BTS ARIRANG WORLD TOUR – 82 Shows in 35 Cities Across 23 Countries

BTS is launching the largest world tour in the history of Korean singers. Starting on April 9 at the Goyang Sports Complex, the “BTS WORLD TOUR ARIRANG” will run until March of next year, with 82 performances scheduled in 35 cities across 23 countries.

This marks the first time in about four years since 2022’s “Permission to Dance on Stage” that BTS will hold large-scale concerts with all seven members together. Additional shows were added in Tampa, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, United States, due to sold-out tickets, and all 41 performances in North America and Europe have already been fully booked. The tours will take place at stadium-sized venues capable of holding 50,000 to 60,000 people, and they are designed as 360-degree shows with open seating around a central stage, which is expected to increase the total capacity further.

Many cities that BTS will visit for the first time are included, such as El Paso and Fort Worth in the United States, Madrid in Spain, and Brussels in Belgium, and enthusiasm is high across these nations. In Argentina, in particular, there is a festive atmosphere. A local newspaper, Clarín, reported that BTS’s visit is more than just a concert—it is a cultural event. When member Jin visited as a guest at Coldplay’s concert in 2022, the streets of Buenos Aires were covered in purple lights.

The total attendance for the entire world tour is estimated at around 5 million people. The number of attendees for the sold-out North American and European shows alone amounts to about 2.8 million. This figure is expected to surpass that of last year’s top world tour, Coldplay’s tour (59 shows, 3.5 million attendees), as well as Taylor Swift’s tour in 2023 (66 shows, 4.6 million attendees). A U.S.-based publication stated that “this stadium-focused tour is on par with world-class artists and will set a new standard for Korean singers’ world tours.”

The BBC predicted that “BTS will generate over $1 billion in revenue from concerts, merchandise, licensing, and album sales.” Rich Caraburuun, a professor in hotel and tourism management at New York University, said that “BTS’s tour is good news for the U.S. economy, where the tourism industry is struggling,” while Timothy Kirkins, a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, predicted that “BTS’s tour is the best event in the world this year, and it will lead to a significant increase in tourist numbers and hotel occupancy rates in every city it visits.”