BTS has reached record levels of awareness and favorability among American music consumers, according to new data from Luminate, a global music data and analytics firm

The group's fifth studio album posted the strongest vinyl sales of any group since Luminate began tracking album sales in 1991.

Luminate's second-quarter survey of U.S. music consumers found BTS' awareness — the share of consumers who recognize the group — at 42 percent, nearing the group's all-time high of 43 percent set in the third quarter of last year.

That figure is 18 percentage points above the 24 percent average awareness across all artists Luminate tracks, and about four times the 11 percent average among the 22 K-pop acts in its survey. Awareness ranged from 43 percent among 13-to-17-year-olds to 59 percent among 18-to-24-year-olds, with more than half of 18-to-34-year-olds recognizing the group.

Favorability, measured among consumers who said they knew about BTS, reached 46 percent — the highest since Luminate began surveying the group in 2021, when the figure stood at 34 percent. Favorability topped 40 percent across every age group surveyed, including 60 percent among 13-to-17-year-olds.

BTS' fifth studio album, "Arirang," sold 516,000 copies in the U.S. in its first week, with vinyl accounting for roughly 208,000 copies, or about 40 percent — a proportion Luminate said mirrors the consumption patterns of top mainstream pop acts more than the CD-driven norm for K-pop releases.

The album has also sustained strong streaming numbers, logging nearly 5.7 billion global on-demand streams in its first 16 weeks, while streams of BTS' back catalog rose alongside it, pushing the group's total streaming volume to 8.7 billion over the same period.

The album also returned to the Billboard 200's top 10 following a halftime show performance at the 2026 FIFA World Cup final.

Big Hit Music, the group's label, said the findings show BTS has built a broad mainstream base in the U.S. beyond its dedicated fan base, citing the vinyl sales share and sustained streaming performance as evidence of the group's lasting influence in the global music market.

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.