​​​🇺🇸​ BTS Never Had an Overnight Success in US: The Era Before “Her”
​​I am always amused when I see statements from haters saying that “BTS success in the USA was overnight”, “BTS is successful because of promotions” etc.
​​A person who has been monitoring BTS’s progress, I can’t help but write a nice historical timeline of BTS’ progress in the US music charts before “Love Yourself: Her”.
​​So, I will demonstrate how BTS’ success was a step by step growth in US, not an overnight success by using the rankings from the Billboard. I used the Billboard Archive Wiki page since all the past records are there in one place.
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​​2013

​​2 Cool 4 Skool (June 12, 2013)
​​The first debut album “2 Cool 4 Skool” didn’t debut in any of the albums chart but what’s interesting here is that the title (and debut) song “No More Dream” debuted in the Billboard World Digital Songs at #14 which charted for 3 weeks on that chart, making the first BTS song to enter here.
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​​This shows that BTS had already set some sort of footing in one of the Billboard charts at debut time.
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​​(In 2020, Armys conducted a buying/streaming project and finally charted “2 Cool 4 Skool” at #12 in the World Albums. No More Dream peaked at #2 (4 weeks) while 5 more songs of the album charted in World Digital Song Sales: #10 I Like It; #18 Intro: 2 Cool 4 Skool; #22 Interlude; #23 Skit: Circle Room Talk; #24 Outro: Circle Room Cypher).

​​2014

​​Skool Luv Affair (February 12, 2014)
  • ​​BTS’ album “Skool Luv Affair” was the first BTS album to debut in the World Albums at #3.
  • ​​In the Billboard World Digital Songs, three songs from the album charted: “Boy in Luv” at #5, “Tomorrow” at #24, and “Just One Day” at #25.
  • ​​“Boy in Luv” stayed in the Billboard World Digital Songs chart for 19 weeks so far.
  • ​​"Tomorrow” was the first BTS song to enter the Billboard Twitter Top Tracks at #8 which was the 2nd highest ranking song at that time.
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​​It was an interesting progressive result for a young group who debuted last year.
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​​Dark & Wild (August 19, 2014)
​​The album’s performance on the charts shows that BTS was gathering a decent level of popularity in the US.
  • ​​“Dark & Wild” decided to take one step further and became BTS’ first album to debut in the US Top Heatseekers at #27.
  • ​​“Dark & Wild” was in the top 20 of the Top Heatseekers for Korean albums at #19 at that time.
  • ​​For the World Albums chart, the album managed to enter at #3 and stayed there for 11 weeks.
  • ​​As for the World Digital Song Sales, “Danger” debuted at #7 and charted for 6 weeks while “War of Hormones” debuted at #11 and charted for 8 weeks.
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​​Consumer Survey on K-Pop in the U.S.
  • ​​According to a 2014 report “Consumer Survey on K-Pop in the U.S.” by KOCCA, BTS was the Most Popular K-Pop Artist of 2014 in USA. A survey was conducted where 1,540 US K-Pop fans participated. Those in their “Late Teens” to “Late 20s” voted BTS at #1. 
  • ​​When dividing the popular K-Pop artists per survey participants’ age, those in their “Late Teens” to “Late 20s” voted BTS at #1. BTS came at #3 in the “Early 30s” age group while BTS came at #8 in the “Late 30s” age group. In the “Early 40s” age group, BTS was at #6.
  • ​​In terms of the most popular K-Pop songs in USA of 2014, two BTS songs entered the top 10 list with “Danger” at #4 and “War of Hormone” at #6 in the “Consumer Survey on K-Pop in the US”. In terms of the most popular K-Pop music videos, “War of Hormone” came at #3 while “Danger” came at #5.

​​2015

​​R.M. (18th April 2015)
  1. ​​RM’s first mixtape “R.M.” debuted in the World Albums at #12.
  1. ​​What is shocking is that the free mixtape was (and still is) only available on SoundCloud for streaming. The mixtape is still not available in iTunes, Spotify etc. The fact the mixtape charted with only SC streams (and maybe YouTube MVs) is extraordinary. And this makes R.M. the first Korean free mixtape to debut.
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​​HYYH Pt. 1 (April 29, 2015)
​​“The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, Part 1” entered the scene in 2015.
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  • ​​It became BTS first album to enter the Independent Albums at #20.
  • ​​4th highest ranking Korean album to debut in the US Independent Albums at that time.
  • ​​6th highest ranking Korean album to debut in the Heatseekers Albums (#6) at that time.
  • ​​The album also gained a new peak for BTS by debuting at #2 in the World Albums.
  • ​​BTS also managed to get six songs in the Billboard World Digital Songs (“I Need U” ranked at #4, “Dope” at #11, “Hold Me Tight” at #12, “Boyz with Fun” at #13, “Converse High” #15, and “Outro: Love is Not Over” at #25).
  • ​​“I Need U” has currently 120 weeks while Dope has currently 139 weeks making BTS the Korean group with the most weeks on Billboard World Digital Songs.
  • ​​BTS was the only Korean artist to be recognized in the Fuse "27 Best Albums of 2015 So Far" for HYYH: Pt. 1.
  • ​​BTS became the first K-pop group outside the "big three" Korean entertainment agencies to get 100M views for Dope.
  • ​​BTS made their first entry in the BB Year-End charts of World Digital Songs Artists (#9) and World Digital Songs Sales (Dope at #17; I Need U at #22).
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