BTS' 'ARIRANG' tour tops ticket scalping reports over past year
K-pop boy group BTS react during their "ARIRANG" world tour concert in Los Angeles, Wednesday. Courtesy of BigHit Music
Korea's most-reported concerts for illegal ticket sales over the past year were for K-pop supergroup BTS' "ARIRANG" world tour, data showed Thursday.
The tour drew 102 reports to the Korea Creative Content Agency's (KOCCA) online board for reporting ticket scalping between September 2025 and Aug. 27, 2026, the highest of any event, according to the data submitted by the agency to Rep. Jeong Jun-ho of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea.
Standalone concerts of Psy came in second with 88 reports, followed by those of BIGBANG with 69, Lim Young-woong with 64, Day6 with 51, British band Oasis with 48 and The Weeknd with 44.
"These figures reflect only reports to KOCCA's online board," Jeong said, adding that the actual damage from ticket scalping is likely much wider. For example, he said, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism found 1,868 online posts suspected of illegal ticket sales for the BTS shows, which is more than 18 times higher than the reported cases.
The lawmaker also said KOCCA logged 7,639 scalping reports from January 2023 through last month, with music concerts accounting for 5,751 cases, or 75.3 percent. This was followed by "other" events, such as fan meet-and-greets and stage greetings by movie stars, with 1,188 cases (15.6 percent), stage musicals with 423 (5.5 percent) and gaming events with 277 (3.6 percent).
Nearly eight in 10 transactions (79.8 percent) were made on secondhand platforms, such as Karrot, Ticketbay and Bunjang, while social media — X, Facebook, Instagram and Telegram — accounted for 20.2 percent.
Yet the ministry has referred only 11 accounts suspected of involvement in ticket scalping to the police since 2022, on four occasions (two each in 2024 and 2026), Jeong said.
"Valid reports that could pinpoint ticketing details, such as reservation numbers, were at most 10 percent of all reports," he said, noting that a new law imposing fines of up to 50 times the sale price took effect last month but its impact remains uncertain.
Overseas scalpers are exploiting a legal loophole by selling to foreign buyers through Chinese or U.S. websites that fall outside Korean jurisdiction, the lawmaker added, calling for stronger measures against evolving tactics.