BTS Is First Foreign Group To Surpass 200,000 Album Sales On Oricon Chart

It's an understatement to say that BTS has been doing well internationally. The group gained traction in the west after topping several Billboard charts, but their stronghold in the east remains solid as well after BTS becomes the first ever foreign group to surpass 200,000 album sales on Japan's biggest music chart, Oricon.

On May 10, BTS released the Japanese version of their single 'Blood Sweat and Tears'. Upon release, the song grabbed the #1 spot on the Oricon chart for 2 days in a row and sold a remarkable 223,082 physical copies. As of today, the song has recorded a whopping total of 238,795 Oricon points/album sales. This is an impressive milestone, considering that BTS only debuted in Japan in 2014. In 2015, BTS achieved their first #1 ranking on the Oricon chart with their previous Japanese single, 'For You'. According to the group's agency Big Hit Entertainment, the boy group set a record by surpassing the 200,000 mark in the shortest amount of time ever.

BTS previously relayed a message of gratitude to their fans through Oricon Style. The group said, "It's all thanks to our ARMYs that we were able to take first place on the Oricon weekly chart with our seventh Japanese single 'Blood, Sweat & Tears.' We will work harder from now on. Our Japanese tour is coming up as well, so please look forward to it. Thank you."

Oricon Style also added, "This is almost two times the sales achieved by their single "Run," which was released last year in March and sold 124,000 copies. Their sales put them at a high possibility of being No. 1 in the overseas artist single category for the first half of this year."

BTS' Japanese version of their album contains 3 Japanese-language songs (which also includes Japanese versions of 'Not Today' and 'Spring Day') and is currently doing extremely well not only on the Oricon chart but in the World iTunes chart as well in 13 different countries.