BTS becomes first group to surpass 10 billion Spotify streams in a single year

BTS has set yet another unprecedented record — one that goes beyond K-pop to stand alone in music history.

The group surpassed 10 billion cumulative streams on Spotify this year alone, their agency Big Hit Music said Friday. The milestone means listeners around the world have played BTS songs more than 10 billion times over the past 10 months.

Reaching 10 billion streams in a single calendar year had previously been the domain of solo superstars such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and Bad Bunny. BTS is the first group in history to achieve the feat. Their stream count this year surged 122 percent compared with last year.

The primary driver of that growth is "Arirang," the group's fifth full-length studio album released in March, which has racked up more than 5 billion streams to rank first among all new releases worldwide this year. Even "No. 29," an instrumental track featuring only the sound of the Emille Bell — a historic Korean bronze bell — crossed 200 million streams. The title track "SWIM" is closing in on 1 billion streams. It drew roughly 14 million plays on its first day alone, the highest single-day figure for any song released in 2026.

"Arirang" also holds the record for the most-streamed album released this year, outpacing second-place Olivia Rodrigo's third album — which has logged around 3 billion streams — by roughly 2 billion plays.