A Samsung Galaxy partnership, BTS on top of Circle Chart's Global Week 22, and a Singapore presale that left fans stuck staring at a glitching website for hours — with RM underneath all of it, telling us the reunion almost didn't happen. This is the BTS Daily Podcast. I'm Liz, that's Joey, and today the comeback's commercial machine is sitting right next to its most human story. And I've got the receipts now, Liz. The chart crowns, the Samsung tech, RM's pre-reunion gathering — yes, I'm connecting all of it. We'll start where it actually started — in a room in 2024 — and end up at a Galaxy phone. Buckle up. So Mid-Day is pulling from RM's account here — the members broke down at that gathering, he described a difficult mental state, and he came away more resolved to keep the group together. That detail wrecks me. Everything we count — the weeks, the sellouts — exists because somebody in that room decided to fight for it. Right. And I want to be careful — this is RM in his own words, sourced, not tabloid filler. That's why we can sit with it instead of just waving at it. And then the same week, Circle Chart Week 22 — period ending May 30 — has BTS on top of the Global Chart while CORTIS and aespa grab double crowns. The timing is what gets me. The Korean industry data is landing with BTS still leading globally, right as RM's almost-didn't-happen story lands. Honestly, it's cleaner than restating our own Billboard talk for the fortieth time. They outsold the field in first-week numbers — that's the useful comparison. Now the Samsung Galaxy thing — it's an “immersive concert experience” built into the tour. Layered on top of a tour already breaking gross records. And here's my question on that “immersive” word — who's it immersive for? The fan in the venue, or the fan watching remotely? Because that gap is exactly what blew up in Singapore. And there's still no reported fifth Singapore night to absorb it. So the tech partnership announces a shinier experience the same week the basic ticketing pipe broke. Galaxy can build me an immersive concert, sure — can it build me a checkout that doesn't drop my cart? Nobody's answered the infrastructure question. So that's where we leave Friday: all the dominance everyone's reporting today sits right beside the cost RM described. Somebody fought for this in 2024, and now we're watching what it became. Mid-Day writes:
BTS leader RM revealed the members were in a difficult mental state before their reunion, with emotional conversations and tears marking a 2024 gathering. He said the experience strengthened his resolve to keep the group united as they prepared for their comeback
Okay, so RM finally said it out loud. That 2024 gathering at Jimin's place — after Jin got out of service — the members broke down. Actual tears, honest conversations about how hard it had gotten. And we should sit with what he actually said, not just the clip. The framing from his Weverse live is a difficult mental state, an uncertain future — and that he came out of it more resolved to keep the group together. That image really stays with me. Jin's the first one back, everyone's in this in-between place, and instead of drifting they end up at Jimin's house just... being honest with each other. I keep coming back to the timing today. Same week he tells us this almost didn't hold together, Circle Chart Week 22 has them topping the Global Chart. Those two facts belong together. This one's from ZAPZEE:
The Korea Music Content Association has announced the results for week 22 of 2026, from the period of May 24th May 30th, highlighting strong performances from CORTIS, aespa and BTS. According to the announcement, CORTIS and aespa each achieved double crowns on the chart, while BTS topped the Global K-pop Chart.
Circle Chart Week 22, the period ending May 30th — BTS sitting at number one on the Global K-pop Chart for ten straight weeks. And that's right as RM's pre-reunion interview is landing. Right. Korea Music Content Association made it official Wednesday. CORTIS and aespa both pull double crowns — aespa's second album moving 926,543 copies on the Album Chart — and BTS just holds steady at the top of the global side. That number's been sitting there for ten weeks — and now RM is telling us the group almost didn't come back together behind it. And I want to be precise — this is Korean domestic data, separate from the Billboard run we've been talking about all week. Different charts, same direction. Whatever was decided in that room in 2024, the receipts are dated and specific now. Samsung Mobile Press writes:
SEOUL, Korea – June 5, 2026 – Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced a new concert experience designed to help global audiences immerse themselves more deeply in‘BTS WORLD TOUR ‘ARIRANG’’ as part of its global partnership with HYBE.
Samsung is official now — Galaxy S26 Ultra, the HYBE global partnership, and a launch in Busan. This is the first real brand integration of the whole ARIRANG era. And listen to the actual pitch, Joey — they want fans to stay immersed, capture moments, engage with the live show. That's an in-venue experience. Which is the exact gap Singapore exposed. The fans in the room get the Galaxy magic. The ones who spent hours in a glitching queue and lost their tickets get... a press release. Yeah, that's the part that stings. Samsung and HYBE are talking about preserving meaningful memories, and meanwhile nobody's fixed the thing that broke for thousands of people trying to get in the door. This is the collision point for me — RM says the group almost didn't come back, that he fought for it in a room in 2024. And now there's a Samsung deal stacked on top of record grosses. The emotional cost and the commercial machine are tangled together. That's the read today. The reunion wasn't inevitable — and every Galaxy activation, every gross record exists because someone decided to fight for it. Here's Jason Taylor at IBTimes Australia:
NEW YORK — BTS has reclaimed its position as a sales powerhouse in 2026 with the March release of "Arirang," posting massive first-week numbers that outpaced recent efforts from rivals like Stray Kids and underscored the group's enduring commercial dominance even after a lengthy hiatus.
Okay, the headline pits BTS against Stray Kids, but look at the actual number — 641,000 units first week, 532,000 of those pure sales. That's the biggest group sales week in over a decade. And four million copies in South Korea in the first 24 hours. The IBTimes piece frames it as BTS reclaiming sales dominance, not just chart position — which is a different kind of claim. Right, and credit where it's due — Stray Kids ran eight straight number ones on the Billboard 200. That's a real record. So we're not doing a takedown here. No, and I'd push back gently on the versus framing — knetizens have been clear that multiple vinyl variants helped drive that 532,000. Real sell-through, sure, but let's name the driver. 8days.sg writes:
The launch of the first BTS concert ticket presale in Singapore on June 3 quickly turned into an exhausting and frustrating ordeal for some BTS fans, aka ARMY. Instead of a smooth transaction (who expected that?), fans spent their afternoon battling overwhelming digital queues, platform glitches, and scalper exploitation.
Okay, the 8days breakdown on the Singapore presale is finally specific, and it's worse than I thought — queue numbers peaked at 144 thousand, website glitches, and people straight-up losing tickets mid-checkout. Right, and that's four nights at National Stadium — December 17, 19, 20, 22 — so this was not exactly a tiny on-sale that got overwhelmed. The demand was known going in. A hundred and forty-four thousand people in a queue and Ticketmaster's answer is basically “try again June 4, try again June 5.” Like, you're just sending people back into the same mess. And the scalper exploitation piece is the part that actually burns me — fans sat hours in line while bots cleaned house. The infrastructure failed the people who were doing it the right way. And the timing hurts — RM's talking about almost not making it back as a group while ARMY is fighting a hundred and forty-four thousand-person queue just to be in the room for it. The cost on both sides is real. If you like clean, daily K-pop updates, check out BLACKPINK Daily Podcast — daily BLINK updates on Jennie, Lisa, Jisoo, and Rosé, from solo releases to charts, fashion, tours, and comeback watch. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
We’ve linked every story from today’s episode in the show notes, so if there’s an update you want to check more closely, that’s the place to start. Thanks for spending part of your Friday with us. That’s BTS Daily Podcast for today. This is a Lantern Podcast.