South Korea’s global sensation BTS made a dramatic comeback in Seoul on Saturday, performing a free concert that drew tens of thousands of fans after nearly four years away from the stage. The long pause was driven by the country’s conscription law: the first of the group’s seven members began mandatory military service in 2022 and the last member completed it in June 2025.
Against the ornate backdrop of Gwanghwamun Gate and Gyeongbokgung Palace, the band opened with an energetic greeting. Leader RM told the crowd, “Hi Seoul! We’re back!” J-Hope thanked fans for their patience and vowed the group would give everything they had, while Jin recalled asking supporters to wait at their last Busan concert and said he was grateful for their return.
Police estimated attendance could reach as high as 200,000. Organizers installed additional screens for fans farther from the main stage, and the one-hour show at Gwanghwamun Square was livestreamed worldwide on Netflix. The performance served as the kickoff to BTS’s 82-show global tour, a run industry analysts expect will generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.
The concert coincided with the release of BTS’s fifth studio album, Arirang. The band’s label reported nearly 4 million copies sold in the first 24 hours and roughly five million pre-saves on Spotify, a record for a K-pop group. BTS opened the set with “Body to Body,” the album’s opening track.
Security was extensive: authorities deployed about 16,000 police and security personnel, temporarily shutting neighborhoods and suspending some road and rail services for nearly 30 hours. While the heightened measures reflect lessons learned after the deadly Halloween 2022 crowd crush, some critics argued the heavy security presence weakened the symbolism of the chosen venue. Gwanghwamun Square is widely seen as Seoul’s civic and spiritual center, a historic site for mourning, protest and public gatherings.
Suga told the audience that performing at Gwanghwamun and naming the album Arirang—after a centuries-old Korean folk song about separation, longing and resilience—was meant to highlight the group’s focus on identity. BTS, short for Bangtan sonyeondan (often translated as Bulletproof Boy Scouts), debuted in 2013 and has since built a global “Army” of supporters. They became the first K-pop act to top Billboard’s Hot 100 with “Dynamite” in 2020 and have used their platform to promote self-reflection and back causes such as UNICEF campaigns, Black Lives Matter and efforts to combat anti-Asian racism.