BTS brings historic world tour to close with finale in Seoul

The final edition of BTS’ three-day concerts in Seoul, set for Tuesday evening at Seoul Olympic Stadium, caps the sensational “Love Yourself” world tour and its extension, “Love Yourself: Speak Yourself.”

The concert tour kicked off in Seoul in August 2018 to promote the band’s career-making “Love Yourself” album series. Under the banner, BTS staged 42 concerts in 20 cities in Asia, America and Europe.

As the tour made a splash, BTS announced an extension leg of the tour earlier this week, throwing 20 concerts in 10 major global cities.

Together, the concert series brought together more than 2 million fans, including some 132,000 spectators who bought tickets for the final shows in Seoul.

The world tour testified to and boosted BTS’ presence as the first K-pop act to dazzle the global music scene, where non-English songs have hardly scored a megahit.

It was also a dream-come-true moment for BTS members who had once wished to stage a global stadium tour. The latest concert series saw BTS debut at some of the highest-profile concert venues in the world, including Citi Field baseball park in New York and London’s Wembley Stadium.

Before Seoul, the band also hit King Fahd International Stadium in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh in October, becoming the first non-Arab artists to stage a stadium concert in the religious country.

As the world tour ran its course, BTS issued two new albums — “Love Yourself: Answer” and “Map of the Soul: Persona” — which went on to top the Billboard 200 albums chart and made the Korean team the first band since the Beatles to secure three No. 1s on the Billboard chart in a time period of less than two years.

The concert tour’s commercial success was as solid as its critical acclaim, with BTS estimated to have garnered nearly 200 billion won (US$171.3 million) in sales of tickets and merchandise through the six-month extension leg only.