Carnival of Soul

BTS are no strangers to making history and breaking records by this point in their time together, and in fact, it’s now become the norm for them to manage feats that no other musicians from their home country have before whenever they have new music to deliver.

The South Korean septet has just earned another Guinness World Record, which they seem to collect fairly regularly these days. While they may already have several of these coveted plaques to their credit, this latest one is truly special, as it replaces one they were gifted last year.

According to the Guinness organization, BTS’s recent album Map of the Soul: 7 has been officially declared the bestselling album of all time in South Korea. The statement reveals that the latest Korean-language effort from the globally-adored vocal outfit has already sold 4,265,617 copies as of June 2020. 

That’s a massive sum for any project by any artist in any country, but what makes Map of the Soul: 7’s performance even more impressive is the fact it was only released back in mid-February of this year. That means that in less than half a year, the group’s blockbuster release has outsold every other album in the country’s history.

It has been known for some time that Map of the Soul: 7 had earned the title of the bestselling release of all time in South Korea, but the Guinness World Record only further cements the CD’s status as the biggest launch ever.

Map of the Soul: 7 nabs the title of the bestselling album of all time in South Korea from their previous release, 2019’s Map of the Soul: Persona. The Guinness World Record organization named that full-length the bestselling in the Asian nation’s history last summer. At the time, that major project had sold 3,399,302 copies in just over a month, a massive figure for only a few weeks of availability. That hit-filled set grabbed the honor being the bestselling album ever in the country from Kim Gun-mo, whose third studio album Mis-Encounter held that honor for decades thanks to its 3.3 million sales.

While BTS may have just collected this latest Guinness World Record, they may soon top their own best showing, as they are about to kick off the next era of their career with a new single. “Dynamite,” the first taste of their forthcoming album (which doesn’t yet have a release date, but which is expected this fall) is slated for an August 21 drop, and when the full-length follows, it could wind up becoming even bigger than Map of the Soul: 7.

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