BTS’s Jung Kook Scores His First Hot 100 No. 1 On His Own With ‘Seven’

After an incredibly tight race for the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100, a winner has been declared. BTS singer Jung Kook debuts his song “Seven” atop the tally thanks to massive consumption across almost all metrics that feed into the weekly ranking of the most-consumed tracks in the U.S.

“Seven” debuts atop the Hot 100 with 153,000 sales and 21.9 million streams on platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and others, according to Billboard. It reached more than six million listeners at radio, which isn’t enough to make it a charting win on the radio-only lists, but those spins helped it succeed.

The song made history when it arrived on streaming platforms, helping Jung Kook break records immediately on Spotify. He earned the largest debut of 2023 for any track by a solo male artist and for any collaboration, as rapper Latto is also featured on “Seven.” The tune marks her first No. 1 on the Hot 100 and her second top 10.

For a while, it looked like Jung Kook was about to claim the bestseller of this frame, but before the tracking week ended, Jason Aldean’s “Try That in a Small Town” pulled ahead due to the controversy surrounding his new song and video and outsold the BTS star. Nevertheless, “Seven” overperformed with both streams and sales, so it was able to beat the country tune to the summit.

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The BTS star’s “Seven” still manages to earn one of the largest sales sums of the year, coming in behind only Jimin’s “Like Crazy” and the new champion, “Try That in a Small Town.” It’s very rare that any track hits a six-digital sales figure, so while “Seven” might not end up at No. 1 on Billboard’s weekly ranking of the bestselling songs, it is still a huge success in that regard.

“Seven” marks Jung Kook’s first No. 1 and top 10 hit on the Hot 100 as a soloist, though he has reached the ranking before without his bandmates. The track is actually his third to place on the tally, following his own “Stay Alive” and his collaboration with Charlie Puth, “Left and Right.”

Including his work with BTS, Jung Kook has now reached the top 10 with 11 different songs. That sum includes half a dozen prior champions with the band that made him a global star, so his total count of No. 1s is now up to seven.

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