Jungkook becomes first Korean solo artist to reach 10 billion streams

Jungkook of boy band BTS has surpassed 10 billion cumulative streams on Spotify with songs released under his own name, becoming the first Korean solo artist to achieve the feat.

Jungkook reached the milestone as of November 25, led overwhelmingly by his first solo album “Golden” (2023) which now accounts for over 6.4 billion streams alone, according to Spotify. Every track on the album has exceeded 100 million streams, further reinforcing its global reach.

The achievement follows a series of record-setting moments for Jungkook on Spotify. His 2023 single “Seven (feat. Latto)” debuted at No.1 on the music streaming service’s Daily Top Songs Global chart, the first K-pop solo track to do so, and earned 15.99 million streams within 24 hours, the highest first-day count for a K-pop solo release.

The song later ranked third on Spotify’s list of “Most-Streamed Songs of Summer 2023” globally and has since passed 2.6 billion total streams, the most for any song by a Korean artist.

Other titles continue to build Jungkook’s success, including “Standing Next to You” (2023), the title track from “Golden,” “Left and Right” (2022) with Charlie Puth and “3D” (2023) with Jack Harlow, which have surpassed 1.3 billion, 1.1 billion, and 1 billion streams respectively, giving Jungkook four songs over the billion-stream mark — another record for a K-pop soloist.

Outside of music, Jungkook maintains close interaction with fans through Weverse live broadcasts, strengthening the connection that continues to fuel his worldwide popularity, according to his agency BigHit Music.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]