More Than 4 in 10 Americans Know BTS

Luminate Q2 Survey of U.S. Music Consumers
Awareness at 42%... Favorability Hits Record High at 46%

BTS. Provided by Big Hit Music

The favorability rating of the group BTS among U.S. music consumers has reached its highest level since surveys began. Their fifth studio album, "Arirang," displayed consumption patterns similar to those seen in the mainstream U.S. music market, with approximately 40% of first-week physical album sales in the U.S. coming from vinyl records.

On August 14, global music data company Luminate released results from its second-quarter survey of U.S. music consumers this year, showing that BTS had an awareness rate of 42% and a favorability rate of 46%. The favorability rating was the highest since Luminate began tracking BTS in 2021.

The proportion of respondents saying they know of BTS rose from 36% in 2021 to 42% in the second quarter of this year—a 6 percentage point increase. This level is comparable to the all-time high of 43% recorded in the third quarter of 2025. BTS’s awareness rate is 18 percentage points higher than the average of all artists surveyed by Luminate (24%) and 28 percentage points higher when compared to the median of 14%. The average awareness rate among the 22 K-pop artists included in the survey was 11%.

By age group, awareness was highest among those aged 18–24 at 59%. Respondents aged 25–34 recorded 56%, those 35–54 posted 44%, 13–17 year olds were at 43%, and those aged 55 and older were at 28%. More than half of U.S. music consumers aged 18–34 reported being familiar with BTS.

Favorability was measured among those who responded they were aware of BTS. Of these, 19% said they "like them very much," and 27% said they "somewhat like them," for a combined favorability of 46%. This is a 12 percentage point rise from the initial 34% in the first 2021 survey. By age group, favorability was 60% for ages 13–17, 47% for ages 18–24, 44% for ages 25–34, 48% for ages 35–54, and 40% for those 55 and older.

Trends are also changing in U.S. album consumption. "Arirang" sold 516,000 physical copies in its first week in the U.S., with vinyl records accounting for approximately 40% or about 208,000 of those sales. This marks the highest weekly vinyl record sales for any BTS album to date. It is also the largest weekly vinyl figure for a group since album sales tracking began in 1991.

Unlike most K-pop albums, where CDs make up a larger share of sales, about 4 out of 10 physical copies of "Arirang" sold were vinyl. Luminate analyzed that, for albums that record high sales on the Billboard 200, the vinyl share is also generally high, and that BTS’s consumer patterns in the U.S. are becoming increasingly similar to those of leading pop artists in the local market.

Fans of the group BTS enjoyed the performance "BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE｜ARIRANG," held on March 21 around Gwanghwamun, Seoul, to celebrate the release of their 5th full-length album "ARIRANG." Photo by Kim Hyunmin

Jaime Marconete, Vice President of Music Insights and External Relations at Luminate, said, "BTS’s awareness and streaming performance in the U.S. align with the trends seen among today’s top pop artists. This is further demonstrated by the vinyl sales strategy and results for 'Arirang.'"

The streaming performance for "Arirang" has also seen steady growth since its release. According to Luminate, in the eight weeks following its release on March 20, global on-demand streams across platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music reached 3.8 billion. The cumulative streams exceeded 4.8 billion by the twelfth week and approached 5.7 billion by the sixteenth week. After the halftime show at the North and Central America World Cup final, the album returned to the top 10 of the Billboard 200, the main U.S. album chart.

The release of the new album also boosted streams of BTS’s previous songs. During the same period, cumulative global streams of all BTS tracks reached 5.3 billion in week 8, 7.1 billion in week 12, and 8.7 billion in week 16. Over a 16-week total, streams of BTS’s tracks excluding those on "Arirang" amounted to about 3 billion.

A Big Hit Music representative stated, "These survey results demonstrate that BTS enjoys high awareness and favorability in the U.S. The strong vinyl sales and sustained streaming performance also provide important indicators of current music consumption trends in the region."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.