All seven members of BTS stood on the same stage Saturday night for the first time since October 2022. The concert was free.
It was held outdoors at Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul. An estimated 260,000 people filled the surrounding area.
The show streamed live on Netflix globally. It ran one hour and it was the largest public concert ever held in South Korea.
The event, titled BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE | ARIRANG, marked the group’s return after a hiatus that began when members started entering South Korea’s mandatory military service in 2022.
The last member, Suga, was discharged in June 2025. By July they were back in the studio recording. The album dropped Friday. The concert happened Saturday. The world tour starts April 9.
What Is BTS’s New Album?
Arirang is BTS’s fifth studio album and their first full-group release in over three years. It has 14 tracks. The lead single is “Swim,” whose music video, featuring Riverdale actress Lili Reinhart, hit more than 7 million views within two hours of its release.
Other tracks include “Body to Body,” “Aliens,” “Merry Go Round,” “Normal,” “Like Animals,” “Please,” and “Into the Sun.”
The title is not arbitrary. Arirang is a traditional Korean folk song, the unofficial national anthem of the peninsula, a melody that predates modern Korea by centuries and has been passed down through generations as a symbol of resilience, longing, and perseverance.
HYBE, the parent company of BTS’s management label Big Hit Music, described the album as one that “embodies the origin and identity of BTS.” RM, the group’s leader, has spoken publicly about the album’s intent to hold onto Korean identity while addressing universal themes.
The album had more than four million pre-orders before its release. Cumulative sales are projected to reach approximately six million copies. It topped charts worldwide within hours of its March 20 drop.
The Concert And Where It Was Held
Gwanghwamun Square is one of Seoul’s most significant cultural and political spaces. It is flanked by the main gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace, the royal palace of Korea’s Joseon dynasty, which ruled the peninsula for more than 500 years, and anchored by statues of two of Korea’s most revered historical figures.
King Sejong, the man who invented the Korean script in 1443, and Admiral Yi Sun-shin, and who repelled the Japanese invasion in the 16th century.
It is also where South Koreans have gathered to protest, mourn, and celebrate through the country’s political upheavals, including the mass demonstrations that followed then-President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief imposition of martial law in December 2024.
BTS was the first K-pop act ever to perform at the square.
Only 22,000 fans received a “Golden Ticket” for access to the main venue. The remaining quarter-million gathered in surrounding streets watching on temporary screens.
Seoul authorities closed nearby roads, halted subway and bus services in the area, sealed off surrounding buildings, and deployed stringent crowd-control measures, a direct response to the 2022 Halloween surge in Itaewon that killed nearly 160 people.
The stage was designed by Guy Carrington and Florian Wieder and built around the concept of a picture frame, intended to honor the cultural significance of the location without imposing on it.
The concert was directed by Hamish Hamilton, the British director who has helmed the Super Bowl halftime show and the Oscars. He described the production as among the most challenging of his career in terms of “sheer logistical complexity.”
The show opened with “Body to Body,” the first track of Arirang, with the members joined by dancers in traditional Korean hanbok attire. The group moved through new material before threading in older catalog hits.
RM performed while seated for portions of the show, he had sustained an ankle injury in the days before the concert but performed anyway, wearing supportive gear.
Jung Kook’s high notes in “Please” and Jimin’s delivery in “Merry Go Round” drew particular attention.
J-Hope and Suga brought rap intensity to “Hooligan” and “FYA.” V and Jin anchored the harmonies throughout.
The concert closed with fireworks. As it ended, RM addressed the crowd and the global audience watching on Netflix, “This is just the beginning. Thank you for waiting. We’ll keep running toward you.”
The Band’s Military Service
South Korea requires all able-bodied male citizens to serve approximately two years in the military.
For BTS, the most commercially successful musical act in the country’s history and one of the most lucrative cultural exports in the world, the question of whether members would receive exemptions was a years-long national debate.
In 2022, the group announced they would fulfill their obligations without seeking deferment. Jin was the first to enlist, in December 2022. RM, Suga, V, Jimin, and Jung Kook followed through 2023 and into 2024.
J-Hope was discharged in October 2024. Suga, the final member, was discharged in June 2025.
The group reunited in the studio in July 2025 and recorded Arirang through November.
The Tour And What It Could Mean
The Arirang World Tour begins April 9 at Goyang Stadium in South Korea and runs through March 2027, covering 82 shows across 34 cities in 23 countries. Confirmed stops include Japan, the United States, Mexico, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and Latin America.
Tickets for announced dates sold out within hours of going on sale. Financial analysts at Seoul-based IBK Investment & Securities estimate the comeback will generate at least 2.9 trillion Korean won, approximately $1.93 billion, a figure that places it within range of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, the highest-grossing concert tour in history.
Bloomberg has reported the tour could potentially rival that record.
Netflix’s involvement extends beyond the concert. On March 27, Netflix will release BTS: The Return, a documentary directed by Bao Nguyen that follows each member from military discharge through the Los Angeles recording sessions for Arirang.
The March 21 concert stream was Netflix’s first-ever global live broadcast of a music concert.
The group also has two nights on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon scheduled for March 25 and 26, including the US television debut of a track from the album.
BTS debuted in 2013 and became the first K-pop act to top the Billboard Hot 100 in 2020 with their first all-English single “Dynamite.”
Their last full-group world tour, Love Yourself, was 2018 and 2019. The four years without them are the longest pause in their career.
K-pop has continued expanding during their absence, global fandom has grown and the genre now accounts for a rising share of the world’s highest-grossing concert tours.
Whether BTS returns at the same commercial height they left at is the question the industry is watching. Saturday night in Seoul was at minimum a very strong first answer.
