The highly anticipated BTS Map of the Soul world tour has officially been canceled.
BTS’ sbacker Big Hit Music ultimately pulled the plug on the tour due to complications brought on by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our company has worked hard to resume preparations for the BTS Map of the Soul Tour, knowing that all fans have been waiting eagerly and long for the tour,” Big Hit Music said in a statement released on its Weverse fan platform. “Due to changing circumstances beyond our control, it has become difficult to resume performances at the same scale and timeline as previously planned.”
First announced on January 22nd, 2020, the BTS Map of the Soul Tour was originally set to start on April 11th of that year at the Seoul Olympic Stadium in Seoul, South Korea. After kicking off in BTS’ home country, the tour was scheduled to land in 18 countries including the U.S. Canada, U.K., Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Japan.
On February 27th 2020, BTS canceled all four shows in South Korea amid the ongoing pandemic. On March 26th, 2020, the K-pop group postponed all 18 shows in North America and went on to postpone the entire world tour a month later.
Almost a year before Big Hit Music officially canceled BTS Map of the Soul Tour, a two-day online concert, titled BTS Map of the Soul ON:E, was held on October 10th–11th, 2020 in replacement of the then postponed world tour.
After the virtual concert successfully drew 993,000 viewers from 191 countries and territories, Big Hit Music suggested in its latest announcement that more online concerts might be happening soon as substitutes to the canceled tour.
“We are working to prepare a viable schedule and performance format that can meet your expectations, and we will provide updated notices as soon as possible,” the label said.
BTS Map of the Soul Tour was supposed to promote the band’s Map of the Soul series, including the Map of the Soul: Persona EP and the Map of the Soul: 7 studio album.