On 2021, the whole world knelt before BTS.
The Weeknd, Taylor Swift and Dua Ripa were no match to BTS.
Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber and Meghan Thee Stallion allied with BTS.
Olivia Rodrigo attempted a rebellion, which succeeded at hte beginning, but was crushed eventually.
In the entire world, only Korea, led by the then-Owner of Edam Entertainment who did not take BTS seriously because she saw them rising from nowhere when she herself was Korean Pop's leading singer, resisted BTS' rule.
So basically BTS only had to worry against the Owner of Edam Entertainment, only relevant in Korea, and probably did not spend too much time thinking about a JYP boy act named Stray Kids.
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Fast forwarded 4 years, there is no need to recount the foolish decisions Hybe and BTS had made, the mess MHJ created and so on.
Meanwhile, while off radar from the mainstream of KPop, Stray Kids, led by Australians Christopher Bang and Felix Lee, jumped the hoops to reach the top position this year as SVT moves on to individual activities. And, unlike BTS, Christopher Bang and Felix Lee WON'T serve in the Korean military.
Its tours have 44 stops, with only 3 arena stops and 6 Japanese dome stops. (The Johan Cruijff Arena is a soccer stadium, as apparent since it is named after Holland's greatest soccer star. I did not name it so don't ask me why it is called an Arena.)
So 35 stadiums.
BTS' putative tour in 2020, when it was about to reach the world's apex, had 39 stops. I don't count 4 stadium dates in Korea, since the now Former Owner of Edam Entertainment and Lim Youngwoong cheapened the value of stadium concerts in there, so 35 stops.
Alas, 10 of them are Japanese dome tours , so 25 stadium dates.
Stray Kids has already outdone BTS!
However it could be argued that BTS had no chance to do a stadium tour after it reached its pinnacle, so I will give it a pass.
2026 will be the decisive year as BTS and SKZ will compete for who will have the largest concert. It is likely that SKZ, being younger and having two members from a Five Eyes nation, will have an easier time securing spots in English speaking countries.
What will happen if SKZ has a larger concert worldwide than BTS?
What will be the ramifications?
JYP is giving a full rein to Christopher Bang to conduct the group in any way he feels like, while in Hybe BTS still has to go to layers of bureaucracy, which got even stronger as the MHJ circus led to a change of personnel in there.
I thought that in BTS' final decisive engagement at least someone kinda famous in the West would come to fight it. But it now seems SKZ will be BTS' nemesis.