BTS performing on the ARIRANG World Tour in Paris on July 17, 2026. Photo: Chiyako92, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

ARMY, run it up — BTS just made streaming history again.

“SWIM” passed 1 billion streams on Spotify on October 24, according to Big Hit Music, becoming the first song released anywhere in the world in 2026 to hit the milestone — and the fastest BTS song ever to get there. MusicTimes

Released March 20 as the title track of the group’s fifth studio album “ARIRANG,” the song took roughly seven months to reach a billion: the first 500 million arrived May 26, and the second 500 million took about five more months. allkpop

The run started huge. “SWIM” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, stayed on the chart for 20 consecutive weeks, and peaked at No. 2 in the UK — the group’s best showing there. Its first day on Spotify drew about 14 million plays, the biggest single-day total for any 2026 release.

The milestone puts “SWIM” in elite company: it is BTS’s seventh song in Spotify’s billion-stream club, joining “Dynamite,” “Butter,” “Boy With Luv,” “FAKE LOVE,” “Life Goes On,” and the Coldplay collaboration “My Universe.” StarNews Korea

Co-written by RM, “SWIM” compares life’s challenges to powerful waves — about pressing forward at your own pace instead of fighting the current. Its parent album “ARIRANG” passed 5 billion Spotify streams on October 14, with all 14 tracks above 200 million streams each.

BTS takes the “ARIRANG” tour to São Paulo next, with shows October 28, 30 and 31.