756K watched BTS's Bang Bang Con on Sunday across 107 countries
756K watched BTS's Bang Bang Con on Sunday across 107 countries
Published: 05:41 pm Jun 15, 2020
KATHMANDU: K-pop boy band BTS's pay-per-view lived streamed concert on June 14 has become the world's biggest paid online music event in terms of number of viewers. The Korea Herald reports that the band's label Big Hit Entertainment announced on June 15 that Bang Bang Con: The Live, which was streamed over around 100 minutes remotely from a studio in Seoul on June 14, drew some 756,000 viewers from across the world. Fans from 107 countries or regions, including South Korea, United States, China, Britain and Japan, logged in to view the online event, the company added. Big Hit also said the size of Sunday's online crowd roughly amounted to the combined audience of 15 stadium concerts. 'Despite the difficulties the concert industry is going through due to COVID-19, BTS is being evaluated as opening new possibilities through its online concert,' Big Hit said. Koreaboo reports that the 756,000 attendees is also the equivalent of filling up the Wembley Stadium in London around eight times with its 90,000 person capacity. This is not the first time BTS has sold out stadiums, being able to fill up places like the Wembley Stadium and the Seoul Olympic Stadium during past tours. The concept of Bang Bang Con revolved around rooms, with 'bang' being the Korean word for 'room'. Throughout the show, the stage production changed constantly, presenting five types of scenes, or rooms, so as to suit the themes of the songs the band performed. The set list consisted of 12 songs, performed on various intricately produced stages, with the show seamlessly woven together through intermission-type talk segments throughout. The band performed a tracklist comprising songs from different albums including Dope, Friends, and Spring Day. Having teamed up with US streaming service startup Kiswe Mobile, Bang Bang Con allowed viewers to watch the entirety of the show through six different camera angles. The K-pop septet will drop its fourth full-length album in Japan, titled Map Of The Soul: 7 - The Journey, on June 15. With the sheer volume of audience for Bang Bang Con, netizens are also busy discussing the total amount of BTS's expected earnings from the concert, reports Allkpop. Based on the cost of one ticket, which costs about 30,000 KRW, netizens roughly calculated the total amount of earnings. With 750,000 viewers alone, the sum amounts up to about 22.5 billion KRW (~$18.7 million). Though netizens were astonished by the number, fans who tuned into the event accounted that the concert was 'worth it' since the boys also went over the 90-minute limit for an additional five minutes.