BTS shatters South Korean album sales record with latest release

SEOUL, June 25 (UPI) -- K-pop idols BTS have etched their names in the record books yet again, this time for the best-selling album in South Korean history, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

The septet's latest release, Map of the Souls: Persona, claimed the record by selling 3,399,302 copies in their home country as of May. The seven-track album was released just a month earlier, on April 12.

The boy band topped an almost 25-year-old South Korean sales record, set well before the era of YouTube and digital streaming, which was previously held by singer-songwriter Kim Gun-mo's 1995 album, Mis-Encounter.

Map of the Souls: Persona debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in April, marking it the third straight BTS release to climb to the top of the U.S. music charts, following 2018's Love Yourself: Answer and Love Yourself: Tear.

The new album features collaborations with Halsey on the single "Boy With Luv" and Ed Sheeran on the track "Make it Right."

BTS is no stranger to the Guinness Book of World Records, claiming a raft of other superlatives, including the most-viewed music video in a 24-hour period for "Boy With Luv," which debuted with 74.6 million views on April 12-13. The group broke their own record for the title, which they previously held for the 2018 single "IDOL."

Fans of the band, who call themselves the BTS Army, are also social media's most active. BTS holds the world record for the most Twitter engagements, with their every utterance on the social media platform getting an average of more than 422,000 retweets.

After sold-out North American, South American and European stops on their "Love Yourself: Speak Yourself" live concert tour, BTS returned home for concerts and fan events in Busan and Seoul in June.

To welcome the K-pop heroes, Seoul illuminated a number of landmarks in purple, the band's signature color, including N Seoul Tower in central Seoul, Lotte World Tower in southeastern Seoul and the Hannam and Dongho Bridges.

BTS will get back on the road for concerts in Japan in July and will release a documentary film from their latest tour, Bring the Soul: The Movie on Aug. 6.

Their previous film, Burn the Stage, was another record-breaker, this time for biggest "event cinema" release. Released in 79 countries and territories for only a handful of days, the film pulled in 1.4 million viewers, beating out the previous record held by boy band One Direction.