NEW YORK, NY - FEBRUARY 21: BTS seen at the today show on February 21, 2020 in New York City. ... [+] (Photo by Raymond Hall/GC Images)
GC ImagesMost superstars hope to make history with their new albums after the first full week of availability has passed, as that is typically the amount of time musicians need to sell a lot of music or earn enough streams to grab headlines and do what few before them have managed.
BTS doesn’t need to wait that long. In fact, they only need a few hours, at least in their home country of South Korea.
Yesterday (February 21), the band finally gave their fans their new album Map of the Soul: 7, which listeners have been craving ever since it was officially confirmed earlier this year. Those who love the seven-member vocal group wasted no time in picking up the set, and they did so in such massive numbers, the group has now made history in a handful of ways after only a few hours.
First Album To Sell Two Million Copies
In its first day of availability in South Korea, BTS shattered the previously-set record for the most copies sold in a single day, and they were able to do so in only a few hours. The group’s new set Map of the Soul: 7 was purchased just over 2.653 million times in six hours in the Asian nation, which is not only a new best showing, it’s not even close to the previous high point.
The band’s 2019 release Map of the Soul: Persona managed to sell just under 1.5 million copies when it was first unleashed last spring. Now, the group has bested their own record by over one million sales, an incredible raising of the bar.
Map of the Soul: 7 now stands as the only album in South Korean history to sell two million copies in a single day.
Second Album To Sell One Million Copies
Map of the Soul: 7 may be the only effort to move two million copies in one day (and in under than a full 24 hours, no less), but it’s not the only title that’s reached a seven-digit sales figure as it arrives. As is mentioned above, BTS’s Map of the Soul: Persona sold nearly a million and a half units when it first appeared in April 2019. At the time, the effort became the first in South Korea to sell at least one million units in a single day.
The Three Biggest Opening Days
On the list of the albums that have enjoyed the largest first-day sales counts, according to Hanteo, a company that provides real-time sales data for the South Korean music industry, BTS’s name appears not only at the top, but in the three highest positions. Their two most recent releases, Map of the Soul: 7 and Map of the Soul: Persona have managed to both move over one million copies in a single day, while a previous release, Love Yourself: Tear sold just over 450,000 copies in its opening 24 hours, which currently stands as the third-most impressive first day.