True Number Of Attendees For BTS's Gwanghwamun Performance Released By Government
Koreaboo • • entertainment
Key Points:
- Official Seoul city data estimates approximately 76,000 attendees at BTS’s Gwanghwamun concert on March 21, based on mobile signals and public transportation usage.
- Foreign visitors made up about 25% of the crowd, with Thailand, Vietnam, India, and Japan being the top countries represented, and long-term foreign residents outnumbering short-term tourists.
- Previous attendance figures varied widely: HYBE estimated 104,000 by including nearby areas, Seoul’s initial city data estimated 48,000 excluding some visitors, and media reports claimed up to 260,000 attendees.
- The large discrepancies in reported numbers have sparked ongoing debates on social media about potential over-inflation and accuracy of crowd size reporting at major K-pop events.
- The official data release has intensified discussions on how attendance figures are calculated and the implications for public perception of event scale.
