Since BTS announced their return with their fifth full-length album ARIRANG and their largest global tour to date, spanning from 2026 to 2027, the world has seemingly begun to revolve around this monumental axis. Although there are still two months to go until the album’s release and three months before the group’s first concert, the atmosphere has already reached a peak—clearly reflected in concrete figures.

BTS opened pre-orders for their fifth studio album ARIRANG last week. Immediately after pre-orders began, all vinyl editions of the album sold out within approximately 20 minutes on Weverse Shop. Meanwhile, as of January 22, album distributor YG PLUS reported that ARIRANG had recorded 4.06 million pre-orders in just one week, breaking the previous record held by MAP OF THE SOUL : 7.

Following the album frenzy came an equally intense box office frenzy. On January 22–23, official ticket distributors for BTS’s concerts in кσяєα and overseas opened pre-sale ticketing exclusively for verified Weverse members. Shortly after sales began, tickets for all three nights of the Goyang concerts sold out completely. The shows in Tampa and Stanford (U.S.) also saw explosive demand, prompting organizers to add one additional date in each city.

However, the ticketing frenzy quickly gave rise to alarming issues for fans, including ticket hoarding, scalping, and fraud. A post addressing these concerns by X user @samwol_9 garnered as many as 4 million views. In the post, the fan compiled a series of files allegedly showing Chinese BTS ticket resale chart, reportedly originating from WeChat. 

In these charts, ticket prices for the lowest-tier seats start at 4,000–6,000 yuan, equivalent to approximately USD 570–860. Meanwhile, some tickets are listed at prices as high as 11,000–12,000 yuan, roughly USD 1,500–1,700. By contrast, official ticket prices for BTS’s concerts, as listed by the authorized ticketing platforms, range from USD 135 to USD 180. The stark gap between face value and black-market prices highlights just how alarming the resale market has become.

Notably, while the pre-sale period was scheduled to run from January 22 to January 23 and the general sale was set to open on January 24 across the region, these price lists were leaked while the pre-sale was still ongoing. This immediately raised concerns within the fan community, with many questioning how tickets could appear on resale channels so quickly.

Some people also discussed the ticket transfer process, with some pointing out that identity verification is usually very strict. In response, others explained the common loopholes that currently exist. These loopholes are believed to include the use of fake accounts to hold tickets and the reattachment of wristbands. Fans also noted that pαѕѕport checks are rarely conducted at concerts in South кσяєα.

Meanwhile, the issue was not limited to ¢нιиα or South кσяєα. In recent hours, fans in мєχι¢σ have also reported that more than half of the tickets sold during the pre-sale were immediately relisted on secondary markets at exorbitant prices.

The ѕнσ¢к did not end there. Mexican ARMYs were further stunned when a video circulated online showing ticket resellers shouting outside the venue, declaring, “No membership required.” Pre-sale tickets for the concerts were supposed to be exclusively available to ARMY membership holders through Ticketmaster. However, in the video, the woman essentially claimed that membership was no longer necessary and that tickets were being sold at the box office to anyone who wanted to buy them.

In response, fans are calling on HYBE to directly address illegal reselling practices and organized scalping networks. Others have voiced strong backlash, stating that the situation is “unfair” to fans who spent days and nights trying to secure tickets. Under the viral post, numerous reactions have surfaced, including:

- @bts_bigнιт,@bts_bigнιт we urge you to take action of these tickets, release them to real ARMY please

- Then whats the use of pre sale membership if it goes to the wrong hands. BigHit please do soмєтнing

- Take down these rotten businessmen hard! They’ve stolen all your money! How can you not panic?! 제발 이런 사기꾼 상인들 강력히 처벌해주세요! 너희 돈 다 챙겨 갔는데! 아직도 둔감해요?! @bts_bigнιт @HYBEOFFICIALtwt @BIGHIT_MUSIC

- Kindly request for taking action to these scalpers , plz protect the TRUE fans

- also @NOL_World please investigate. tickets should go to FANS, not scalpers. do better.

- They used illegal tools to hoard a lot of tickets and sold them at a high price. Many fans didn't grab the tickets and were forced to collect these expensive second-hand tickets.

- I had panic & anxiety attacks earlier and even broke down into tears when the presale ended and I still couldn’t secure atleast 1 ticket and then these? This feels so illegal and unfair!!

- I'm angry and mad. This is really not okay. Better do soмєтнing about this This is at least 40% of floor seats (even more) being taken by resellers.

- Fawk every reseller who stole tickets from armys , bigнιт better take some actions

- These are ticket scalpers who managed to get a lot of BTS concert tickets during Presale, and then attempting to sell them to Armys at few times the original price of the ticket. This is unfair for Armys who work tirelessly to get just a BTS concert seat and this is definitely price and demand manipulation. Please look into it, the gap of resell price is way too high