10. BTS were one of two artists to sell half a million copies of an album in the US

According to Nielsen Music’s annual report, only two albums racked up at least 500,000 sales in 2020, and they were Taylor Swift’s Folklore and BTS’s Map of the Soul: 7.

Map of the Soul: 7 sold 674k copies.

9. BTS have *all* the awards

To date, BTS have won 283 awards out of 499 nominations.

8. BTS are a literal national treasure

As a brand, BTS are extremely valuable. They’re so influential, that reps at the Hyundai Research Institute told AFP they bring about $3.6 billion to the South Korean economy.

The institute also found that about 800,000 visitors visited South Korea because of BTS every year. That’s more than 70% of the country’s annual tourists.

If that wasn’t enough, researchers estimate the septet will generate an economic value of $37 billion over the next decade!

7. If BTS fans were to form a real army, there would be enough people for at least 18 armies

The BTS fans call themselves the ARMY, which stands for “Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth”.

There were 18 million unique authors mentioning BTS online between January 1 2020 and December 31 2020. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, an army generally includes between 400,000 and 1,000,000 soldiers. So, if we take unique authors and Britannica’s army figures, 18 armies is a pretty conservative estimate.

6. BTS’s mentions are on fire

Over the period this social data was observed – January 2013 to December 2020 – there were 2,395,082,950 mentions of BTS. That’s an average of 958,597 mentions daily – aka a lot of social conversation.

5. BTS fans love a hashtag

Well don’t we all? But this ARMY is primed for social media. Hashtags are used in a majority of posts; with #bts and #btsarmy leading the pack.

4. @BTS_twt (the band’s official account) has an influencer score of 94

That makes them one of the most influential accounts on Twitter, and are certainly the most influential K-pop band on Twitter.

They’ve more than 30.9 million followers at the time of writing.

You can read more about influential Twitter accounts and influencer scores right here.

3. Fans bought into the band

In October, Big Hit Entertainment (BTS’ record company) went public. The move allowed die-hard fans to finally buy a share of their favorite band — kind of.

When we checked it out in our post (K-pop Goes Public), we found that the news generated nearly a million online mentions in itself, and, while it’s a pretty novel prospect to buy into a band in this way, it seems to have paid off.

Vulture reported: “The BTS boys became millionaires today with an impressive initial public offering of 135,000 won for label Big Hit Entertainment. That’s approximately $115 per share — the biggest South Korean market debut in over three years — which values the label at over $4 billion.

“Each member of BTS got 68,385 shares from Big Hit CEO and producer Bang Si-hyuk in August, putting $7.9 million in their pockets with Big Hit’s September 28 debut.”

2. Dynamite: A record breaking year

BTS bagged seven Guinness World Records in 2020, breaking their own world record for the number of Guinness World Records they’ve broken in a single year.

• Most weeks at No.1 on Billboard Social 50 chart
• Most viewers for a music concert live stream
• Best-selling album in South Korea
• Most viewed YouTube music video in 24 hours by a K-pop group
• Most viewed YouTube music video in 24 hours
• Most viewed YouTube video in 24 hours
• Most “daesang” (“grand prize”) awards won at the Mnet Asian Music Awards

YouTube is not the only place BTS smashed a record with “Dynamite.” The song also set a new record on Spotify. On Aug. 21, “Dynamite” debuted at No. 1 on Spotify’s daily Global Top 50 chart.

The song achieved 7,778,950 streams within a day, and beat Taylor Swift’s previous record of 7.742 million streams with “Cardigan.” Now, BTS holds the title for the biggest Spotify debut of 2020.

1. BTS, Big Hit Entertainment, and BTS fans donated millions to charity in 2020

Back in June, BTS and Big Hit Entertainment donated $1m to Black Lives Matter in the US, as reported by Variety. The ARMY subsequently crowdfunded and matched that figure in 24 hours by using #MatchAMillion.

BTS, and Big Hit Entertainment, also donated $1m to Live Nation’s Crew campaign, which intended to help crew workers suddenly out of a job when the pandemic started. The band also donated $333k for coronavirus relief efforts in South Korea, meanwhile, J-Hope donated $84.4k to South Korean charity ChildFund for children in need.

The band and their label are keen on their philanthropy, as are the ARMY.