Jimin Sets a Spotify Record Nobody Saw Coming

Jimin has done it again — and this time, without a featured artist, without a sustained promotional campaign, and without releasing any new music. On May 8, 2026, his solo track "Who" crossed 2.4 billion streams on Spotify, becoming the first song by an Asian solo artist without a credited collaboration to achieve that milestone on the platform. The record arrived 659 days after the song's original release — and the streak that produced it shows no signs of slowing.

What makes this number remarkable is not just the size of it, but how it got there. "Who," the lead single from Jimin's second solo album MUSE, has been accumulating streams through sustained organic listening rather than algorithmic boosts, release-window surges, or viral moments tied to new content. Day after day, listeners have returned to it of their own accord. And the result is a chart streak — 659 consecutive days on Spotify's daily global top songs chart — that no K-pop solo track has ever matched.

The Record in Context

Spotify's all-time most-streamed songs list is a catalog of global pop culture's defining moments. Songs that reach the upper tiers of it generally did so with the backing of massive commercial infrastructure: major label promotional campaigns, radio dominance across multiple markets, strategic syncs in major films or television series, high-profile collaborations with established Western artists, or the kind of sustained algorithmic placement that significant industry investment can secure.

"Who" had none of that — at least not in the traditional sense. Jimin released MUSE in July 2024 while the rest of BTS were still completing their military service obligations. The promotional period surrounding the album was relatively compact, and the album itself was positioned as a personal artistic statement rather than a commercial crossover. There were no featured artists on the lead single. There was no touring or sustained commercial push in the months that followed the release. And yet the song kept streaming, kept charting, and kept climbing.

At 2.4 billion streams, "Who" now sits at No. 37 on Spotify's all-time global rankings — the highest position ever reached by a K-pop solo track without any collaboration credit. For comparison, most songs that appear in the top 50 of Spotify's all-time chart are either years-long catalog staples that have benefited from a decade or more of listener accumulation, or blockbuster mainstream crossovers backed by full industry machinery. Jimin's placement, achieved through what effectively amounts to genuine and sustained listener loyalty, stands apart from both categories.

What 659 Consecutive Days on the Chart Really Means

Consecutive chart presence is a metric that streaming analysts pay close attention to, precisely because it is one of the harder numbers to game. A song can spike to the top of a chart through coordinated fan streaming, editorial playlist placement on release day, or the algorithmic lift that comes from a viral social media moment. Maintaining a daily chart position for 659 consecutive days — nearly two years — requires something more durable: a meaningful number of listeners who keep coming back on their own, without external prompting, long after the initial release energy has faded.

"Who" has been on Spotify's daily global top songs chart every single day since its release on July 19, 2024. That means through the remainder of BTS's military service period, through the group's gradual return to full activity, through the release of their fifth regular album ARIRANG in March 2026, through BTS's world tour launch in April, and through the three Mexico City shows in early May that drew 150,000 fans total — through all of it, without interruption, the song has maintained its chart presence.

ARMY, BTS's globally organized fandom, has long been recognized as one of the most coordinated and dedicated listener communities in music. Streaming coordination is a documented part of how the fandom supports artists they care about. But even accounting for that factor, a 659-day daily chart streak at the kind of volume that places a song in the all-time top 40 represents something broader than organized listening behavior. It suggests a global audience for whom "Who" has become a genuine, self-sustaining part of their musical life.

MUSE and What Comes Next

The "Who" milestone does not exist in isolation. The full MUSE album has now accumulated over 3.98 billion streams on Spotify — placing the 4 billion mark within clear and imminent reach. When it crosses that threshold, it will add another entry to a growing list of records that Jimin has established as a solo artist, building a second career alongside his work as a BTS member that is substantive enough to stand on its own terms.

The 2.4 billion figure for "Who" also arrives at a particularly significant moment for BTS as a complete group. The seven members are currently in the middle of their ARIRANG world tour, which has just completed a historic Mexico City stop — three sold-out shows, 150,000 total attendees, and an economic impact estimated at $107.5 million by the Mexico City Chamber of Commerce. The North American leg continues through San Francisco and beyond, and the group has been officially confirmed for the halftime show at the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final.

The layered nature of that timeline — solo records breaking in the background while the group is simultaneously making news on the world stage — reflects a dynamic that has defined the later phase of BTS's career. Each member has developed a distinct solo identity with a substantial audience of their own. Jimin's streaming numbers are the clearest evidence of how deep that individual resonance runs, even when the songs doing the streaming were released more than a year and a half ago.

A Record That Will Keep Growing

With 659 consecutive daily chart appearances and no sign of deceleration, "Who" is not finished. The next round milestone — 2.5 billion streams — is already visible at the current pace of accumulation. Whether it ultimately reaches 3 billion before the next chapter of BTS's group activity reshapes the streaming landscape is a question that analysts and fans are tracking quietly in the background.

For now, the record stands: 2.4 billion streams. No featured artist. No new promotional push. No new music to drive listeners back to the platform. Just a song from July 2024 that people are still choosing to hear — one stream at a time, 659 days running and counting.