BTS Win Two Honors in Oricon’s First-Half 2024 Summary Chart… “Honored and Happy”

[Edaily Starin reporter Kim Hyunsik] The group BTS has won two awards on Japan's Oricon first-half summary chart.

According to the first-half summary chart announced by Oricon on the 25th (tallying period: December 8, 2025 to June 7, 2026), BTS took first place in both the Album Ranking and Combined Album Ranking categories with their fifth full-length album, 'Arirang' (ARIRANG).

With this, BTS became the only overseas artist to claim first place for the second time overall in the Album Ranking category, which counts physical album sales. Previously, BTS reached the top of the first-half Album Ranking category in 2020 with their fourth Japanese full-length album, 'Map of the Soul: 7 ~The Journey~' (MAP OF THE SOUL:7 ~THE JOURNEY).

In the Combined Album Ranking category, which aggregates physical album sales and digital music performance, they became the first overseas musician ever to take first place. 'Arirang' topped the chart with sales of about 728,000 copies during the tallying period. It is the first time in 22 years, since rock band Queen's compilation album 'Jewels' in 2004, that an overseas male artist's album has sold more than 700,000 copies in the first-half Album Ranking.

BTS said through Oricon, "'Arirang' is an album released by the full group for the first time in 3 years and 9 months. We are truly honored and happy that the album we presented after such a long time, and the one that captures 'the BTS of now,' is receiving so much love." They also said, "We are always grateful to everyone who loves and supports BTS and our music."

Meanwhile, 'Arirang' has recently been included in lists of the best albums of the first half of this year selected by major overseas music media outlets such as Rolling Stone, Consequence, and Complex in the United States, and NME in the United Kingdom.