The figure is not 15 million copies sold. Chartmasters counts equivalent album units, which combine album purchases, singles and streaming. The same tracker puts the album’s pure sales at roughly 5.5 million. These are estimates compiled by an independent tracker, not an official certification. In Chartmasters’ October ranking, no other 2026 album had passed 6 million units. CORTIS’ GREENGREEN was second, more than 9 million units behind Arirang.
Arirang arrived on March 20 after a hiatus of three years and nine months, and sold 3.98 million copies on its first day, according to Hanteo Chart. It finished its first week at about 4.17 million copies, beating the group’s previous record of 3.37 million set by Map of the Soul: 7 in 2020. It also topped Apple Music’s album charts in 115 countries and regions. In the United States, it made BTS the first K-pop act to hold No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for two consecutive weeks.
The opening week alone does not explain the record. Arirang’s first week ranks only fourth on the all-time K-pop list, behind Seventeen’s Seventeenth Heaven, Stray Kids’ 5-STAR and Seventeen’s FML. The title came from how long the album kept selling and streaming.
Chartmasters’ own numbers show that shift. By May 21 the album stood at 10.18 million equivalent sales, with streaming units (4.49 million) nearly matching studio album units (5.43 million). Its pure sales, 5.48 million, sit just 5,000 units behind Map of the Soul: 7, at 5.485 million, in Chartmasters’ breakdown. In other words, streaming made up the difference over BTS' earlier peak.