KPop band BTS kicks off comeback with shows ‘bigger than Taylor Swift’ as new album Arirang breaks records

BTS. Three little letters that sends of millions of fans into a frenzy, screaming at the top of their lungs and pledging their undying fealty.

John, Paul, George and Ringo have nothing on RM, Suga, J-Hope, Jin, Jung Kook, V, and Jimin.

The seven boys, now men, from South Korea form the biggest band in the world. They have broken records at home, internationally and topped the charts everywhere including Billboard and ARIA number ones just this past week.

Next week on April 9, BTS will kick off their Arirang tour, a gargantuan, 82-dates, 34-city journey around the world as part of their comeback after a years-long hiatus while they all served their mandatory military service.

The Arirang tour will start in Seoul and will take in Japan, Mexico, the US, Spain, France, the UK, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and, of course Australia, where BTS will play four concerts across Sydney and Melbourne in February 2027.

There is speculation that it could be bigger than Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which grossed more than $US2 billion.

There is a lot of pent-up demand — its last concert was in 2022, just before the band’s hiatus — and 2026 is shaping up to be the year of BTS.

The oldest member of the group, Jin, was the first to enlist in 2022, and Suga, the last one to be discharged, walked free in June 2025. They reunited soon after to work on the new record, Arirang, the band’s 10th studio album.

Released on March 20, it rocketed up the charts immediately, followed by a free concert in Seoul’s historic Gwanghwamun Square, set against the 14th century gateway to the royal palace.

More than 100,000 fans packed into the space and its surrounds, which was all captured and live-streamed on Netflix. Although the crowd was smaller than the 250,000 throng city officials had expected to flock to the area, Netflix reported 18.4 million global viewers of the hour-long show.

It was only a tease though. The Arirang tour shows are expected to be three hours long, and will feature a 360-degrees stage.

A week after the live stream, Netflix dropped BTS: The Return, a 90-minute documentary film that tracked the band’s reunion, recording their album in Los Angeles. The time in the studio was valuable insight for viewers, but what the fans, called ARMY, were really hanging out for were the moments of the BTS together again, just hanging out.

BTS debuted in 2013, formed by producer and songwriter Bang Si-hyuk under his pop label Big Hit Entertainment, which was later restructured into Hybe, now a massive entertainment conglomerate.

The seven BTS members are now mostly in their early 30s (the youngest, Jung Kook, is 28), but at the time, they were barely out of high school, some still weren’t. Unlike most of their contemporaries, the members were rappers and hip hop artists, and their songs often referenced the problems faced by South Korean teenagers.

KPop had a reputation for being manufactured and its bands coming off an assembly line — which, let’s be honest, so were the Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys and their contemporaries — but there was something about BTS that seemed more authentic.

BTS still, particularly early in their careers, followed unofficial rules that governed KPop groups, such as if they became romantically entangled with anyone, it was strictly away from public consumption.

But the band was distinct for the way its members sought to connect directly with the fandom through more than just the songs and the performances on weekly music shows. There were vlogs and other forms of online storytelling that felt as if they were speaking directly to you.

For fans, watching them joke around, eat, play video games and basically just be young people brought BTS closer to them.

The doco BTS: The Return was full of moments like this – goofing around at the beach or in the pool, sharing meals, watching their old routines, wondering out loud what BTS stands for now – which made it catnip for ARMY but perhaps a little too mundane for newcomers not already invested in every little kernel.

BTS stands for Bangtan Sonyeondan, which translates as Bulletproof Boy Scouts – but their fans baulk at anyone who still calls them that. It’s just BTS now, the fans would argue. ARMY, technically Adorable Representative M.C for Youth, also hates what those letters once stood for.

Many of them feel that terms such as “boy scouts” and “adorable” have been used by outsiders, particularly western media, to infantilise the band and their followers, as if they’re weirdos you can diminish and patronise instead of the formidable global cultural force both are.

The BTS men might’ve been cute youngsters when they set off, but now they’re adults and the art they create, the songs they write, reflect that growth.

ARMY too have grown up with them, now in their 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond. They want to be thought of as more like military support — and they’re certainly as organised as one.

Individual fans work in unison with others for the benefit of all. There are those who spend their spare time translating songs, videos and interviews into various languages, all without being paid. They do charity work, learn Korean language, culture and history, and plan meet-ups.

In 2020, the BTS ARMY was credited with disrupting a Donald Trump political event by mass signing up to attend a rally without ever intending to go, leading to a sparsely filled arena and egg on the US president’s face.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at the time posted her thanks, “Kpop allies, we see and appreciate your contributions in the fight for justice too”.

There’s an annual academic gathering, the BTS: A Global Interdisciplinary Conference, at which Paulo Coelho, the novelist of The Alchemist, has appeared as a keynote speaker. It’s dedicated to serious consideration and analysis of BTS’s work.

That loyalty also comes with a ferocity, and ARMY are even more steadfastly protective than the fandoms for Star Wars, DC Comics, Harry Potter, J.R.R. Tolkien and other artists such as Swift, Selena Gomez and Beyonce.

ARMY helped BTS become the first TikTok account to reach a billion followers, and the first KPop group to hit number one on the Billboard album charts. Arirang, the new album, sold four million copies in its first day.

With the official return of all seven members in their whole form, ARMY are ready to mobilise.

Last year, KPop Demon Hunters became one of, if not the, defining moments of pop culture, notching up 517 million views (36 million in June, and then 481 million from July to December, according to Netflix’s half-yearly reports).

None of that would’ve happened without BTS, who have for years been laying the foundation for global domination of Korean pop culture.

Technically, KPop Demon Hunters is an American production, but many of its creative team are Korean diaspora, and there are many touchpoints specific to Korean culture.

If 2026 pans out the way BTS and Hybe hopes it will, then KPop Demon Hunters will have just been a seat-warmer, keeping the audience primed until the band came out of military service.

There may even be new waves of fans who sang along to KPop Demon Hunters ditty Golden, and are now ready to discover more of what the genre has to offer.

KPop is hardly a one-band phenomenon, having mounted groups with global appeal, including Stray Kids, Ateez, Enhyphen, the controversial NewJeans and Blackpink, whose New Zealand-born, Melbourne-raised member Rose had a massive hit with Apt in 2025.

But when it comes to the apex of KPop, it still has to be BTS.