BTS Becomes 1st Foreign Artist In History To Top Oricon’s Year-End Artist Rankings 2 Years In A Row

BTS has made Oricon history for the second year in a row!

Last year, BTS became the first foreign artist ever to top Oricon’s year-end artist rankings, which rank the best-selling artists of the year in Japan. The annual rankings are determined by calculating the total sales of an artist’s singles, albums, and DVDs, as well as their streaming data, for the entire year.

On December 23, Oricon announced that BTS had done it again. The group came in at No. 1 on the year-end artist rankings for 2022, giving them the distinction of being the first—and so far, only—artist to top the annual rankings two years in a row.

According to Oricon, the ongoing success of BTS’s long-running hits “Dynamite,” “Butter,” and “Permission to Dance,” along with the strong digital downloads achieved by their anthology album “Proof,” all contributed to the group remaining No. 1 for a second consecutive year.

The BTS members remarked, “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.”