Before:
Bangtan Sonyeondan (BTS), is officially back after a five year hiatus of serving in the Korean military which put a pause on their musical careers. To celebrate their return, there will be a free comeback concert on March 21 at Gwanghwamun Square. This is expected to bring at least 260,000 fans into the area. The expected turnout is 179,897 more people than the entire population of Missoula, which rests at 80,103.
Many fans who are unable to attend will be staying up late in order to watch the live from the comfort of their homes.
Businesses surrounding Gwanghwamun Square predict that they’ll have more customers than on a usual workday. This is due to the predicted amount of fans that will be drawn to the area at the time of the concert.
In result of the predicted turnout, Seoul put a terror level threat in the city as fans are coming in from many places out of the region and country.
The reason government officials and public service workers predicted the huge turnout was related to the fact that BTS is the biggest K-Pop boy group from the past decade. From being nominated for five Grammys to selling out world tours, BTS is one of the fastest growing boy bands ever since One Direction, the Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC.
BTS has also broken at least 25 Guinness World Records, is the most streamed group on Spotify with over 30 billion streams, and has won multiple AMA’s, Billboard Music Awards, and over 74 MAMA Daesang awards (the grand prizes).
Along with their upcoming tour, ARIRANG sold out all 82 shows in the 34 cities that they are performing in. The tour is set to begin on April 9, 2026 and is set to end in March of 2027.
BTS’s new album ARIRANG, the reason for the comeback live and tour, was released on March 20, 2026. HYBE, the company the group is produced and managed under, announced that the group had sold 3.98 million copies on the first day of release without counting pre-orders.
The new album also became Spotify’s most streamed album in a single day; it also holds the new record for the most streamed K-Pop album in Spotify’s history.
During:
On the day of the concert being held in Gwanghwamun Square, ARMY (the BTS fanbase) gathered around Seoul checking out photo ops, swapping freebies, showing off their outfits, and waiting for the return of their favorite band.
However, the turnout for the concert was well under what HYBE had expected, landing at only 104,000 ARMY in attendance. This is 156,000 less than anticipated.
Many businesses and restaurants had planned for a huge rush and prepared more of their product than a typical work day. Due to expecting a surge of customers compared to what actually occurred, many stores spent more money on compiling resources for their product than what they made.
Now, because of the smaller attendance these businesses had spent more than they sold, meaning that they were unable to truly profit off this event.
As far as safety concerns went for the concert, 22,000 real tickets were sold for the show, and the remainder of fans that came to watch in surrounding areas did not have real tickets. However, in the ticketed area, it was recorded that there were 60,000 people in the area.
Keep in mind that this was a concert free of charge, meaning this could have brought in thousands more, justifying the overshoot of ARMY predicted to show up.
Despite many ARMY not showing up to the concert, there were still at least 100,400 there showing their support, as well as another 18.4 million ARMYs watching from home on the Netflix live event.
The Netflix live even charted in the top 10 in 80 different countries and had the number one position in 24 countries. Although the in person comeback wasn’t as crowded as expected, support from those around the world was huge.
Around the world, stores like K-Pop Nara are having events like lucky draws, photocard trading, cupsleeve events, and photozones. Barnes and Noble also had a BTS pop-up with photozones and album purchasing opportunities.
Another big company to have BTS related events would be Target. At Target, ARMYs have the option to purchase the different vinyl with their favorite members on it, the albums, sweatshirts, socks, a tote bag, long sleeve tees, and most importantly, the BTS lightstick.
Due to high demand for the lightstick and Target exclusive albums that come with extra photocards, there were ARMY lining up and camping overnight the day before the album release in order to snag what they wanted from the assortment.
Following the release of the album and comeback live, BTS had even more events to attend. This includes a Spotify x BTS: Swimside event that took place in New York with the top 1,000 listeners of the new album.
At this event, they performed multiple songs off of ARIRANG and had a Q&A that was hosted by singer Suki Waterhouse.
Soon after this event, BTS attended The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for two days of interviews and performances. The return to The Tonight Show is very monumental for BTS as they have been regulars on the Tonight Show each comeback for eight years.
For their comeback on The Tonight Show, they are having two days of performances and interviews marking their return to the U.S. as a group for the first time in four years.
This comeback is not just a huge economic comeback but a cultural comeback. BTS has been a group since 2013, and since then, they paved the way for K-Pop in the United States and many other countries.
BTS returning to work on music as a whole, and not just as solos since military service marks a new point in their careers as they continue to grow and pave the way in the music scene.
