One song even broke five Guinness World Records, four of which are for the accompanying music reel.
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K-Pop group BTS has been setting—and breaking—records every time they release new music. From consistently topping music charts to selling millions of physical albums, the seven-member act, which has RM, V, J-Hope, Jin, Jimin, Suga, and Jungkook, is simply unstoppable.
The group has been particularly powerful in music video streaming, too, raking in millions of views in a matter of minutes thanks to their passionate fans collectively called ARMY.
Here’s a look at the group’s most-viewed music videos and the records they broke.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
The lead single of their second studio album, Wings, Blood, Sweat & Tears and the accompanying music video were instant hits on Youtube.
Not only did it garner 6.3 million views in just 24 hours, it also became the fastest music video by a K-Pop group to earn 10 million views within 42 hours of release.
The clip, which featured symbolism-heavy shots and backdrops, also received Best music Video at the 2017 Seoul Music Awards and was nominated for the same category at the Mnet Asian Music Awards.
At the moment, the video has 764 million views on the video-sharing platform.
DNA
From their album, Love Yourself: Her, “DNA” is the first music video from BTS to reach one billion views. It made them the third Korean act to achieve the feat, next to Psy and Blackpink.
In just 24 hours, the music video has been watched 22 million times, making it the most viewed video by a K-Pop group at the time. It also became the fastest K-pop video to earn 100 million views, which it did in just 24 days. All of this was on top of a US television debut at the 2017 American Music Awards.
Fake Love
Released in 2018 and part of the album called Love Yourself: Tear, Fake Love became the most-watched music video on Youtube within 24 hours at the time.
It garnered 35.9 million views, which surpassed the record of 22.3 million views the group also set through their previous release, DNA. In just eight days, views already reached 100 million, also breaking their 24-day record with DNA.
At the moment, the music reel is about 35 million views shy from reaching 1 billion views.
Idol
The follow-up to Fake Love via the album, Love Yourself: Answer, Idol was viewed 56 million times within a day of its release.
It became the most watched K-pop group music video at the time, beating the records set by both Blackpink for Ddu-du Ddu-du and Taylor Swift for Look What You Made Me Do. In just five days, the music video earned 100 million views, the fastest of any video on Youtube to do so.
Today, the video’s view count needs only 40 million more to get to one billion views.
Boy With Luv
The lead single of their sixth EP, Map of the Soul: Persona, “Boy With Luv,” which also features American singer-songwriter Halsey, is the second music video from BTS to surpass 1 billion views, just 18 months after the release.
It also became the most watched music video just 24 hours after its release, garnering 74.6 million views. Ten hours later, that count went up to 100 million, making it the fastest music reel to do so at the time. It held the record of the fastest-liked video on the platform, too, with a total of 3 million likes in just two hours.
Dynamite
Notwithstanding a pandemic, BTS kept on breaking records with Dynamite, their first song fully-recorded in English.
Apart from giving the group its first Billboard No. 1 and their first-ever Grammy nomination, the accompanying music video for the song garnered 10 million views within 20 minutes of release. It also set the record for the most viewed music video in just 24 hours, with a whopping 101.1 million views. In April 2021, the music reel surpassed one billion views, the third clip from BTS to do so.
Life Goes On
Apart from selling over two million copies of their album, BE, Life Goes On also went on to break more Youtube records.
Within 40 minutes of debut, the Jungkook-directed music video for the song garnered over 10 million views and 1 million likes. Just 24 hours later, the view count went up to 67 million. Its Youtube Premiere also attracted 3.2 million concurrent viewers, which went past the number of concurrent viewers for the music video premiere for their all-English track Dynamite.
Butter
Just when we think BTS has set and broken all possible records, the group raised the bar even higher with Butter. The song broke five Guinness World Records, four of which are for the accompanying music reel.
The music video for the song peaked at 3.9 million concurrent viewers for its premiere on May 21, setting the record for the most viewers for the premiere of a music clip and of any video on Youtube. They now hold the top two spots for the biggest premieres on the platform to date, the second being Dynamite, which had 3 million concurrent viewers.
Butter also broke Youtube records for 24-hour views. The reel earned 108.2 million views just a day after its release, also beating their 101.1 million view record for Dynamite. This made Butter the most viewed music video on the platform by a K-Pop act and by any artist.
