[Herald Economy — Reporter Seunghee Ko] The K-pop album market has entered a rare boom in the first half of the year. The comeback of major mega-IP properties and the rise of rookie groups have driven album sales, and boy bands are at the center of that growth.
On the 18th, Circle Chart — operated by the Korea Music Content Association — reported roughly 12.7 million album sales among the Top 400 last month. That brings cumulative sales for January through April to about 35 million copies, an increase of roughly 11.7 million over the same period last year — a remarkable surge.
Even looking only at the Top 400 in April, sales rose 51.7% month over month and 154.0% year over year.
At the top of the market sits BTS. The group accounted for 22.1% of first-quarter sales (4,918,441 copies) and opened with 4.17 million first-week sales for their fifth studio album, ARIRANG, reinforcing their status as a cornerstone of K-pop.
They have even remained in the Billboard 200’s top 10 for eight weeks. ENHYPEN follows closely behind. The act that has punctured that dominance is BigHit Music’s youngest group, Cortis.
While established top groups ran the market in January through March, April’s physical market turned into a battleground for boy bands.
In April alone, NCT Wish stood out. Their first full album, Ode to Love, sold 1,398,022 copies in the standard edition and 500,452 copies in the SMC card version, totaling 1,898,474 copies. TOMORROW X TOGETHER placed second, selling 1,668,464 copies of their seventh album, When the Wind Paused Briefly in the Bramble. Fave’s Calligo Part 2 sold 795,938 copies in its album version and 548,040 in the photocard version, totaling 1,343,978 and finishing third.
Fourth was NTEAM’s We on Fire with 1,271,052 copies, and fifth was TOURS’ fifth mini-album, NO TRAGEDY, with 917,775 copies.
On market share, TOMORROW X TOGETHER led April with a 15.4% share, placing 16 albums within Circle Chart’s Top 400. Jinwoo Kim, a Circle Chart data journalist, said, “Rather than a single artist running away with the market, major teams each secured market shares in the teens and sustained growth,” adding that “the physical album market’s fundamentals remain solid.” In short, we’re seeing a Warring States–style era among boy bands.
The landscape shifted quickly in May with the arrival of BigHit’s youngest act, Cortis. Their second mini-album, GREENGREEN, opened with 2,313,291 copies — more than five times the first-week sales of their previous release (about 430,000). The nine-month-old rookie demonstrated sales power that even threatens ENHYPEN, which sits around 2.1 million copies.
Cortis also debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 87,000 units, marking the fastest Top-3 entry among K-pop rookies not tied to a project team.
While the physical market swelled on the strength of boy bands, the digital charts painted a different picture.
Total streams in the Top 400 fell 3.6% from the previous quarter and 6.5% year over year in Q1, reflecting a prolonged dip in mainstream appeal. April reversed that trend: streams rebounded 1.8% month over month, and the share of new songs — those released within three months — in the Top 400 rose to 21.8%, the first time in a year that the metric climbed for two consecutive months.
The rebound came from a two-pronged strategy: broader mainstream appeal and strong fandoms. AKMU, the country’s streaming powerhouse, placed 18 songs in the Top 400 with their new album Bloom and led streaming share at 7.0%, widening their mainstream reach. TOMORROW X TOGETHER and Cortis boosted streaming share through dedicated fan bases.
No girl group reached the top five in the boy-band–dominated physical market. Only one girl group, Ailet, made the top 10, landing at No. 8 with about 390,000 copies sold.
But the outlook is changing this month: several major girl groups known for streaming strength are timing comebacks. BabyMonster kicked things off, followed by NMIXX and ITZY, with LE SSERAFIM, aespa and IOI joining the lineup.
Industry insiders stress that girl groups remain crucial for restoring mainstream appeal.
Boy bands drive album sales and fandom spending, while girl groups move overall platform traffic, short‑form virality and the advertising market. An executive at a major agency said, “A hit song from a girl group can change the flat streaming-market mood and shift public interest in K-pop as a whole.”
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