BTS has reached record levels of awareness and favorability among American music consumers, according to new data from Luminate, a global music data and analytics firm The group's fifth studio album posted the strongest vinyl sales of any group since Luminate began tracking album sales in 1991. Luminate's second-quarter survey of U.S. music consumers found BTS' awareness — the share of consumers who recognize the group — at 42 percent, nearing the group's all-time high of 43 percent set in the third quarter of last year. That figure is 18 percentage points above the 24 percent average awareness across all artists Luminate tracks, and about four times the 11 percent average among the 22 K-pop acts in its survey. Awareness ranged from 43 percent among 13-to-17-year-olds to 59 percent among 18-to-24-year-olds, with more than half of 18-to-34-year-olds recognizing the group. Favorability, measured among consumers who said they knew about BTS, reached 46 percent — the highest since Luminate began surveying the group in 2021, when the figure stood at 34 percent. Favorability topped 40 pe