Most fans know BTS as the world's biggest group. What they don't know is how many times BTS almost ended.
This isn't a story about one crisis. It's about a group that was pushed to the edge — again and again — and chose to keep going every single time. Not because it was easy, but because they had each other. And because they had ARMY.
There's a common myth that BTS started from nothing. That's not entirely true. When BTS debuted in 2013, they had something most rookie groups didn't — a famous name behind them. Bang Si-hyuk, their producer, was already a legend in Korean music. He had written some of K-pop's biggest hits and played a major role in making g.o.d one of Korea's most beloved groups.
So when Bang Si-hyuk announced he was launching a boy group, people paid attention. BTS won rookie awards. They built a solid early fanbase. The debut wasn't a failure — it was promising.
BTS released "N.O" — an ambitious follow-up that the company bet heavily on. It flopped. The public response was brutal. And this is where the real crisis began.
Big Hit Entertainment had poured enormous money into creating BTS. Bang Si-hyuk was deep in debt. The company needed the next album to work, but without results, how do you convince investors to keep funding you? Existing investors started demanding their money back. There was no guarantee of a next album.
The members felt it too. They weren't kids playing at being idols — they knew the company was struggling. The question "Are we going to disband?" wasn't hypothetical. It was real.
BTS regrouped. They poured everything into their next album — and out came "I Need U" and the beginning of the Hwayangyeonhwa (The Most Beautiful Moment in Life) series. It was a massive hit in Korea. BTS had made it to the next level.
After the financial crisis passed, BTS went into overdrive. The schedule was brutal — not just promoting in Korea, but pushing into markets no Korean artist had ever entered. The US, Europe, Latin America. For members who didn't speak English (everyone except RM), the challenge was immense. Imagine trying to promote yourself in a country where you can't even have a basic conversation. That was their reality.
And as BTS grew, so did the attacks.
When BTS started threatening the dominance of Korea's "Big 3" entertainment companies (SM, YG, JYP), something ugly happened. Rival fandoms and industry insiders began targeting BTS with organized harassment campaigns. Rumors, false accusations, coordinated online attacks — it was relentless.
What hurt BTS the most wasn't the attacks on themselves. It was watching ARMY get attacked for defending them. The guilt of knowing your fans are being hurt because of you — that weighed heavily on every member.
During this period, BTS released a fan song called "2! 3!" — their first song dedicated to ARMY. The lyrics say:
"We'll be happy on our own, it's alright. On the count of one, two, three — forget it. Erase all the sad memories. Hold my hand and smile."
Think about that. What kind of artist releases a fan song where the message is "let's forget"? Not celebrate, not thank you — forget. That's how bad the harassment was. BTS wasn't celebrating their fans. They were trying to heal them.
This is probably why, to this day, BTS treats ARMY as something sacred. They went through a war together.
Here's the part that shocks most fans. After surviving the financial crisis, after fighting through the cyberbullying, after finally reaching the top — BTS hit a wall. Not from failure, but from success.
By 2018, five years of non-stop work had destroyed them physically and mentally. The company was pushing for even more — "You're doing well, but to become truly global, you need to do more." But the members were already running on empty.
The seven of them sat down and talked. And talked. And couldn't find an answer. The word "disband" came up — not as a threat, but as a genuine question. "Is this even sustainable? Can we keep doing this?"
Not because someone told them to. Not because of a contract. Because they looked at each other and decided: let's try a little more.
At the end of that year, BTS won a major award. J-Hope said through tears: "Whether we won this award or not, I think I would have cried." It wasn't about the trophy. It was about surviving the year.
In 2020, BTS released "ON" and prepared for their biggest world tour ever. Then COVID-19 hit. Every single show was cancelled. Years of planning, gone overnight.
But then came "Dynamite" — a song that broke every record and became a global phenomenon during the darkest period the world had seen in decades. Once again: crisis, then breakthrough.
Every time BTS was pushed to the edge, they came back stronger. And every time, ARMY was there. That's not luck. That's not marketing. That's a bond built in fire.