BIGBANG is back on the road. The K-pop group opened its “XX: COSMOS” world tour on Friday at Goyang Stadium, northwest of Seoul, two days after releasing “BiiiG,” its first new music in four years and four months.
The Goyang stand runs three nights, Aug. 21 through Aug. 23, presented by the Korean streaming platform Coupang Play. It is the group’s first full concert tour since the Last Dance Tour wrapped at the end of 2017, and the first as a three-member lineup of G-Dragon, Taeyang and Daesung, following Seungri’s departure in 2019 and T.O.P’s exit in 2023.
Opening night doubled as the live premiere of “BiiiG,” which YG Entertainment had billed as the song’s first-ever stage, alongside solo segments from each member and a career-spanning run of the group’s catalog. YG has said the production was overseen by music director Wow Jones, with director Mike Carson and stage designer Es Devlin contributing to the staging, built around a large mobile LED structure meant to carry the tour’s cosmos theme.
“BiiiG” arrived on Aug. 19, the exact date of the group’s 20th debut anniversary, and was the first BIGBANG release since “Still Life” in April 2022. G-Dragon took part in writing and composing the track, which YG described as a high-energy hip-hop song built on a heavy beat. In a press release, the agency said the single reached No. 1 on Melon’s TOP100 within an hour of release and also topped the Korean streaming services Genie, Bugs and VIBE.
Demand for the opening shows was steep. Coupang Play reported that the general sale on June 25 cleared all three Goyang dates in 22 minutes, drawing roughly 210,000 concurrent users, which the platform described as the highest reservation traffic for a domestic concert or event in South Korea this year. YG later released additional seats in July after the initial allocation sold out.
The tour has grown since it was first routed. When YG Entertainment and promoter AEG Presents announced the itinerary on June 11, it covered 31 stadium and dome shows. YG now puts the run at 33 shows across 19 cities in North America, Europe, Oceania and Asia, and has said further host regions will be announced.
After Goyang, the tour moves to North America. BIGBANG’s official tour listing has two nights at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on Sept. 4 and 5, followed by MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Sept. 11, Stade de France in Paris on Sept. 19 and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Sept. 26. The Asian and Oceanian legs pick up in October and run through a scheduled close in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Feb. 28, 2027.
The trio had already tested the reunion in front of a Western audience, playing both weekends of Coachella in April, where G-Dragon told the crowd a tour was in the works.