10 months ago I wrote this piece
BTS brought its biggest rival in Korea, IU, into submission when IU asked Suga to give a song, although IU immediately rebelled by cutting Suga's lines in a video perf.
And its biggest rival outside of Korea, Ed Sheeran, kind of submitted to BTS ' power when he gave the Permission to Dance song.
With both the biggest threat from home and away now kind of , at least, docile against BTS, it has no rival on world save maybe Adele, whose album date…
BTS' first rival was the now defunct BAP, which was at the same league and considered superior by more people back then. But then BAP's company simply threw the company and BAP to the toilet so they were never heard again.
By end of 2014 they were at the level of BtoB. they became friends, a friendship which appears to have lasted.
Circa 2020
By 2016, they became the chief opponent of EXO, in my opinion BTS' greatest adversary.
2016-2018 was the fight between EXO and BTS, with IU jumping into the rivalry when IU's Autumn Morning beating DNA . But generally people saw EXO as BTS' biggest rival.
And 2018, BTS jumped into the world stage. On the week of June 2, 2018, it beat Post Malone to take the first #1 in Billboard 200 chart.
On 2020, BTS beat Cardi B to reach the #1 in Billboard Hot 100, which I think is the height of the act.It became one of the top ranked acts of the world.
By 2021, with Hybe buying the company with Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, J Balvin , etc, BTS' final rival was Adele, and she kind of imploded at the end of that year as well.
At the end of 2021, the following people were ranked as the 9 most awarded singers of the world.
BTS 164 awards
The Weeknd 82
Ed Sheeran 76, Taylor Swift 63, Olivia Rodrigo 59, Justin Bieber(Hybe) 58, Dua Lipa 55, Megan the Stallion 48(most of them won because of her collaboration with BTS) and BTS; domination was so strong that a domesticist, IU, with 46 awards, was ranked in the top 9 artist of the world!
With the nearest rival overpowered 2-1, for all practical purposes, BTS no longer had any rivals. Only the Weeknd, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and the Senior Singer IU who saw BTS growing up (and never really feeling it as her rival since she treated the Hybe act as her junior) remained as BTS' rivals, but even if they combined their forces, they had no chance.
Here are a couple of comments from the thread of a rivaless BTS
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BTS don't really have a rival.
Then the events we all know now happened.
After all was said and done, the Senior Singer, who saw BTS' beginning and now this, appears to be its final rival. Although it beat her record in Gaon by a wide margin and has no comparison in Spotify, her aggregate record at Melon appears to be immortal, and by outlasting it, she proved to be the ultimate rival of the greatest act of the 21st Century.