[Edaily Starin KIM HYUNSIK Reporter] On the 16th, Big Hit Music announced that the group BTS has become the first group in the world to surpass 10 billion cumulative annual plays on the global audio and music streaming platform Spotify.

BTS’s cumulative plays on Spotify this year surpassed 10 billion on this day. This represents an increase of approximately 122% compared to last year’s total annual plays (4.5 billion).
Previously, global solo pop stars such as Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and Bad Bunny had achieved 10 billion annual streams. BTS is the first group to set this record.
Big Hit Music stated, “Their fifth studio album ‘ARIRANG,’ released last March, has been streamed over 5 billion times, driving the group to set a new record of 10 billion streams.”
“ARIRANG” currently holds the record for the most streams on Spotify among albums released this year. It has been streamed approximately 2 billion more times than Olivia Rodrigo’s third studio album, “You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,” which ranks second in the same category.
Meanwhile, BTS won the major award for “Artist of the Year” at the “2026 MTV Video Music Awards Japan” (MTV VMAJ) on the 14th. Last month, the music video for “SWIM,” the title track of their album “Arirang,” was selected as the winner of “Best Group Video/International.” The “MTV VMAJ” is the Japanese version of the “MTV Video Music Awards,” and the main ceremony will be held on the 29th at Tokyo Dome in Japan.