Mexico City Ranks First for BTS Music Listening – Heart of K-Pop Craze

In Mexico, BTS has emerged as the core driver of the Korean culture craze.

BTS’s influence in Mexico is clearly evident in statistical data. Mexico City, the country’s capital, surpasses K-Pop hubs such as Seoul and Jakarta as the city with the highest levels of BTS music listening. Monthly listeners in Mexico City alone exceed 700,000. Thanks to this popularity, the Korean Cultural Center in Mexico has also gained significant attention locally. The center’s database shows over 2.2 million Mexicans registered as members, with more than 500,000 of them belonging to BTS’s fandom.

BTS’s popularity is spreading across every sector of the entertainment industry. The BTS concert scheduled for May 23–24 at the GNP Seguros Stadium in Mexico City (formerly Estadio Azteca) sold out within 37 minutes of ticket release. Cinepolis, Mexico’s largest movie theater chain, decided to broadcast live the BTS concerts held on April 11 in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, and on April 18 in Tokyo, Japan. Even though these performances took place in the early hours, tickets for those theater shows sold out within minutes of being made available. Fans locally continue to post demands on social media for more screening venues.

What contributes to the universal popularity of BTS’s music? America Tesan, who oversees international collaborations at the Korean Cultural Center in Mexico, cites “social messages” as a key factor. He explained, “Some people say BTS’s music helped them overcome difficult personal times,” adding that “it is this emotional connection that has allowed the fandom to grow.” K-culture in Mexico is expanding beyond K-Pop to include movies, dramas, and other forms of content.

Meanwhile, BTS’s World Tour has seen all 46 shows sold out, starting with the Goyang performance at the Goyang Gymnasium on April 9. Additional shows are planned in Japan, North America, and Europe. Additionally, BTS is set to embark on the “Arirang in Latin America” tour, which will feature 11 performances in five South American cities—Bogotá in Colombia, Lima in Peru, Santiago in Chile, Buenos Aires in Argentina, and São Paulo in Brazil—beginning in October.