PREVIOUSLY ON BTS - February 29-March 6: “OH WHAT A SURPRISING WEEK IT WAS”

Records & Successes

@HITSDD, @btschartdata, and @chartdata had our attention. Monday and Tuesday (KST), ARMYs stayed alert to their accounts to find out BTS’s placement “ON” Billboard 200 and Billboard Top 100 Single charts (see what I did there).

It was like Twelvehitphobia all over again, except this time it wasn't @BigHitEnt tweets that ARMYs were awaiting. With cautious anticipation, uneasiness filled our timelines for news from MAP OF THE SOUL:7 and ON’s placement on the charts.

Finally, the news came that MOTS:7 earned number 1 on the Billboard 200 album charts with sales of over 86,000 albums. In usual ARMY style, #86000 started to trend on Twitter along with the phrase WITHOUT BUNDLES, in all caps because pride compelled ARMY to scream it to the Twitter-verse. After all, BTS and ARMY had done something unbelievable and record-breaking.

In this joyful spirit, we entered into the second day of chart news. With heightened expectations and a bit of nervousness, we waited for tweets from HITSDD, @btschartdata, and @chartdata with ARMYs again switching from one Twitter page to the next.

Finally, the notification came: BTS’s single ON debuted on the Billboard at #4…NUMBER FOUR. It was the highest debut single for BTS and the biggest debut single for a South Korean artist. ARMY and BTS had done it again! We achieved what others thought was impossible: entering the Billboard singles 100 charts in the top 5 WITHOUT ANY RADIO PLAY. As you can imagine, this phrase and NO BUNDLES in all caps trended immediately on Twitter. We were proud; this achievement was all because of BTS.

In BTS fashion, there was no boasting or celebratory tweet; only retweets of the news and some of BTS’ official memes. You read that right, BTS earned a no. 1 Album on Billboard 200 and no. 4 on the Billboard Singles 100, and they created and sent out memes for ARMY’s enjoyment. This is just one of the reasons why BTS is so endearing in their own unique way. They said thank you by creating a moment only for BTS and ARMY.

Twelvehitphobia is not over

With the release of the second official MV for ON, the comeback schedule was coming to an end. Or so we thought. Thursday March 5, at 12am KST, a tweet notification from Big Hit Entertainment came across ARMYs’ timeline.

ARMYs were shocked. AN OFFICIAL MV FOR BLACK SWAN!!! Wait, what??? @btschartdata summed it up when they replied to Big Hit’s tweet with the statement, “THIS IS NOT ON COMEBACK MAP.” We couldn’t agree more, we didn’t even have streaming or YouTube goals for this MV.

However, the excitement of the moment outweighed our shock. BLACK SWAN soon raced to be the fastest BTS video to reach 1 MILLION likes, attaining this record in just 28 minutes. Black Swan also achieved 10 million views in less than 24 hours despite its surprise drop.

It’s raining VLIVES

BTS blessed ARMY with FOUR VLIVES this week. First, JIN, SUGA, and Jungkook sat down for a 6-minute video before one of their comeback performances on a Music Show. Although it is a short video, the title “ARMY, we miss you,” told us all that we needed to hear. During the VLIVE, they expressed how much they missed ARMY during their comeback promotion.

Later in the week, we were given another surprise VLIVE with RM and V. This 15-minute live titled “R&V” was filled with conversations about new music and behind the scenes information.

The third VLIVE was an OT7 live titled “2 Days Before MinSuga’s Birthday”. This time ARMY was blessed with the top tier BTS chaotic energy we love. As the title suggested, BTS did, in fact, celebrate SUGA’s birthday 2 days early by singing the birthday song, creating a pretend birthday cake with candles on the spot, and SUGA being asked by Jin to blow the candles out.

The fourth VLIVE shared by BTS this week was with the roommates j-hope and Jimin, entitled “Live before the last music show.” In the VLIVE, j-hope mentioned how funny Jimin has been lately, with Jimin replying that j-hope would have to live with him forever. In closing, they shared how much they missed ARMY during the promotion, and although this was the last music show for their comeback, they will see ARMY soon again.

The Wins & Records Keep Coming

Number Ones

As of the release of this blog, BTS’ album, MOTS:7 has attained over 20 number ones on multiple global charts worldwide, including the top 10 music industry in the world. It has also attained over 95 no 1s on iTunes worldwide and had success with b-side tracks from MOTS:7.

Clean Sweep

BTS won at every music show during their promotion with eight no.1s. ON is currently tied with IDOL with these 8 wins, and looks to be on the way to surpassing it as the weeks continue.

That’s BILLION with a “B”!

We also learned this week that BTS has achieved ONE BILLION combined streams on Spotify. Who could have imagined this achievement happening all these years ago? But because of BTS and ARMY power, we are not surprised. During this week, BTS won the award for the most-streamed K-POP Male Artist, at the Spotify Awards.

Two Weeks

With just two weeks since its release, MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 is already eligible for Gold in the US, with 500k sales already being attained.

BTS Against BTS

This week proved that BTS is BTS’s only competition on the charts, both in South Korea and internationally. With ON and Black Swan vying for the top spot during SBSNOW Inkigayo, there currently isn’t anyone else who has this strength. Then we learned the MV for ON has replaced the MV for “‘ON’ Kinetic Manifesto Film” as the no. 1 song on YouTube Global charts. See what I mean, ARMY?

The Power of ARMY

Japanese & Korean ARMYs all showed their power this week, too. On the Hanteo Charts, J-ARMYs charted BTS’s entire discography from 2013 to the present day, taking the spots from no. 1 to 10 on the chart. While K-ARMY earlier this week recharted MAP OF THE SOUL:7 on the top 20 of the Melon Chart, as they turned their heartbreaking disappointment of the MOTS:7 tour cancellation into positive actions.

Well Fed ARMY

This week we also got new music with Jimin and Jungkook featuring on Lauv’s new song WHO. In the meantime, K-media reported that V will release an original soundtrack for the successful JBTC series “Itaewon Class,” starring Taehyung’s “Hwarang'' co-star and great friend Park Seo-Joon.

Along with this information, BTS also gave us multiple Bangtan Bombs, tons of music show performances, and many social media interactions via Twitter and Weverse. In other words, just another week of ARMYING with BTS.

Written by: Lee

Edited by: Marcie and Hel B.

Designed by: Achan

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