BTS wrap North American leg of Arirang tour, drawing 1.92 million fans
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SEOUL – BTS wrapped up the North American leg of their Arirang world tour after drawing some 1.92 million concertgoers across 31 sold-out shows and setting new records during their final stop in Los Angeles.
The group performed in 12 North American cities, beginning in Tampa, Florida, before concluding the run with four shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, California, on Sept 1, 2, 5 and 6. The four Los Angeles concerts drew a combined 282,000 concertgoers.
Together with the four concerts it held at the stadium in 2021 as part of the Permission To Dance On Stage tour, BTS’ cumulative attendance at SoFi Stadium has hit about 496,000.
With the shows in 2026, the group have now staged eight concerts at the stadium – the most by any group since the venue opened.
According to BigHit Music, BTS have also drawn the largest cumulative concert audience of any group at the stadium.
The North American leg of BTS’ tour was met with official recognition from several cities and states along the tour route.
Los Angeles declared Sept 1 to 8 as BTS Week while Toronto designated Aug 22 and 23 as BTS Weekend and temporarily renamed a section of Yonge Street as BTS Boulevard. Illinois proclaimed Aug 27 and 28 as BTS Day in Illinois to coincide with the group’s concerts in Chicago.
El Paso in Texas similarly designated the group’s concert period on May 2 and 3 as El Paso BTS Weekend and presented BTS with an Estimado Amigo (Dear Friend) award, recognising them for boosting local tourism, elevating the city’s profile for major international events and promoting positive social messages through music.
In Maryland, Governor Wes Moore welcomed the group through a video message before their shows on Aug 10 and 11, describing the seven members as “bringing people together across cultural, geographic and linguistic boundaries”.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum personally invited BTS to the National Palace when the group were in Mexico City for concerts on May 7, 9 and 10. Roughly 50,000 fans gathered outside the palace to welcome the group.
The final Los Angeles stop included celebrations for BTS members Jungkook and RM, whose birthdays fall on Sept 1 and 12 respectively.
Tens of thousands of fans sang birthday songs for them, illuminating the stadium in gold in reference to Jungkook’s solo album Golden and blue for RM’s Indigo.
“It feels like yesterday that we started our tour in Tampa and that this is the end in LA. We were waiting for this North American tour for so long,” said member J-Hope during BTS’ concert in Los Angeles on Sept 6.
“Maybe because we were so happy, every moment seems to have passed in an instant. We’ll cherish all of these moments.”
BTS will take Arirang to South America next, beginning in Bogota, Colombia, on Oct 2 and 3.
The group are scheduled to perform in Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo, with the upcoming dates marking BTS’ first full-group visits to Colombia, Peru and Argentina. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK