BTS's U.S. Favorability at 46%, the Highest Ever Recorded, and ARIRANG Is Behind It

BTS posted a 46% favorability rating among U.S. music consumers in Luminate's second-quarter 2026 survey, the highest figure the data firm has recorded for the group since it first began tracking them in 2021. That reading sits alongside a 42% awareness score, 18 percentage points above the all-artist average of 24%, and far above the 11% average for the 22 K-pop acts included in the same survey.

The favorability figure has climbed steadily. When Luminate first measured BTS in 2021, it stood at 34%; it now sits 12 points higher. Awareness has also grown, up 6 points from 36% in that first survey. Among 18-to-34-year-olds, the group's core commercial demographic in the U.S., more than half of respondents said they knew who BTS was.

The gains coincide with the March release of ARIRANG, the group's fifth studio album. In its first week on sale in the United States, the album moved 516,000 physical units. Of those, roughly 208,000, about 40%, were vinyl copies, a figure Big Hit Music describes as both a BTS personal best and the highest single-week vinyl sales for any group in Luminate's records going back to 1991, when the company began tracking the format.

Vinyl's share of that opening-week number is worth noting in context: the format has staged a well-documented commercial comeback over the past decade, but a group clearing 200,000 LP copies in a single week still places ARIRANG in unusual territory, even measured against mainstream pop releases.

Streaming performance has held through the album's run. Sixteen weeks after release, ARIRANG had accumulated nearly 5.7 billion global streams on its own. Catalog activity lifted the group's broader numbers further: during the same window, older BTS material added another 3 billion streams, bringing the group's cumulative streaming total across all releases to approximately 8.7 billion for the period.

Big Hit Music framed the Luminate findings as evidence that BTS has built a commercial base in the United States that extends beyond its dedicated fanbase, a distinction the label has been careful to emphasize since the group completed its military service obligations and returned to active promotion. A favorability score that is nearly double the all-artist average, drawn from a general consumer sample rather than a fan panel, gives that claim a specific number to stand on.