BTS Breaks Another Record Despite Being On A Hiatus, Entering Military

BTS achieved yet another historic milestone after dominating Oricon's year-end artist rankings for the second year in a row.

Last year, the world-famous South Korean boy band became the first foreign artist to take the No. 1 spot on Oricon's year-end artist rankings, which rank the best-selling artists of the year in Japan. The annual list is determined by calculating the total sales of the artist's singles, albums, DVDs and streaming data for the whole year, Soompi reported.

BTS, whose members are RM, Jungkook, Jimin, V, J-Hope, Suga and Jin, continued to hold the top spot in the 2022 rankings, despite going on hiatus to pursue individual projects in June and announcing in October their decision to fulfill their mandatory military service in South Korea within the next three years.

The seven-member boy group is reportedly the first and so far only artist to top the year-end artist rankings for two consecutive years in Oricon history.

According to Oricon, BTS' long-running hit singles "Dynamite," "Butter" and "Permission to Dance," and the strong digital downloads of their anthology album, "Proof," all helped the group remain at the top of the list.

After the announcement of the latest rankings, BTS penned a thank-you message to the fans who have supported and loved their music throughout the years.

"We were able to receive this award, which is a huge honor, thanks to ARMY [BTS's fandom] and the many people who love our music. We were truly happy to be able to hold concerts in various places this year and meet ARMY from all over the world. We will try to become an artist that can repay that love through even better music in the future. We're thankful to ARMY for giving us their unchanging love," BTS said, according to Soompi.

Last year, with their Japanese compilation album "BTS, The Best," the boy band also became the first foreign group ever to secure the No. 1 spot on Oricon's year-end album chart.

Earlier this year, BTS made headlines after announcing during "Real Bangtan Dinner 2022" that the members would temporarily take a break from group activities and focus on solo projects.

Since then, J-Hope, Jin and RM have released their solo albums "Jack In The Box," "The Astronaut" and "Indigo," respectively. The youngest member, Jungkook, made history as the first South Korean artist to perform at the FIFA World Cup opening ceremony last month with the feature single "Dreamers."

Earlier this month, Jin, the oldest member of the group, became the first BTS member to enlist in the South Korean military for mandatory service after finishing his solo project promotions. The other members' enlistment dates have yet to be announced, but they are all expected to make a comeback as a group by 2025.