On July 14, Jung Kook released “Seven” (feat. Latto). Latto, the featured artist, previously gained recognition as the winner of the reality show The Rap Game in 2016 and was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2023 Grammys. Her best-charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 to date was “Big Energy,” which reached number three. Interestingly, the album she released prior to her collaboration on “Seven” is titled 777, adding an intriguing coincidence. Outside of his work with BTS, Jung Kook’s highest-charting Hot 100 hit as a solo artist was “Left and Right,” the Charlie Puth song he featured on, at number 22.

There were a lot of noteworthy new songs coming out the Friday “Seven” was released, including “What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish, “Overdrive” by Post Malone and “Rush” by Troye Sivan. Not only that, but songs like “vampire” (Olivia Rodrigo), “Last Night” (Morgan Wallen), “Fast Car” (Luke Combs) and “fukumean” (Gunna) continued to dominate streaming charts. With all that in mind, let’s take a closer look at how “Seven” performed in its first week. The chart data for the seven days following July 14 will be reflected in the Billboard chart dated July 29.

According to Billboard, “Seven” amassed 5.1 million streams and sold 34,000 copies in the United States on the day of its release. Even after the weekend fever, the song continued to be streamed 2.5 million times every day. By the end of the week, the song had been streamed nearly 22 million times and sold 153,000 album equivalent units. The streaming figures for “Seven” surpassed all the new songs released on the same day, and now sits at number four overall behind “Last Night,” “fukumean” and “Fast Car.” With those 150,000 sales—the second highest of any song for the week—thrown on top of all its streaming figures, “Seven” climbed to the top spot on the Hot 100. 

The song’s performance on the charts is noteworthy, but what is particularly impressive is its extensive streaming numbers, especially in the US. On Spotify, “Seven” swiftly rose to number one on Spotify’s Daily Top Songs Global chart the same day it was released and stayed there the whole week. The 100 million streams it received over the course of the week easily put it in first place. In fact, the 100 millionth stream of “Seven” happened just six days in, making it a record. The song was also number one on the platform’s US daily chart with over two million streams, and third on the weekly US chart behind Gunna’s “fukumean” and Olivia Rodrigo’s “vampire.”  And there’s only a small percentage of streams’ difference between them. It’s the first time the Weekly Top Songs Global and Daily Top Songs USA were simultaneously dominated by a K-pop artist.

The song is written in English, but it still marks a historic debut for an Asian artist, and radio airplay is reflecting that significance. A surprise explicit summer song was the last thing I was expecting among solo discographies of BTS members. But the fact that this song has the potential to beome one of the biggest K-pop hits is more exciting. As K-pop continues to explore new themes and approaches, the bold move of “Seven” and its early success may serve as inspiration for the next generation of K-pop artists to take similar courageous steps.