New BTS album BE achieves impressive first week sales

Seoul — The latest album of South Korean boy band BTS called BE is doing very well.

The Hanteo Chart announced on Friday (Nov 27) that BE (Deluxe Edition) has sold 2,2274,882 copies in its first week (from Nov 20 to 26). The album has now officially achieved the second-highest first-week sales in Hanteo Chart history, while the group’s previous album Map Of The Soul: 7 sold 3,378,633 copies in its first week.

The figure achieved by BE (Deluxe Edition) is especially impressive considering that,  unlike the group’s previous albums, which came in multiple versions, there is only one version of the album available for purchase thus far — and it comes with a significantly higher price tag than Map Of The Soul: 7.

BTS is currently estimated to have made approximately 89 billion won (S$107 million) from the first-week sales of BE (Deluxe Edition), according to Korean news outlet Sports Today.

BTS just dropped their latest album BE on Nov 22 and tens of millions of fans rushed to listen to the K-pop sensation’s highly anticipated album.

The video for first track Life Goes On had been viewed almost 20 million times on YouTube three hours after BE was made available on a simultaneous worldwide release. The song offers a message of hope in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This is the best thing that has happened this year,” wrote one fan, among more than 560,000 comments.

“Just when I was starting to feel like trash again and wanting to leave this world, BTS drops this album,” another added.

“Their music saved me so many times and it still continues to do so.”

Since their debut in 2013, BTS has achieved global superstardom, performing in a number of sold-out shows in Los Angeles, Paris and London last year.

The seven-member boy band gained further recognition worldwide when their all-English single Dynamite entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number one in August, making them the first South Korean act to top the US chart.

Last month, their label Big Hit Entertainment made a multi-billion-won stock market debut, raising 963 billion won (S$840 million). /TISG