BTS 'Swim' Charts on the Billboard Hot 100 for a 12th Straight Week

In three lines.

• BTS 'Swim' landed at No. 43 on the June 20 Billboard Hot 100, charting for a 12th straight week.
• That same week it reached its 8th career No. 1 on Billboard's Global Excl. US, the most No. 1s of any 2026 release.
• The fifth studio album 'Arirang' held at No. 11 on the Billboard 200.

What 12 Weeks Tell Us

Let's start with that number, 12 weeks. The Hot 100 ranks songs by bundling streaming, radio, and sales together. Plenty of songs spike for a week or two on release-week firepower alone, but to stay inside the top 100 for nearly three months, those first-week plays have to keep going without cooling off — the song has to stay on people's playlists. That's why the fact that it's sitting there in a 12th week catches the eye more than the No. 43 itself. Holding on is harder than climbing.

The Global Excl. US No. 1 reads much the same way. This chart gathers streaming and sales from around the world minus the US, and songs concentrated in just one country don't climb far here. Reaching the top means being played evenly across many regions. So an 8th career No. 1 — and the most No. 1s of any 2026 release — is also a way of saying that 'Swim' is among the songs that have spread the widest of anything out this year.

The Album Is Walking Alongside, Too

It wasn't only the single that moved. The fifth studio album 'Arirang' held at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 that same week. The album chart is a place where new records pour in every week, so keeping your spot there is especially tricky. Holding No. 11 while fresh releases push in is a sign that it's not just the title track on repeat — there are still people listening to the album all the way through. A single and an album sitting side by side looks less like one song's quick spike and more like a longer current.

Now, the Music

That's the last of the numbers. Now, the music. 'Swim' is, just as its title says, a song that moves forward like swimming. It's more about catching your breath and going on than about pushing hard, which makes it suit walking alone over turning the volume way up. There's a kind of breathing worked into the sound — stroking through the water, then lifting your head for a moment.

That for 12 weeks this song was there at the start of someone's summer — that fact will probably outlast No. 43, an 8th No. 1, any ranking at all. Songs you keep coming back to usually have a reason, and the reason lives not on a chart but inside the day of the person listening. Follow the swim yourself in the video below.