Christopher BarrettK-pop stars BTS staged a free concert in Busan, South Korea, on Saturday (15 October) that was reportedly viewed by nearly 50 million people.
Around 55,000 BTS fans watched the show live at the city’s Asiad Stadium, a further 10,000 gathered at the Busan Port to watch a transmission of the BTS Yet to Come in Busan show, while 49 million livestreamed it via Weverse – a fan-focused platform operated by BTS’s management firm Hybe Entertainment. A broadcast by Korean TV channel JTBC claimed at least another 1m TV viewers, according to Variety.
The show was staged to help boost Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo, for which Korea is competing against Saudi Arabia, Italy and Ukraine.
Separately, The O2 arena (cap. 20,000) is preparing to host a major K-pop live show next month. Having debuted in May in Frankfurt, with 65,000 tickets sold, K-pop concert series K.Flex will come to the London venue next month.
Promoted by Live Company Group and Seoul-based SG2, the show on 20 November will include three hours of K-pop performances and a brief recorded pre-show film celebrating Korea.