BTS Jung Kook reaches 3 billion Spotify streams with Seven as Standing Next to You passes 1.5 billion

Jung Kook now has two Spotify giants, and the second milestone may matter even more

More than three years after Jung Kook formally launched his solo pop career, two songs from that period have now generated more than 4.5 billion combined streams on Spotify, demonstrating that the BTS member’s individual success was not confined to the initial excitement surrounding his debut.

“Seven,” Jung Kook’s 2023 single featuring American rapper Latto, has surpassed 3 billion streams on the platform. Its follow-up “Standing Next to You,” released as the title track of his first solo album “GOLDEN,” crossed 1.5 billion streams in late July.

Spotify’s publicly displayed figures showed the explicit version of “Seven” at more than 3.04 billion plays and “Standing Next to You” at over 1.50 billion as of early August. The total does not represent unique listeners, but it illustrates the enormous scale and long-term replay value of two songs released only a few months apart.

According to BIGHIT MUSIC, “Seven” became the first song by a Korean artist to reach 3 billion Spotify streams, while “Standing Next to You” made Jung Kook the first K-pop soloist with multiple songs above the 1.5 billion mark.

Standing Next to You confirms that Seven was not an isolated hit

The 3-billion achievement attached to “Seven” is the larger headline, but the performance of “Standing Next to You” may offer the more revealing measure of Jung Kook’s solo career.

“Seven” arrived with several advantages associated with a major global debut. It featured Latto, paired an immediately memorable hook with a provocative lyrical concept and was released in both clean and explicit versions. The song also benefited from intense anticipation surrounding Jung Kook’s first official solo single outside BTS.

“Standing Next to You” faced a different challenge. Released on November 3, 2023, after “Seven” and the Jack Harlow collaboration “3D,” it entered a market where listeners had already been introduced to Jung Kook as a solo pop artist. Its success therefore depended less on the novelty of his debut and more on whether audiences wanted to remain engaged with the musical identity presented through “GOLDEN.”

The song’s retro funk-pop production, prominent bass line and performance-focused arrangement distinguished it from the softer pop sound of “Seven.” Reaching 1.5 billion streams suggests that Jung Kook was able to sustain large-scale interest across songs with different styles rather than relying on repeated versions of one formula.

Together, the two milestones give “GOLDEN” something many heavily promoted pop debuts struggle to achieve: more than one song with a life extending far beyond its original release cycle.

Seven began breaking records from its first day

Released on July 14, 2023, “Seven” was positioned as Jung Kook’s official solo debut single and quickly became one of the biggest international launches by a Korean solo artist.

The song opened at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making Jung Kook the second BTS member to top the chart individually after Jimin. It also debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts, where its worldwide streaming performance was even more pronounced.

In the United Kingdom, “Seven” reached No. 3 on the Official Singles Chart. The result established Jung Kook as a credible chart performer in both of the world’s largest English-language pop markets, rather than an artist whose success was concentrated only on fandom-driven sales.

Its Spotify performance was exceptional from the beginning. Guinness World Records recognized the explicit version of “Seven” as the fastest track at the time to reach 1 billion Spotify streams, achieving the milestone in 109 days. It surpassed the previous overall pace set by Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” and the previous male-artist benchmark jointly held by “Stay” from The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber and Harry Styles’ “As It Was.”

“Seven” also spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Global 200 and was named Billboard’s top global song of summer 2023. Those results established a strong foundation for the long-term Spotify total now associated with the track.

A second global hit built around performance

“Standing Next to You” did not match the No. 1 Hot 100 debut of “Seven,” but its chart run demonstrated greater longevity in several areas.

The song debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained on the chart for 19 weeks, making it Jung Kook’s longest-charting solo song there. It also entered the UK Official Singles Chart at No. 6 and remained on the ranking for 11 weeks.

Its accompanying choreography and music video placed greater emphasis on Jung Kook as a stage performer, combining contemporary pop presentation with visual and musical references to performers from earlier generations. An official remix featuring Usher further strengthened that connection to American R&B and performance-driven pop.

The song later won Top Global K-Pop Song at the 2024 Billboard Music Awards, while “GOLDEN” received the award for Top K-Pop Album. “Standing Next to You” and “3D” were also recognized among the most-performed songs honored at the 2025 BMI Pop Awards, which are based on U.S. radio and public-performance data.

These achievements are significant because they show activity across different measurements of popularity. Spotify counts indicate repeated on-demand listening, Billboard chart placements combine several forms of music consumption, and BMI recognition reflects how frequently songs were publicly performed within the U.S. market.

GOLDEN was designed as an international pop introduction

Jung Kook’s solo album was not structured primarily as a conventional Korean-language idol release. “GOLDEN” featured English-language songs and collaborations with international writers, producers and performers, including Andrew Watt, Cirkut, Jon Bellion, Major Lazer, DJ Snake and Jack Harlow.

That approach helped position Jung Kook within the broader global pop market while retaining the audience he had built as BTS’s youngest member and one of the group’s principal vocalists.

The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 with 210,200 equivalent album units in the United States. It also reached No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart, becoming the highest-charting album by a Korean solo artist in the country at that time.

However, strong first-week results alone cannot guarantee that listeners will continue returning to a project. The latest Spotify milestones are valuable because they measure what happened after the promotional appearances, music-show stages and release-week campaigns ended.

The explicit version of “Seven” required only 109 days to reach its first billion streams, but the road from 1 billion to 3 billion depended on the song remaining in regular listening rotation. “Standing Next to You” crossing 1.5 billion tells a similar story of sustained consumption.

Jung Kook’s streaming record is therefore not simply about one unusually successful debut. With two tracks now operating at billion-stream scale, his “GOLDEN” era has developed into a durable solo catalog whose audience continued listening long after its original promotional cycle concluded.