Netflix has revealed its March 21 livestream of BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE | ARIRANG from Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul attracted 18.4 million global viewers.
The official number is far lower than the 300 million figure reported by UK outlets, including The Times and The Telegraph, earlier this week. Neither outlet cited a source for the claim, although it may have been derived from Netflix’s subscriber count, which stood at 325 million at the end of 2025.
The concert saw all seven members of the superstar group — RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook — perform together for the first time since 2022 after completing mandatory military service.
The 12-song setlist included tracks from BTS’s fifth studio album, ARIRANG, which dropped on March 20.
According to Netflix, which says that its total viewership estimates are derived from first-party data (Live+1), the live broadcast reached its weekly Top 10 in 80 countries and secured the #1 spot in 24 of them.
It added that, to date, the campaign has reached 2.62 billion global social impressions across Netflix channels, while numerous hashtags related to BTS and Netflix “trended worldwide.”
Netflix says the figures prove the group’s influence “has only intensified during their time apart.”
The streamer has escalated its investment in premium music-related content in recent months, launching Harry Styles’ One Night in Manchester on the service on March 8.
Last November, the platform released ONE SHOT with Ed Sheeran, a one-take music special that followed the singer-songwriter through the streets of New York City performing his biggest hits.
Separately, the company confirmed an “exclusive multi-year first-look deal” with Warner Music Group (WMG) last Friday (March 20). Under the creative partnership, the companies say the streamer will develop “documentary series and films exploring the lives, music and legacies of WMG’s legendary and contemporary artists and songwriters.”
Meanwhile, shares in HYBE, the company behind BTS, fell to an over three-month low on Monday (March 23) amid a broad sell-off in Korean equities and after the band’s heavily promoted live comeback drew a smaller crowd than authorities had initially expected.
As reported by The Korea Times, at the end of the trading day on Monday in Seoul, shares had fallen 15% to KRW 290,500, the lowest level since early December. At press time, they had rebounded to KRW 304,500.
The free outdoor concert had a ticketed capacity of around 22,000, with overflow crowds watching on large screens in the surrounding area, according to the BBC.
HYBE said the event attracted 104,000 fans in total – far lower than the 260,000 that police had initially projected.
However, The Chosun reports that the relevant authorities presented wildly differing attendance numbers: Seoul City (48,000), the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (62,000), and the police (80,000).
The publication explains that the discrepancy stems from differences in counting methods. Seoul City’s 48,000 figure was derived from real-time urban data sourced solely from domestic telecom networks, excluding foreign attendees on roaming or overseas SIMs.
The city also restricted its estimate to Gwanghwamun Square itself, while police included nearby areas where fans gathered to watch the live broadcast, and the interior ministry used aggregated base-station data that included people inside buildings.
HYBE told the AFP that the 104,000 figure accounted for mobile connections across all three major Korean carriers, as well as foreign visitors and budget phone users — essentially measuring cumulative foot traffic rather than a single snapshot.
BTS dropped their first studio album in six years last Friday (March 20), breaking records across major streaming platforms.
Arirang pulled in over 110 million streams on Spotify in its first 24 hours, breaking the record for the most-streamed K-pop album in Spotify history and the most-streamed album in a single day this year, according to the platform.
Big Hit Music said Arirang also sold 3.98 million copies on its first day of release, citing local album sales tracker Hanteo Chart. The figure surpasses BTS’s previous first-week record of 3.37 million copies set by Map of the Soul: 7 in February 2020 — in a single day rather than a full week.
Netflix premieres companion documentary BTS: THE RETURN, which chronicles the creation of the album and the group’s reunion, this Friday. The film is directed by Bao Nguyen (The Stringer, The Greatest Night in Pop) and produced by This Machine (Martha, Karol G) and HYBE.
“The film offers an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the members as they regrouped in the studio to record ARIRANG and prepared for last weekend’s monumental stage,” says Netflix.
News of the Netflix deal followed BTS’s announcement of a world tour beginning April 9 in Goyang, South Korea. The tour, promoted by Live Nation, will span 34 cities with 82 shows across North America, Europe, and Asia. It marks the first large-scale tour for BTS in about four years since BTS PERMISSION TO DANCE ON STAGE.Music Business Worldwide
