SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – MAY 21: BTS attends a press conference for BTS’s new digital single ‘Butter’ at … [+]
BTS scored the bestselling song of 2021 in America, and now that all the numbers have been tabulated and made public, it’s clear that nobody else stood a chance when it came to competing with the South Korean pop band. In fact, the biggest hit of the past year outpaced every other title by a massive margin, even other smashes by the same septet.
“Butter” by BTS has been named the bestselling song of 2021 in the U.S., and it wasn’t even close. According to MRC Data’s annual year-end report, the catchy cut sold a whopping 1.889 million copies throughout the year. It’s incredibly rare for any title to come even close to that sum these days, so it’s not entirely shocking that “Butter” wrapped 2021 as the only single to hit one million pure purchases.
As if that wasn’t enough of an accomplishment for BTS, “Butter” was also the only song to sell half a million copies. The No. 2 bestseller of 2021, Walker Hayes’ “Fancy Like,” missed reaching that mark by just 1,000 copies. “Butter” outsold the runner-up smash more than three and a half times over, easily outpacing the country track.
2021 marks the second year in a row that BTS has landed the only million-seller in America. The same band’s “Dynamite” ended 2020 as the only track to hit that important sales sum. Now, the seven-member vocal outfit has demonstrated once again that they can truly sell like nobody else in the business.
“Butter” debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in early June, and it ended up ruling the all-encompassing ranking of the most-consumed tunes in the U.S. for 10 nonconsecutive frames. The single performed well on streaming platforms and eventually at radio, but it was fans buying it in enormous numbers that played the biggest role in sending it right to the peak position on the tally.
BTS’s bestseller ruled over Billboard’s Digital Song Sales chart for a record-tying 18 weeks, though not all in a row. “Butter” is now on the same level as “Dynamite” for the most frames atop the purchase-only list, with both tunes hitting that 18-week mark in 2021. The cut started at No. 1 on the tally with an eye-popping 242,800 copies. It went on to sell at least 100,00 copies in eight different weeks, and it was one of just three tracks to sell at least that many units in one frame. The other two were also by BTS, as their solo smash “Permission to Dance” and their Coldplay collaboration “My Universe” were massive sellers upon their arrivals as well.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2022/01/06/btss-butter-was-the-only-song-to-sell-one-million-copies-in-america-in-2021/