Jimin's popularity is in a league of its own. It is not an everyday occurrence for an artist who is a member of a group with no official solo debut to make a name for themselves and stand out as much as Jimin has. His impact has been felt in every field and across different demographics across the globe, and he is undoubtedly among the top most popular individuals in the world. Once again, his influence has been demonstrated by the number of times that South Korean and international media outlets mention him on various topics.

In the US, The LA Times recently published a news feature on the rise of Korean popular culture, and Jimin was mentioned in this publication. No other individual idol's name came up, and this shows how widely known Jimin is. When someone thinks about South Korea and K-pop, Jimin's name has a high chance it will come up even for those individuals who do not know much about the industry [read here]. 

The Jimin doll mentioned in the feature had recorded explosive sales on its first day of going on sale, going out of stock on various e-commerce platforms. Such high demand for the Jimin doll also demonstrates his immense popularity.

In a different instance, K-media reported that one of South Korea's main TV stations, JTBC mentioned Jimin during its 'Talk Pawon' talk show while discussing the increasing number of celebrities acting as docents [read here and here]. Once again, even when media outlets in South Korea talk about famous people, Jimin's name comes up first because of his unmatched popularity status and influence. 

Of note is that Jimin holds the title of the most popular idol in South Korea by virtue of Brand Reputation ranking, where he has been #1 for a total of 39 months as of March 2022, having stayed on this spot for 35 consecutive months as of November 2021. He is also the only male idol to ever rank 1st in the now discontinued Gallup Survey for 'Korea's most preferred idol,' and he did this for two years in a row (2018 and 2019). Whatever the criteria for determining popularity, Jimin is always emerging at the top. Thus, it is not surprising that media personnel always have his name at the tip of their tongues.

As reported previously [read here], Jimin had been selected as the docent for the Futura x BTS art exhibition for his eloquence, charm, and an enchanting manner of speech, all of which have made many fall in love with him, hence his large support network of fans across the world.

Prior to that, Jimin had also been the docent for the Berlin chapter of BTS' art project 'CONNECT, BTS.'

Jimin's popularity in Japan has also been a hot topic for a while now. Previously, Korean news media 'Channel A' had reported on the popularity of Korean popular culture in Japan and specifically mentioned Jimin in this news feature, saying that his name had appeared in a section of a Korean language textbook published in Japan [read here]. A new edition of another textbook published in Japan has also featured Jimin.

Japan broadcaster NHK recently published the April-September 2022 edition of the Korean language textbook and exclusively featured Jimin once again. In this publication, Jimin is a lead character appearing in fictitious conversations in the book and is the only member mentioned.

Here is a transcript of excerpts from the book.

Jimin has cemented his name as South Korea's Global IT boy for these reasons, among many others, and his popularity will only continue to skyrocket as he embarks on solo activities such as his much-anticipated OST for 'Our Blues' drama airing on tvN network.