BTS Jin's 'The Astronaut' has shone with global popularity by charting for the 17th week on the U.S. Billboard charts.
Jin's 'The Astronaut' re-entered the Billboard 'World Digital Song Sales Chart' on November 7 at 4th place. With this, 'The Astronaut,' released in October last year, has set a significant record in the history of K-pop solo artists over the past ten years with its 17 weeks on the chart.
Released on October 28th last year, Jin's 'The Astronaut' debuted at number 1 on the 'World Digital Song Sales Chart' and remained at the top for three consecutive weeks, marking the longest number 1 record among K-pop solo releases in recent ten years.
Additionally, during its 17 weeks on the 'World Digital Song Sales Chart,' it spent 14 weeks in the 'TOP10', showcasing its unique presence.
In 2022, 'The Astronaut' made a high-selling debut for the year with 44,000 sales in its first week on the 'Digital Song Sales' chart, ranking it fifth highest among all songs released that year, and landed at number 58 on Billboard's 2022 year-end 'Digital Song Sales' chart based on this first week's data. This was the only K-pop solo song on that year-end chart.
Jin's first 'The Astronaut' continues its hot popularity with over 280.26 million streams on Spotify, the world's largest platform, and its official music video is nearing 100 million plays with 96.79 million views. Moreover, on September 11th, it reached number 1 on Ghana's iTunes Top Songs chart, marking a total of number 1s in 107 countries. In the United States, home to pop music, it became the fastest K-pop solo to reach number 1 on the iTunes Top Songs chart in just 1 hour and 23 minutes.
The record sales of 'The Astronaut' are still being surpassed around the world. Jin's 'The Astronaut' first entered the 'Billboard Hot 100' chart (dated November 12th) at the highest position of 51 for a Korean solo song released in the last ten years.
According to Billboard News at the time, 'The Astronaut' debuted at 51 with 4.9 million U.S. streams and 44,000 downloads sold in its first week after release on October 28th. The 'Hot 100' chart is based on U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay, and sales data, and Jin's debut at 51 on 'The Astronaut' without radio airplay, only streaming and sales, was even more remarkable.
'The Astronaut' also debuted at number 1 on Billboard's 'Digital Song Sales Chart' and the 'World Digital Song Sales Chart.'
On the 'Digital Song Sales' chart, 'The Astronaut' took first place with 44,000 sales, setting a record for the highest first-week sales by a Korean solo artist in recent ten years.
On the 'World Digital Song Sales Chart,' 'The Astronaut' became Jin's third number 1 solo song, following 'Yours' and 'Super Tuna.'
'The Astronaut' also debuted at number 10 on the 'Global 200 chart', which ranks songs based on worldwide streaming and sales in over 200 countries/regions.
This is the first Korean song by a solo artist to enter the 'Global 200's' 'Top 10' and set the record for the highest debut sales for a Korean solo in the history of the 'Global 200' with 62,000 sales.
'The Astronaut' entered at number 6 on the 'Global 200 Excl. U.S.' chart, the highest-ranking song by a Korean male solo artist. Jin was the first BTS member to enter both the 'Global 200' and 'Global Excl. U.S.' charts simultaneously.
Jin debuted proudly at number 1 on the 'Emerging Artists' chart and at number 10 on the 'Artist 100' chart. He entered at number 3 on the 'Hot Trending Songs Weekly' chart, the highest for a Korean artist, marking two consecutive weeks in the 'TOP 10' following a chart revamp.
As the 1st anniversary of the release approaches, there is an ongoing celebration of Jin's popularity despite his military service. Japanese fans placed a full-page promotion in a defense newspaper to commemorate Special Forces Soldier Kim Seokjin's service, and Korean fans placed a full-page ad in the Ministry of National Defense magazine. The joyful news of these achievements adds to the anticipation for Jin's activities after his military discharge.
