BTS’ ‘Dynamite’ is blowing up, and it’s raising some red flags

BTS’ new song is proving to be dynamite on streaming platforms. And it’s triggering some unexpected explosions.

The K-pop superstars returned last Friday with ‘Dynamite,’ their first English-language song.

It was a massive and immediate explosion. By the end of day one, it had clocked up 101.1 million views on YouTube, for the biggest opening debut on the streaming platform.

That also makes ‘Dynamite’ the first music video in history to blast past 100 million YouTube hits in a 24-hour period. And it crushes the previous day-one mark set by Blackpink’s ‘How You Like That’ (86.3 million views).

Check out ‘Dynamite’ by BTS:

Additionally, ‘Dynamite’ sets an all-time mark for the biggest music video premiere in YouTube’s history, with over 3 million concurrent viewers waiting by and logged on for when ‘Dynamite’ dropped.

It’s early days, but after the weekend it emerged as the frontrunner for the U.K. singles chart title and BTS are on pace for a career high on Billboard’s Pop Songs radio airplay chart.

Almost certainly, ‘Dynamite’ will give BTS their highest charting track in the U.K., and elsewhere.

Released by Big Hit Entertainment, the tune should get a bump thanks to the release Monday of a four-track Dynamite EP, featuring two new remixes, and when the lads perform the song 30th August at the 2020 MTV VMAs.

On Spotify, the market-leading streaming brand, the official day-one tally for ‘Dynamite’ is a “little more complicated,” notes MBW.

The track blasted away with 7.7 million chart-eligible streams in its opening 24 hours, according to official Spotify Chart figures.

Though market researcher Chart Data and a Spotify spokesperson revealed that its total day-one playcount was upwards of 12.6 million.

So why the discrepancy?

MBW takes a deep-dive into the numbers, and questions whether (or how) BTS’ fanbase, the hyper-coordinated ARMY, played a hand in lifting those early numbers.

“And, if they did so without turning to those dodgy paid-for stream farms, were these streams any less legitimate than your average play on the service?”

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This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.