SEVENTEEN Part 3 — Going Global: The Slow Climb That Became a Record-Breaking Run
How SEVENTEEN turned a canceled tour into a new global chapter — crossing one million first-week sales, expanding through GOING SEVENTEEN, reaching the US market, and selling the world's biggest album of 2023.
There is a common shape to the K-pop success story.
A group debuts. One song explodes. The public learns the members’ names almost overnight. Everything changes.
SEVENTEEN’s story did not follow that shape. They grew in steps.
A larger venue. A stronger album. A few more countries. A deeper fandom. Another sales record that seemed huge until the next album passed it.
They did not suddenly appear at the top. They built a staircase.
By the end of 2019, SEVENTEEN had released one of the most acclaimed albums of their career and had begun the large-scale Ode to You world tour. Then COVID-19 closed concert venues around the world.
For many artists, that period became a pause. For SEVENTEEN, it became an unexpected turning point.
The stages disappeared. The audience kept growing.
📌 This is Part 3 of a 4-part SEVENTEEN series.
- Part 1 — Thirteen Strangers, One Vision
- Part 2 — The Self-Made Machine
- Part 3 — Going Global ← you are here
- Part 4 — The Empire of Seventeen
🌊 Heng:garæ: One Million in One Week
In June 2020, SEVENTEEN released the EP Heng:garæ.
The title comes from a Korean word connected to a traditional celebration in which people lift someone into the air together. It was the right image for the album.
The world was entering a period of fear and isolation. SEVENTEEN responded with songs about youth, uncertainty, and the strength people can give one another. The lead single, “Left & Right,” was brighter than the dark atmosphere of An Ode. Its message was simple: there may not be one correct direction in life, so keep moving.
The album sold 1,097,891 copies in its first week on Hanteo Chart. It was SEVENTEEN’s first album to cross one million first-week sales.
At that time, SEVENTEEN became only the second artist after BTS to sell more than one million albums during the first week under Hanteo’s system. The number was important. But the timing was even more important.
SEVENTEEN achieved it without a normal international concert schedule. Fans could not gather in arenas. The members could not travel to meet many of the people buying the album.
The relationship continued through screens. Music videos. Livestreams. Online fan events. And one very strange variety show.
🎲 GOING SEVENTEEN: The Other Door Into the Fandom
For many new fans, the first SEVENTEEN content they loved was not a song.
GOING SEVENTEEN began as behind-the-scenes content connected to the group’s activities. Over time, it became something much larger.
Not a music video. Not a concert. Just thirteen friends, a few cameras, and no idea what happens next.
The members played games, created fake businesses, investigated mysteries, argued through debate nights, ran obstacle courses, betrayed one another, and invented rules that made sense only to them. The production became more ambitious.
Some episodes looked like television variety programs. Others felt like short comedy films. Horror specials, mystery games, sports competitions, improvised dramas, and psychological challenges all appeared under the same title.
The members were not equally loud. That was part of the appeal. Seungkwan could lead a conversation like a professional host. Jeonghan could quietly change the entire game. Mingyu could become the target of a joke. Vernon could sit in silence until one sentence destroyed the room. Dino, the youngest, could suddenly become the most serious person there.
With thirteen members, every episode could create a different combination.
During the period when in-person performances were limited, GOING SEVENTEEN gave international viewers another way to discover the group.
It would be too simple to say that the program alone caused SEVENTEEN’s global growth. Music releases, fan activity, social media, distribution, touring history, and the general expansion of K-pop all mattered. But the show clearly became an important entry point.
Some viewers arrived for the music and stayed for the comedy. Others watched the comedy first — and later learned the songs. Fans even created a nickname for viewers who loved the program regardless of whether they were already CARATs: CUBICs.
A CARAT shines like a diamond. A cubic zirconia looks similar from a distance. It was a joke. It also showed how far the program had traveled beyond the existing fandom.
▶ Watch popular “GOING SEVENTEEN” episodes on YouTube
🚀 A New Sales Level
After Heng:garæ, the million-selling mark stopped looking like a one-time event. SEVENTEEN continued with Semicolon in 2020, followed by Your Choice and Attacca in 2021.
Each release expanded the group’s scale. The musical themes also became more mature.
The members were no longer only singing about the excitement and uncertainty of first love. They explored commitment, emotional risk, adulthood, and the decision to keep moving forward even when success created new pressure.
In 2021, SEVENTEEN also began working more directly with the US market through Geffen Records. They appeared on major American television programs and developed a broader international promotional system. But they did not suddenly replace their Korean identity with an English-language one.
Their approach was gradual. They built new bridges without destroying the older ones.
💌 “Darl+ing”: The First Full-Group English Single
In April 2022, SEVENTEEN released “Darl+ing.” It was the group’s first English-language digital single performed by the full group.
The title contained a small visual idea. The plus sign represented the connection between SEVENTEEN and CARAT. A darling is someone loved. “Darling plus” suggested that the relationship was more than a simple word could hold.
The song was soft and welcoming rather than aggressive. SEVENTEEN was not entering the English-language market by pretending to become a different group. They were inviting more listeners into the world they had already built.
“Darl+ing” later appeared on the full album Face the Sun. That album began the next major phase of their career.
🔥 Face the Sun: Choosing to Move Forward
Face the Sun was released in May 2022. The title described a decision.
The sun can represent success, ambition, attention, and danger. Facing it means accepting the risk of moving toward something larger.
The lead single “HOT” sounded heavier and more aggressive than many earlier SEVENTEEN songs. The performance used sharp movements, Western-film imagery, fire, dust, and the feeling of walking into an uncertain future without turning away.
The album became another major seller and strengthened the group’s position in international markets. It was followed by the BE THE SUN world tour.
This tour is sometimes described as SEVENTEEN’s first world tour. It was not. The group had already completed international tours including Diamond Edge and had begun Ode to You before the pandemic interrupted its remaining dates.
What made BE THE SUN important was its expanded scale. SEVENTEEN performed across major North American and Asian cities, returning to large live audiences after years of restrictions. The group that had spent the pandemic reaching fans through screens could finally stand in front of them again.
🏆 MTV Recognition in 2022
SEVENTEEN’s growing international profile also appeared at major Western music awards.
At the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, the group won PUSH Performance of the Year. At the 2022 MTV Europe Music Awards, they won Best New and Best Push.
The category name “Best New” may sound strange for a group that had debuted seven years earlier. But the award did not mean SEVENTEEN had suddenly become a rookie again. It reflected their expanding position in the European and global market — an established Korean group being introduced to a wider mainstream audience.
SEVENTEEN’s overseas growth was late only if the story is measured from outside Korea. For CARATs, it had been building for years.
💿 2023: The Staircase Became an Explosion
Eight years after debut, SEVENTEEN reached the biggest commercial peak of their career. SEVENTEEN released FML in April 2023.
The title carried two meanings. One was the internet expression usually connected to frustration and defeat. The other was the album’s lead single: “F*ck My Life.”
But the album did not remain in despair. Its central question was what happens after someone reaches the point of saying that everything has gone wrong.
Do you stop? Or do you stand up again?
The second lead single, “Super,” answered with force. Inspired by the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, the performance used large groups of dancers and massive formations. SEVENTEEN’s thirteen members appeared at the center of something even larger than themselves.
It felt like the final form of the performance system they had begun building in 2015.
FML sold 4,550,214 copies in its first week on Hanteo Chart. At the time, it was the highest first-week sales total ever recorded for a K-pop album. The album later became the first single K-pop album to pass six million cumulative sales.
This was not the total sales of SEVENTEEN’s entire career. It was one album.
Eight years after debut, the group had reached its largest commercial peak. In an industry where many idol groups struggle to maintain growth as they get older, that timing was unusual.
🌐 The World’s Biggest-Selling Album of 2023
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, named FML the winner of its 2023 Global Album Award. The organization reported more than 6.4 million units worldwide.
There is an important detail here. IFPI publishes several album charts with different methods. Some focus on pure physical and download sales. Others combine physical albums, downloads, and streaming consumption through converted units.
The safest way to describe the achievement is this: IFPI recognized FML as the world’s biggest-selling global album of 2023.
For a Korean-language album by a group in its eighth year, the result was remarkable. SEVENTEEN had not reached that point through one viral international single. They reached it through years of accumulated trust.
Fans bought the next album because the previous album mattered to them. Then more fans joined. Then the cycle repeated.
🎉 SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN: Celebration After the Battle
Only six months after FML, SEVENTEEN returned with SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN.
The album’s distributor preorder total reached 5,206,718 copies, which was the highest K-pop album preorder figure reported at that time.
A preorder number does not mean every copy had already been purchased by an individual listener. It refers mainly to orders placed through distributors and retailers based on expected demand. Even with that distinction, the scale was enormous.
The lead single, “God of Music,” was the opposite of the dark frustration in “F*ck My Life.” It was bright, loud, and celebratory. The song imagined music as something that can cross languages and connect people who may have little else in common.
“God of Music” reached number one on the weekly Circle Digital Chart. It was SEVENTEEN’s first song to top that chart.
This was another unusual part of the 2023 story. The group was already selling millions of physical albums. Now they were also achieving a new peak on a major Korean digital chart. Their growth was not limited to collectors. The public was still listening.
▶ Watch SEVENTEEN “God of Music” performances on YouTube
🥇 The MAMA Daesang They Had Waited For
On November 29, 2023, SEVENTEEN won Album of the Year at the MAMA Awards for FML. It was their first MAMA daesang.
Eight years. Thirteen members. One trophy finally raised together.
The moment carried extra weight because it did not arrive early. SEVENTEEN had already been active for eight years. They had won performance awards, sold millions of albums, completed world tours, and earned a grand prize at the 2019 Asia Artist Awards.
But a MAMA daesang had remained outside their hands. When it finally came, the members cried.
S.Coups had been recovering from a serious knee injury and was not fully participating in normal promotions. He still joined the group onstage for the award. Woozi spoke about the years when people had told them that thirteen members were too many and that their group would not succeed.
The trophy did not prove those people wrong in one night. The previous eight years had already done that. The trophy simply gave the journey a shape everyone could see.
🌱 UNESCO: From Idol Group to Youth Voice
Earlier that same month, SEVENTEEN appeared at the 13th UNESCO Youth Forum in Paris. The group participated in a dedicated special session at UNESCO headquarters, delivering speeches and performances.
The members spoke about solidarity, education, young people, and the belief that individuals can move forward together. This message was not completely new for them. Songs such as “Together,” “My My,” and “Left & Right” had already explored uncertainty and shared progress.
But the UNESCO stage changed the context. SEVENTEEN was no longer speaking only to fans inside a concert venue. They were speaking as representatives of a generation that had grown up across borders, through digital communities, and during a global crisis.
Their later appointment as UNESCO’s first Goodwill Ambassador for Youth would come in June 2024. That belongs to Part 4. The 2023 Youth Forum was the moment the relationship became visible to the world.
📊 The Global Climb
| Year | Release or Event | Milestone |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Heng:garæ | 1,097,891 first-week sales; first first-week million seller |
| 2020–2021 | GOING SEVENTEEN | Expanded into a major independent entry point for global viewers |
| 2021 | US market expansion | Broader American distribution and television appearances |
| 2022 | “Darl+ing” | First full-group English digital single |
| 2022 | Face the Sun | Major international album and tour expansion |
| 2022 | MTV VMA / EMA | PUSH Performance of the Year, Best New, and Best Push |
| 2023 | FML | 4,550,214 first-week sales; later passed six million cumulative sales |
| 2023 | IFPI Global Album Award | Recognized as the world’s biggest-selling global album of the year |
| 2023 | SEVENTEENTH HEAVEN | 5,206,718 distributor preorders |
| 2023 | “God of Music” | First number one on the weekly Circle Digital Chart |
| 2023 | MAMA Awards | First MAMA daesang: Album of the Year |
| 2023 | UNESCO Youth Forum | Dedicated speech and performance session in Paris |
🌸 Why SEVENTEEN’s Growth Feels Different
Some groups are remembered for one explosive year. SEVENTEEN is better understood as a group that kept expanding the size of its foundation.
Their debut album built a small but loyal audience. “Pretty U” delivered the first trophy. “VERY NICE” became a permanent concert song. “Don’t Wanna Cry” expanded their performance identity. An Ode delivered a first daesang at the Asia Artist Awards. Heng:garæ crossed one million first-week sales. FML crossed four million in one week and more than six million over time.
Each stage made the next one possible.
It would be difficult to prove that SEVENTEEN increased sales in every single calendar year without exception. Release schedules, repackages, older catalog sales, and different chart methods make simple comparisons unreliable. But the broader pattern is clear.
SEVENTEEN did not depend on one temporary peak. Their fandom and commercial scale expanded step by step across multiple album cycles.
Many fans therefore describe SEVENTEEN as a group they “grew up with.” That expression is emotional rather than statistical. It still explains something real.
CARATs did not only arrive at the finish line. Many of them remember every stair.
💭 The Editor’s Pick: The 2023 MAMA Speech
A personal note from the Editor.
There are award speeches that celebrate a successful year. Then there are speeches that seem to release years of pressure at once.
SEVENTEEN’s 2023 MAMA Album of the Year speech belongs to the second kind.
The members were not crying only because FML sold millions of copies. They were remembering the practice rooms, the small company, the thirteen-member lineup people said would be impossible to manage, and the years when they stood near the top without receiving this particular trophy.
The most powerful part of the moment was not that SEVENTEEN had finally become successful. They had already been successful for a long time. It was that they had stayed together long enough to receive the award as thirteen.
For the Editor, that is the center of SEVENTEEN’s story. Not one genius member. Not one lucky song. Thirteen people repeatedly choosing the same direction.
▶ Watch SEVENTEEN’s 2023 MAMA Album of the Year speech on YouTube
🔗 Continue the Story
- 👉 Part 1 — Thirteen Strangers, One Vision — How thirteen trainees from Korea, China, and the US became one team
- 👉 Part 2 — The Self-Made Machine — The production and performance system behind SEVENTEEN
- 👉 Part 4 — The Empire of Seventeen — Glastonbury, UNESCO ambassadorship, stadium tours, military service, and the next era