BTS named the comeback after a song about separation. Then they came back to the stadium where they left.

Their last Los Angeles concerts were at SoFi Stadium in 2021, the biggest run California’s box office had ever seen. Five years, one military-service gap and an album called ARIRANG later, they returned to the same building.

Arirang is the Korean folk song of parting — separation, longing and, in the end, reunion. In March 2026, BTS used it as the title of their first full-group album in three years and nine months. The choice was not subtle, and it was not meant to be.

The parting it answers began after Los Angeles. On November 27 and 28 and December 1 and 2, 2021, BTS played Permission to Dance on Stage at SoFi Stadium: four shows, about 214,000 tickets, $33.3 million. Billboard Boxscore called it the biggest-grossing engagement in California history. They did not play the city again for almost five years.

In between came mandatory military service, one member after another, until the last of them, Suga, finished on June 21, 2025. ARIRANG followed in March and went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200, where it stayed three weeks.

The ARIRANG World Tour brought them back to SoFi on September 1, 2, 5 and 6, 2026, and this time the stage sat in the middle of the stadium, 360 degrees, with the crowd on every side. All four shows sold out.

Same building, same four-date shape, five years apart. The album was named for the separation. The stadium got the reunion.