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K-pop band BTS beats Kanye West, Justin Bieber in retweets

March 24, 2016

BTS member Jungkook winks at the crowd during performance. (NEWSis)

The data journal, compiled and published by the Forbes U.S. edition on March 21, 2016, shows K-pop boy group Bangtan Boys at the top of “the most retweeted artists in the past 30 days.” (Yonhap)

By Chung Joo-won

SEOUL (Yonhap) — The South Korean boy band Bangtan Boys, commonly known as BTS, was dubbed the most retweeted musicians in the past 30 days, a U.S. economic magazine’s latest tally revealed.

The seven-member K-pop act turned out to be the most retweeted global artists in the past 30 days on Twitter, one of the virtual barometers of a celebrity’s popularity, according to a data journal compiled by the Forbes U.S. edition on Monday. The article was published in commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the global social messaging platform.

Bangtan Boys ranked No. 1 on the top 10 most retweeted artists chart with a dominant 5,393,500 retweets, by far dwarfing No. 2 Kanye West with 3,750,000 retweets. Other Western peers, including Justin Bieber, Zayn, Ashton Irwin of 5 Seconds of Summer and Ariana Grande, were retweeted between 2,095,000 to 3,589,100 times.

“Kanye … happens to be the second-most retweeted artist in the past month, beat out narrowly by K-Pop band Bangtan Boys,” the article reads, although the gap is more than a “narrow” one.

In addition to the number of retweets, the number of overall followers, new followers and mentions are suggested as potential gauges to measure a celebrity’s popularity. Those ranked are mostly Western artists, mainly from the United States and the United Kingdom.

BTS placed No. 3 on the top 10 list of most mentioned musicians on Twitter in the past 30 days, having been mentioned 3,983,300 times, beating 23-year-old pop singer Ariana Grande. Justin Bieber flew the highest on the list with 6,002,500, followed by Harry Styles of U.S. boy band One Direction with 4,929,700.

By overall Twitter followers in the past 30 days, Katy Perry, a U.S. pop diva and rumored to be dating Hollywood actor Orlando Bloom, topped the list with 84,656,286 followers, beating Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Lady Gaga, who had between 57,226,697 to 77,335,718 followers. These U.S. musicians also were on the top 10 list of artists with most new followers on Twitter.