BTS ARIRANG: Seoul’s Gwanghwamun Square has not seen anything quite like this since the 2002 World Cup. After a four-year break, K-pop supergroup BTS is returning with a massive, free comeback concert in Seoul on Saturday, where police has locked down a central boulevard for the Netflix-exclusive spectacle expected to draw thousands of fans.
The show, titled BTS The Comeback Live | ARIRANG, kicks off at 8 pm KST (4:30 pm IST), streaming live on Netflix to audiences across the globe. For the first time in three years and nine months, RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook will be performing live together as a unit, sharing the first live performances of songs off their new studio album, ARIRANG.
A day before the reunion concert, BigHit Music announced that RM suffered an ankle injury and was taken to a hospital for a detailed examination and treatment, with the singer expected to be on stage but with choreography that would be partially limited.
250,000 fans expected to be in attendance
As per Korea Times, while 22,000 ticketed fans have access to the primary venue near the main stage, local authorities anticipate that an additional 240,000 spectators will occupy the surrounding areas, stretching over a kilometer toward the historic Sungnye Gate. It would mark one of the largest crowds in the area since the 2002 Korea-Japan World Cup, when around 200,000 to 250,000 people gathered to cheer for the home team.
Fans are not waiting for the gates to open. Concertgoers began queuing by midday to secure spots along nearby roads, passing through metal detectors at designated checkpoints. By Friday afternoon, ARMY members had already started gathering around central Seoul, signaling just how much pent-up anticipation had built over four years.
More than 50 million viewers across approximately 190 countries are expected to watch the return of the group from the heart of Seoul on Netflix.
South Korea’s approach to crowd safety this weekend reflects how much the country’s thinking has changed since tragedy struck three years ago. South Korean officials have taken crowd safety more seriously since the deadly 2022 Halloween surge that killed nearly 160 people.
Authorities deployed about 15,000 personnel for safety management, including 6,700 police officers. A total of 6,500 police officers, including riot police units, are deployed alongside 5,400 pieces of safety equipment such as high-altitude observation vehicles and foldable fences.
The Seoul city government has deployed 3,400 personnel, with 102 fire trucks and 803 firefighters positioned around the area, as reported by Korea Times. The crowd management itself is structured in three stages. Police has established a “crowd management line” outside the viewable concert area, limiting capacity to approximately 100,000 people, with entry to be completely blocked if that number is exceeded. The plan centres on phased management based on “hot zone density,” with Stage 1 allowing 1 person per square metre and Stage 2, at 2 persons per square metre, triggering partial entry restrictions.
The 1.2 km perimeter from Gwanghwamun to City Hall is designated as a controlled access zone. From 7:00 am KST, entry was permitted only through 31 designated entrances, with security checkpoints equipped with metal detectors at each gate.
The government stepped up anti-terror monitoring, citing global tensions and large crowds of international fans, while police deployed surveillance vehicles and jamming equipment to block unauthorized drones. Subway lockers at 17 stations, including Gwanghwamun and Gyeongbokgung, were made unavailable on Saturday due to concerns over possible terror activity.
In a first for South Korea, the Seoul local government sent out a public safety alert in English for the first time as part of its safety measures ahead of the concert. Anti-vehicle ramming barriers were placed around the perimeter, while traffic on Sejong-daero is suspended from 9:00 pm the night before through Sunday morning. Following the performance, police will also be stationed in popular districts like Itaewon, Hongdae, and Seongsu to manage the expected outflow of crowds.
Not everyone is welcoming the scope of the measures. Critics have said the controls are excessive and undercut the symbolism of performing in Gwanghwamun, seen as Seoul’s spiritual heart and most prominent gathering space.
ARIRANG: Records broken within 24 hours
BTS released ARIRANG on March 20, the day before the concert, and the numbers that followed were immediate and striking.
According to the Hanteo Chart, ARIRANG sold a staggering 3.9 million copies on its first day alone, breaking BTS’s previous first-week sales record of 3.3 million, which had been set by their 2020 album Map of the Soul: 7, in under 24 hours.
By the morning of March 21, the title track “SWIM” had hit No 1 on major domestic charts including Melon, Bugs, Genie, and FLO. “SWIM” and fan-favourite B-side “Body to Body” were still holding top positions as of 11 am KST. Presales for ARIRANG had likely surpassed 4 million copies within one week of the album being announced. For context, BTS’s last release, the 2022 compilation Proof, sold 314,000 copies in its first week in the United States alone.
ARIRANG is BTS’s fifth Korean-language and tenth overall studio album, and their first release in over three years following the hiatus for military service. The 14-track record features contributions from Grammy-winning producers including Diplo, Ryan Tedder, and El Guincho, a lineup widely seen as strengthening the album’s appeal among Recording Academy voters.
Tour scale and industry impact
The concert at Gwanghwamun is only the beginning. South Korea’s SK Securities said the group’s ARIRANG world tour is likely to become the biggest K-pop tour ever by scale and revenue, with 82 shows planned globally in stadiums of around 50,000 seats.
Within just a few days of tickets going on sale, all of the North America, Europe, and UK stadium dates sold out. The total number of tickets sold, according to Live Nation, was close to 2.4 million.
The Korea Tourism Organization reported that hotels in the Jongno and Jung-gu districts reached 98% occupancy, with a significant portion of guests arriving from North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
In 2018, BTS received the Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit, a South Korean government honour for contributions to promoting Korean culture. In 2021, the group became the first K-pop act to earn a Grammy nomination and perform solo at the ceremony, and later that year made history as the first Asian act to win artist of the year at the American Music Awards.
