BTS Is Hitting the Road in 2026 — Here’s a Brief History of Past Tours
Last week, the K-pop supergroup announced their new album, due out on March 20, and that a world tour was in the works. Learn more here.
Last week, K-pop megagroup BTS announced that following their reunion after fulfilling Korea’s mandatory military service, they will release their new album on March 20th. They’ve even got a nifty countdown website set up to mark the occasion.
BTS also mentioned that there will be a world live tour scheduled to support the release of their new album. To date, BTS has not yet announced any 2026 dates, but you can follow all tour announcements on Bandsintown.
Here’s a brief history of BTS’s live tours, how they’ve evolved over time, and what we know about their 2026 tour plans as of this date.
🌏 Early Years & First Tours (2014–2016)
BTS started touring internationally not long after debuting in 2013.
Their Red Bullet Tour, one of their first extended tours outside Korea, took them to cities across North and South America, Asia, and Oceania. It marked their first major international presence and helped them build early global fanbases.
Their early tours focused on growing their global audience, refining their live performance skills, and sharing energetic choreography and fan interactions. BTS was already an extremely high-level dance and performance group, but their early tours reflected a raw energy and stage presence that would be tuned to perfection over time.
🏆 Breakthrough World Tours (2017–2019)
The Wings Tour (2017–2018)
The multi-year Wings Tour cemented BTS as a globally competitive act, encompassing Asia, North America, South America, Europe, and more, and selling out consistently no matter where they played.
Critics praised the precision, choreography, and solo showcases, and it helped break records for K-pop acts performing in arenas outside Asia. The Wings Tour helped establish BTS as more than a leader in K-pop live performance; it turned them into a household name everywhere in the world.
Love Yourself: Speak Yourself (2019)
Love Yourself: Speak Yourself was their largest tour at the time, which included stadium shows in iconic venues like London’s Wembley and New York’s Citi Field. The theme of self-love resonated worldwide and brought BTS huge commercial success — selling out massive venues unprecedented for a Korean artist.
These tours weren’t just musical gigs — they became cultural moments, combining powerful messages, storytelling, high-production staging, and emotional fan involvement. Due to forthcoming hiccups like the COVID-19 pandemic and the band’s mandatory military service approaching, this will have been the biggest tour until what we expect 2026-27 to bring.
🦠 Pandemic & Adaptation (2020–2022)
Map of the Soul Tour (Planned for 2020)
This tour was postponed and eventually canceled due to COVID-19, a huge disappointment for fans (ARMY) and the group. Although they began creating virtual performances during the pandemic to keep their fans entertained and engaged, this tour was never able to manifest in the way the band had originally planned and prepared for it to.
Permission to Dance On Stage (2021–2022)
Eventually, throughout the extended hiatus of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21, BTS pivoted to hybrid formats: partial in-person shows (ie: Las Vegas) plus online streaming and live viewing to adapt to pandemic constraints.
These concerts blended classic BTS energy with global accessibility via digital platforms, and were well-received as televised/streamable entertainment.
🪖 Military Hiatus & Solo Tours (2022–2025)
South Korea’s mandatory military service saw BTS pause group touring for a number of years. During this time, members pursued individual projects. Most notably:
Suga | Agust ‘D-Day’ Tour (2023) received strong critical praise as a compelling solo effort blending artistry and theatrics. Tamar Herman of Variety said that “the concert unveils itself like a noir musical with a storm of thunder and lightning amid a purple haze”. And Teen Vogue‘s Jae-ha Kim compared it to a rock opera.
J-Hope’s Hope on the Stage Tour (2025) played to large audiences across Asia and the US, including historic solo stadium gigs, and even showcased high ticket demand. This was the first worldwide concert tour by the rapper J-Hope, in support of his debut studio album, Jack in the Box.
These solo tours highlighted each member’s unique style and hinted at how live performance artistry within BTS had diversified.
🎉 Group Reunion & Next Tour (2026)
After all members completed military service in 2025, BTS announced that their new album would hit shelves on March 20, 2026, and that they’re currently planning a world tour to support the record — their first full group tour since 2019.
Fans globally are very excited, with anticipation that this will be their biggest tour ever — possibly 65+ dates worldwide. This Reddit thread features a statistic that expectations of the massive commercial impact project to earn near ~1.3–1.4 trillion won (~$957M USD) from tickets and merch alone.
So far, industry and fan sentiment is overwhelmingly positive: global fan clubs are buzzing, social media is full of excitement, and many see this as a major global pop cultural event.
Throughout these phases in the history of this group, BTS’ shows have grown more ambitious in production, emotionally resonant in theme, and more global in reach — transforming from teen-idol concerts into cultural phenomena shaping worldwide pop music touring.
Follow BTS on Bandsintown here.
