BTS was chosen as Variety’s Hitmaker of the Year, becoming the first South Korean act to attain the honor as it swept up prizes and stayed on the Billboard 200 for a year.

Variety, an influential US entertainment magazine, announced that it had selected BTS as “Group of the Year” on Tuesday (US time), elaborating that “the record-breaking septet has solidified their status as global superstars, rounding out one of the largest stadium tours of the year and releasing a string of top-selling singles.” 

The Hitmaker of the Year award is reserved for those who have contributed to the music field -- songwriters, producers, publishers and managers. Other winners include Billie Eilish, whose song “Bad Guy” was the fifth-most-consumed song of the year, having been streamed almost a billion times on Spotify, according to Variety. The awards ceremony is scheduled Dec. 7.

Reentering Billboard’s main albums chart this month, BTS became the first Korean artist to spend a year on the Billboard 200. The music video “Boy With Luv”-- the title song of the group’s recent album, “Map of the Soul: Persona” -- surpassed 610 million YouTube views as of Wednesday.

The group also won two prizes -- Top Duo/Group and Top Social Artist -- at the Billboard Music Awards in May, and three trophies at MTV’s Europe Music Awards for Best Group, Best Live and Biggest Fans.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)