On May 16, media outlets simultaneously reported that BTS’s fifth studio album ARIRANG had reached No. 1 on Spotify’s “Weekly Top Albums Global” chart (tracking period: May 8–14). The title track SWIM ranked No. 3 on the “Weekly Top Songs Global” chart, while all 13 tracks from the album have remained on the chart for eight consecutive weeks. In particular, SWIM continued to hold its place in the top 3 of the “Daily Top Songs Global” chart dated May 14 at No. 3, marking the song’s 56th consecutive day in the top 3.

Meanwhile, Drake has also recently shaken up the music industry with the consecutive releases of three albums: ICE MAN, HABIBTI, and MAID OF HONOUR. This is considered Drake’s biggest streaming explosion since For All The Dogs in 2023.

Notably, in the track Make Them Cry, Drake υиєχρє¢тє∂ly referenced BTS with the lyric: "I'm feeling like BTS 'cause it took the whole career for me to be Seoul discovered", expressing a sense of connection with BTS’s rise to fame, as both artists spent years working persistently before reaching global influence. BTS also reacted enthusiastically to the shout-out by posting a reaction video to the song and the rap verse with the caption “?”.

While all of this initially created a fun atmosphere, Spotify soon turned things tense and controversial due to an issue related to streaming achievements!

Specifically, on May 16, Spotify posted a statement declaring Drake “the most-streamed artist of 2026 in a single day,” ICE MAN as “Spotify’s most-streamed album of 2026 in a single day,” and Make Them Cry as “the most streamed song in a single day in 2026.”

However, immediately after the post appeared, countless ARMYs quickly pointed out inconsistencies. According to the data tracked by the fandom, BTS’s SWIM recorded over 14.6 million streams on its first day of release, while Make Them Cry only recorded a little over 13 million streams. This led many people to believe that Spotify had announced incorrect achievements and ѕтяιρped BTS of the record. Many fans directly reported the issue to Spotify, asking the platform to review the information.

About 10 hours after the original post, Spotify suddenly edited the content. The revised version only stated: “ICE MAN became Spotify’s most-streamed album of 2026 in a single day, and Drake became the most-streamed artist in a single day in 2026 so far.” Spotify simultaneously explained that the confusion happened because “The initial streams review process was completed manually,” while maintaining Drake’s “most-streamed artist and album in a single day in 2026” records and only removing the “most streamed song in a single day” achievement.

Even so, the response still failed to satisfy the majority of ARMYs. Many expressed confusion over the explanation about “two different album tracks being combined”. Some fans even accused Spotify of trying to justify undervaluing BTS. Over the years, the fandom has repeatedly criticized Spotify for frequently making mistakes related to BTS’s achievements or failing to post proper promotional recognition when the group reaches major milestones. This latest incident only intensified the long-standing frustration.

Some fans also questioned the transparency of Drake’s Spotify records after pointing out that Spotify posted claiming he had the “most streams of 2026” while the tracking day had not even fully ended yet. One fan even bluntly stated: “‘Mistakenly combined’? No, they just got paid because they have a beef with BTS being successful, fcking rac!st”

Not only Spotify, but other media outlets such as Billboard and Talk of the Charts were also called out by netizens for posting inaccurate information or publishing reports before the official streaming numbers were publicly visible.

On social media, the controversy surrounding this topic continues to escalate, with comments such as:

- This makes no sense how could they combine two separate songs? And many ppl are getting confused by the difference between“biggest debut” (as in the streams on the first day of a song’s release) and “biggest streaming day” (doesn’t need to be debut).

- They always make these 'mistakes' with BTS. But now, nobody can convince me that they did it mistakenly. Because they didn't even posted anything when swim got the debut record

- Which makes sense cuz he released 3 albums & 52 songs, so ofc he would have more single-day streams, overall. The fact that Spotify posted for Drake’s records but never did for BTS just shows how biased they are bruh.

- Western industry always resort to lying to undermine BTS record..its act like that kpoop chart fandoms here. So embarrαѕѕing Btw Didn't Drake release more than 1 album? They should count it as separate album

- They would’ve gotten away with lying if the fans didn’t check the numbers and called them out. They still avoid giving credit where it’s due. Manually reviewing my a**

- Wouldn't combining streams from 2 songs result in a number bigger than 14m, the mistake was saying that it was biggest debut with 13m and change. Pardon my math it's always been my weakest subject

- Next time, check carefully before posting. It’s embarrαѕѕing for a platform this big to spread misinformation. Glad ARMY knows the real numbers, but honestly, we can’t trust you anymore.

- Funny how these "mistakes" only seem to happen when BTS is involved. You got caught lying, posted the weakest apology possible, and still couldn't say that SWIM holds the biggest debut on Global Spotify in 2026 with 14.6M streams. Embarrαѕѕing for a platform that owns the data