BTS Just Broke the Rolling Stones' Touring Record. It Took 12 Shows.

Billboard announced Monday that BTS grossed $127.8 million from 12 shows played between May 2 and 28 - the highest monthly gross by any group in the history of the Billboard Boxscore Top Tours chart, which launched in 2019. The figure surpasses The Rolling Stones' previous record of $95 million, set during their No Filter tour in August 2019, by 35 percent.

The month that broke the record was built around the North American leg of the Arirang World Tour. Four nights at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas generated $49.5 million from 246,000 attendees - nearly 40 percent of the month's total from a single venue. Three shows in Mexico City accounted for most of the remainder. BTS was the highest-grossing and best-selling touring act for the second consecutive month, having taken the same position in April with $76.2 million from eight shows.

Among all touring acts - solo artists included - BTS's May 2026 figure ranks fifth in single-month Boxscore history, behind three months by Beyoncé and one by Kendrick Lamar and SZA. Metallica ranked No. 2 for May with $72.6 million from seven European shows, a detail with a footnote: when BTS first led the Top Tours chart in May 2019, Metallica was also in second place on the same chart. Seven years later, the positions are identical.

The Arirang World Tour has now grossed over $200 million from 20 reported shows, selling more than 1.1 million tickets. The Love Yourself World Tour, BTS's previous benchmark, grossed $213.9 million across 1.7 million tickets from 2018 to 2019 - a full multi-year run. Arirang has already crossed half that total with more than 60 shows still to be played, including the remainder of Europe, a second North American stint, South America, Southeast Asia, Australia, and a finale in Hong Kong and Manila. Big Hit Music said Tuesday that the Arirang album had accumulated 3.8 billion streams globally in its first eight weeks, according to Luminate data.

BTS has now spent four non-consecutive months at No. 1 on the Top Tours chart: May 2019, April 2022, April 2026, and May 2026. Only five acts have accumulated more months on top since the chart launched - Bad Bunny with nine, and Beyoncé, Coldplay, and Elton John with seven each.

The European leg of the Arirang tour opened in Madrid on June 26 and is currently running through Brussels, London, Munich, and Paris before the group returns to the US in August.