BTS, the unstoppable boy band who made Grammy history on Sunday night as the first K-Pop group to perform their own track “Dynamite” during the ceremony, are no strangers to ‘firsts’ and smashing records. In fact, it seems like the Guinness World Records have a new prize for them with each passing day. Fastest account to reach one million follows on TikTok? Best selling album in South Korea? Most viewed music video in 24 hours? All records held by the band right now. So do they fancy another one?
A new world record broken by BTS, sort of in relation to that aforementioned ‘most viewed music video’ prize, has just been revealed. BTS now hold the record for the most concurrent viewers on a music video’s YouTube premiere, with over three million people tuning in to watch the visual for “Dynamite” when it dropped last summer. Okay, admittedly, we sorta knew this, hence why GWR called it the “worst kept secret in history”, but they needed YouTube to iron out its numbers before they could officially hand BTS the prize.
Are we surprised? Not even slightly. After all, this is the group that managed to sell-out multiple stadium tour dates in London, New York and Paris without a single English language track to their name. “Dynamite”, arriving mid-pandemic, was their first, and has subsequently become a global hit, with nearly 1 billion YouTube views and a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Fans were slightly annoyed when that prize went to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande for “Rain On Me”, but with numbers like this, it’s hard to imagine they’ll be irked by the band not winning for much longer. After all, BTS are prolific recording artists, and there’s sure to be a dozen more Grammy awards they can claim later down the line.