[Comeback Countdown: BTS①] The 4th Studio Album ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : 7’ - Will it set a new record?
“What are BTS’s own records that BTS would need to break?”

Group BTS is gearing up for the comeback with the 4th Studio Album, ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : 7.’

On the 8th, Big Hit Entertainment, BTS’s management company, announced through the official social media channels that BTS’s new album will be released worldwide on February 21st. They continued to release the ‘comeback map’ on the 9th and announced the release schedule of the album contents. On the comeback map, the new blue album concept using the number ‘7’ was disclosed.

On the 10th, the first trailer ‘SHADOW’ was released. Starting on the 14th, ‘CONNECT, BTS’ series contents will be released in order, and the 1st single track and art film will be released on the 17th, increasing the expectation of the fans.

As BTS has claimed numerous titles of ‘the first’ and ‘the most’ with ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA’ released on April 12th, there are a number of continued discussions on the new record that the next comeback will set.

Before we forecast BTS’s comeback record of 2020, we need to look back on the album sales record and growth power of BTS set with the ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA’ album last year.
 

#1. Achieves double-million Initial Chodong sales record

On April 12th, 2019, at around 9 PM, Hanteo Chart, operating the world’s one-and-only real-time music chart, announced that BTS has broken the group’s own Initial Chodong (first week of album release) sales record by selling 1,834,214 copies of the ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA’ album within 3 hours of release.

BTS also set the highest record in weekly album sales in Hanteo Chart’s history with the album sales amount of 1,808,698 copies on April 14th, the 3rd day since album sales. With this, BTS topped the Weekly Physical Album Chart on the 2nd and 3rd week of April.

The record-breaking parade of the ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA’ album continued on. Around 3 PM on April 16th, 93 hours after the album release, BTS became the artist to reach double-million with the album sales of 2,000,067 copies. 

BTS made a monumental landmark in the Initial Chodong sales record as well. After counting the album sales up to April 18th, the 7th day since the release, Hanteo Chart officially announced that the album set the Initial Chodong sales record of 2,130,480 copies.
 

#2. The dramatic growth power is ARMY’s pride

According to the data provided by Hanteo Chart, the album that had the highest Initial Chodong sales record among the BTS’s albums was ‘LOVE YOURSELF 轉 ‘Tear’’ before the ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA’ release, and the record was 1,003,524 copies. ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA’ album showed about twice the growth in Initial Chodong sales amount.
 

The more surprising fact is the growth power of the ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA’ album compared to the group’s debut album. BTS debuted with ‘2 COOL 4 SKOOL’ album on June 13th, 2013. The Initial Chodong sales record of this album was 772 copies, surprisingly. It’s such a small sales amount considering BTS as they are now.

The difference in Initial Chodong sales amount between the debut album ‘2 COOL 4 SKOOL’ and ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA’ amounts to 2,219,708 copies. ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : PERSONA’ album showed about 2,760 times the growth rate compared to ‘2 COOL 4 SKOOL’ in Initial Chodong sales amount.

This clearly proves that BTS has not become a worldwide artist as they are now overnight. Going into their 8th year since their debut in 2020, BTS has steadily and arduously completed the steps to grow than anybody else. This is also ‘the history of BTS’ that ARMYs and BTS have been cultivating together.

The pre-order of BTS’s new album, ‘MAP OF THE SOUL : 7,’ has begun on the 9th. The ARMYs worldwide are already preparing to meet the new album of BTS.

Especially, given that this album is a full studio album, there will be more songs featured compared to the previous mini album, and the fans are guessing that the album would contain more contents and therefore would be more worthy of owning. Would BTS be able to break their own record that BTS themselves have set, yet again?