twitter account, @BTS_bighit, wasn't too far behind with over 15 million followers.
Since BTS is the first Korean account to reach 20 million followers, that makes BTS the most-followed Twitter account in Korea as well. In fact, BTS and Big Hit Entertainment hold the top three spots on the list for the most-followed Twitter accounts in Korea.
There's a reason Justin Bieber tweeted, "Now watch this tweet go crazy," after he wished BTS' Jungkook a happy birthday on Twitter. According to BBC, with each BTS tweet "having an average of 330,624 retweets, replies, likes or other interactions," BTS has the most Twitter engagements ever. Harry Styles previously held the record with 147,653 engagements per tweet.
BTS may have debuted in 2013, but it wasn't until 2017 when they really started skyrocketing to unprecedented levels of international fame. Besides appearing at the Billboard Music Awards and winning Top Social Artist that year, they became the most tweeted-about celebrity in 2017. They also took the title in 2018, while Jimin took the No. 8 spot solo.
On top of being the most-tweeted-about celebrity of 2018, BTS also hold the record for having the most-liked tweet of the year: a video of J-Hope doing Drake's "In My Feelings" challenge.
BTS sent their fans into a frenzy when they joined TikTok on Sept. 25, 2019. Fans quickly followed BTS on the platform, and on Oct. 23, the Guinness World Records organization announced that BTS gained one million TikTok followers in record-time: 3 hours and 31 minutes.
BTS' appearance at the 2019 Grammy Awards was historic, as they were the first Korean act to present an award on the show. The group handed over Best R&B album to H.E.R, whom they are big fans of. If their history with award shows is anything to go by, we may see BTS become the first K-Pop artist to win a Grammy one day as well!
Those were just 20 records BTS has broken, but I know there are wayyyy more. If I were to go through all of them, it would take forever, especially because it seems these guys will keep breaking records every day.