BTS Returns as a Complete Group After 7 Years, Officially Announcing New Album and World Tour for Spring 2026

K-pop superstar BTS has officially announced a full-group comeback in spring 2026. On July 1 of last year, during a Weverse live broadcast, all seven members—RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook—appeared together and stated, “We plan to release a new group album in spring 2026.” This was the first official announcement by all members since the group halted its activities in September 2022 and began solo careers. RM explained, “Starting from July, we will all get together and begin preparing music.” He added, “Since this is a group album, the thoughts of every member will be reflected in it, and we are approaching it with the same mindset we had when we first started.” He also said, “We definitely plan to hold a world tour starting in spring, so we hope to see everyone around the world.” BTS intends to head to the United States at the end of this month to focus on music production and tour preparations. This album will be their first new release in about four years since the 2022 anthology album “Proof,” and it will mark their first studio album in roughly six years since “Be” in 2020. BTS’s last group performance was a concert held in Busan in October 2022. Looking at their military service schedules, the most members completed their service in the first half of this year. Jin, the oldest member of the group, discharged in June 2024, followed by j-hope in October 2024. RM and V discharged on June 10 of this year, while Jimin and Jung Kook discharged on June 11. SUGA completed his alternative service and finished his military duty on June 21. The financial market also reacted to news of this comeback. Institutional investors such as foreign investors and the National Pension Service (NPS) have been purchasing large amounts of shares in major entertainment companies. Foreign investors bought shares worth 327.1 billion won in SM Entertainment and 158.4 billion won in HYBE. The NPS purchased 391,820 shares of YG Entertainment, raising its stake from 5.15% to 7.24%, and also bought 48,532 shares of JYP Entertainment. Investors’ optimistic outlook is based on the strong performance expected from South Korea’s four major entertainment companies—SM, YG, JYP, and HYBE—this year. According to the financial data service FnGuide, the combined operating profits of these four companies are projected to reach 674.1 billion won this year, a 76.9% increase from the previous year. Im Su-jin, an analyst at Daishin Securities, commented, “Entertainment companies can expect strong results in the second half of the year due to increased earnings from world tours, album sales, and merchandise revenue.” Since their Debut in 2013, BTS has become the most successful K-pop group worldwide. They were ranked as the world’s best-selling music artists in 2020 and 2021 and became the first K-pop group to top both the Billboard 200 and Billboard Artist 100 charts in the United States. They are also recorded as the most streamed group on Spotify, and before enlisting, they generated an economic impact of over 5.5 trillion won per year globally.