The correct time for BTS to do a world tour was 2021-22.
The whole world wanted to see BTS.
Its fame was the greatest, even the Weeknd, Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa were lying low against BTS, Ed Sheeran, Justin Bieber and Meghan Thee Stallion were allied to it, and in the entire world, only IU, a singer not well known outside of Korea, was resisting BTS. In normal times IU would not be used in the same sentence as The Weeknd, Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, etc but such was the power of Korean-based KPop that a local singer was counted in the same league with these worldwide names. (Mr. Yang of YG, in his infinite wisdom, took BlackPink into a long hiatus; if he did not we would not be hearing about IU in this post)
Bang should have forged ahead with an extensive world tour, to break the highest grossing concert tour of all time. It did not matter whether it was to be broken later by another act - it would have remained forever in the record books.
Instead, Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, with 149 shows and 10.1 million attendees, made the world record and Taylor Swift became the Time Person of the Year, enshrining her forever in the history of humankind.
i want to write another tirade on Korea but I will refrain, and let's just compare cold numbers.
Taylpr Swoft did 47 shows in USA on 2023, stopping in places like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati or Kansas City, places few KPop acts bother to go since there are little demand for them in these regions.
And all of them were done from March 2023 to Aug 2023. There were no fans who cried out 'health' or some other stupid stuff to her.
Then she did
Mexico - 4 shows
Brazil-6
Japan-4
Australia-7
Singapore - 6
Sweden-3
Portugal-2
France - 1 (Lyon - Paris was not available because of the olympics)
Scotland - 1
Liverpool - 1
Wembley - 8 (in two segments)
Ireland - 3
Poland-3
Austria-3
Then, 9 more shows in USA and 9 in Canada.
Can BTS march that? I doubt it
With their older, washed up bodies worn by the military, which never really recovers, they would be lucky to do 50 shows
If they ever decide to waste time in Korea, they have to do at least 4 shows in the half stadium at Goyang , cutting off time for more lucrative venues.
If they were having a concert tour in 2021-22, would the government of Korea have stopped them when they were breaking world records?
I seriously doubt it. There would be some salty Koreans, but there would always be people like them.
Once the momentum is gone, it never returns. Again BTS should have abandoned Korea altogether, and let Lim Youngwoong and Son Heungmin have it, in 2021. Now, anything is just a faint afterglow of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour , especially when a couple of Korean-American virtual idols have taken over the entire narrative of Pop.