Boy bands under HYBE snagged four of the five best-selling records between January and July this year when looking at first-week sales figures in Korea (per the Hanteo Chart). BTS’s Proof came in first with 2,752,496 copies sold, immediately followed by SEVENTEEN’s Face the Sun (2,067,769 copies). minisode 2: Thursday’s Child and MANIFESTO: DAY 1, from fourth-generation groups TOMORROW X TOGETHER and ENHYPEN, respectively, pulled in 1,248,370 copies and 1,241,112 copies each, putting minisode 2 at fourth and MANIFESTO at fifth for first-week sales.

The sales figures include pre-orders from before the albums are released. Pre-orders make up a large portion of sales, especially since popular groups have begun to take pre-orders for albums as early as a month before the release date. First-week sales, then, are a good indication of the number of consumers with an intention to buy—or, in other words, the size of the fanbase. This is even clearer when looking at first-week sales for albums by girl groups fromis_9, who moved to the PLEDIS Entertainment label under HYBE last year, and LE SSERAFIM, who made their debut earlier this year. fromis_9 released Midnight Guest in January and sold 104,438 copies, surpassing 100,000 for the first time, and they performed even better with the release of from our Memento Box in June, selling 138,170 copies. LE SSERAFIM, meanwhile, set a new first-week sales record for girl groups with their debut album, FEARLESS, selling 307,450 copies and outstripping the previous record by some 80,000 copies. When including non-debut albums, it was 13th-highest number of sales among female artists and eighth among girl groups. Whether boy or girl groups, third or fourth generation, whatever their label, whatever label they started at and wherever they’re represented now, all groups at HYBE have attracted an increasing number of fans.

According to the Japanese Oricon chart’s 2022 midyear rankings (covering December 13, 2021 through June 12, 2022) Face the Sun had the second-highest album sales (390,783 units), minisode 2: Thursday’s Child was 10th (165,880 units) and DIMENSION: ANSWER was 13th (141,246 units). Overall, K-pop artists occupied the top three spots on the chart. LE SSERAFIM also ranked 55th with their debut album, FEARLESS (36,408 units), and fromis_9, despite no heavy promotion in Japan yet, sold 12,170 copies of their album Midnight Guest in the first week, placing it third on the Oricon chart for the week of February 21. Proof was the single bestselling album in Japan this year (as of July 15), selling 513,724 copies in its first week. In other words, the success HYBE’s idol groups have found in Korea is being mirrored in Japan. In the United States, Proof topped the Billboard 200, the country’s most-watched album chart, which determines its rankings through a combination of physical album sales, digital downloads and streaming figures. BTS’s album reached the top of the chart with 314,000 units; Jack In The Box ranked 17th, with 25,000 units; minisode 2: Thursday’s Child was fourth, with 65,500 units; Face the Sun seventh, with 42,000 units; SECTOR 17 fourth, with 34,000 units; and DIMENSION: ANSWER ranked 14th, with 23,100 units sold. Of the ten K-pop albums to chart on Billboard this year, six have been by HYBE artists as of August 2. According to the Global Music Report 2022 released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the countries with the first-, second- and seventh-highest volume of albums sales in 2021 were the US, Japan and Korea, respectively. HYBE continues to attract more fans in these three countries, the main markets for K-pop.

BTS captures exactly what it means to be a HYBE group. Proof dominated the charts in Korea, the US and Japan, and the music video for the lead single “Yet To Come” was watched live by over 2.85 million people, accumulating a total of 100 million views in just 10 days’ time. The group also holds many symbolic records: Within an hour of its release, “Yet To Come” was the first song to reach number one on the reformed Korean chart Melon TOP100, and as of July 5, BTS was the 10th-most streamed artist of all time on Spotify. BTS not only has more fans than anyone else; their music and the associated videos generate more buzz than those of any other artist. The group’s elevated status, unwavering fan support and the popularity they have found worldwide are the product of their unstoppable growth, which all starts with their fandom. BTS’s YouTube channel, BANGTAN TV, gained 1.1 million more subscribers in addition to the 67 million they already had while promoting Proof from June 10 through 19. Even nine years after their debut, they continue to gain subscribers on YouTube, their most important way of reaching people through media. Notably, according to Google Trends, searches for BTS reached a peak when Charlie Puth’s song featuring Jung Kook, “Left and Right,” and j-hope’s pre-release song “MORE,” the first solo release out the gate since BTS entered their next phase, were released. Now BTS attracts even more of the world’s attention through different means than before. In other words, their growth coincides with their expansion into new areas.

SEVENTEEN continues to show growth as they extend their reach as well. First, they have expanded globally. “HOT,” the lead single off Face the Sun, reached eight million streams within 13 days of release, the quickest the group ever reached that figure. The song also topped the iTunes charts in 26 countries the day it came out—nearly twice as many as the single “Rock with you” from their previous album, Attacca, which was number one in 14 countries. With “Darl+ing,” their first English single that was released ahead of Face the Sun, the group broke into the US iTunes top 10 for the first time. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number seven and has been charting for seven consecutive weeks, another personal record for the group. Clearly, the group has continued beyond its success in Japan and other Asian markets to make major inroads in the West. The result of their global expansion can be seen in first-day sales of Face the Sun, which reached 1,335,862 copies—a full 40% increase over Attacca. Second, they have expanded their media presence. SEVENTEEN made active use of TikTok and YouTube Shorts as another novel means of media outreach to promote their “HOT” challenge, resulting in 700,000 new TikTok followers during the promotional period. Some 50,000 TikTok videos used “HOT” around this time, a new high for SEVENTEEN. SEVENTEEN, who have proven their ability to produce impressive videos like GOING SEVENTEEN that have been viewed millions of times over, cleverly take advantage of the new media environment by participating in web series that are a hit in the K-pop market today. An episode of the YouTube series Killing Voice where the group performs a medley of their hits that aired during the promotional period for Face the Sun has been watched 13.25 million times as of August 2. SEVENTEEN has made all the right decisions at critical junctures by making good use of their own artistic abilities in the places where people are gathered together to see their next move.

While fromis_9 was promoting from our Memento Box, their performance of “Stay This Way” became the most-viewed video on their official YouTube channel. They gained more than 1,500 new subscribers when the video was uploaded on July 9, and their channel received 1.27 million views the same day, the most during the entire promotional period. Similarly, the group gained over 1,800 new subscribers the day the performance video for their previous single, “DM,” was released, breaking their previous record for most subscribers gained in a single day outside of a release day. They were also able to show off impressive performances with “Escape Room” and “Rewind” during their Midnight Guest and from our Memento Box promotions, respectively. fromis_9 has long been known for their fun YouTube videos, particularly their variety show, Channel_9. The group just recently hit the one-million subscriber milestone on August 2. fromis_9 has always actively engaged with fans through YouTube and has taken joining HYBE as an opportunity to prove their performance abilities through a platform that lets them show off their songs and choreographies to even more viewers. Their song “Stay This Way” was number one on five music competition programs including KBS’s Music Bank and MBC’s Music Core. There were 1,627 days that passed between the time fromis_9 debuted until they won their first number one on national television, the second-longest for this to happen among any girl group in history. fromis_9 always had the potential; now they’re finally in the spotlight.

The same can be seen overseas. fromis_9 is really making a name for themselves overseas now that they’ve moved to PLEDIS Entertainment. from our Memento Box hit the iTunes top 10 in 11 countries and regions and YouTube searches for the group were higher globally than at any other time since their debut. Like other HYBE groups, fromis_9 also showed particularly remarkable growth in the Japanese market. “Stay This Way” occupied the top slot of the Rakuten Music real-time chart in Japan for six consecutive days and, although they haven’t even done major promotions in the country yet, hit the top of the Oricon daily album chart on July 21 with a total of 9,008 sales of from our Memento Box.

LE SSERAFIM has been demonstrating HYBE’s secret to success ever since their debut. When the group debuted on May 2, #LE_SSERAFIM was the fourth-most trending hashtag in Japan, the Korean equivalent was seventh in Korea and #LE_SSERAFIM_FEARLESS was third globally. FEARLESS also topped the iTunes Top Albums chart in 16 countries including Japan during the promotional period, while the title song entered Spotify’s daily global top 200 chart at number 171 just two days after release—the quickest ever for a K-pop girl group’s debut single—and raked in three million listeners on the platform in just 15 days. Meanwhile, in Japan, FEARLESS was number one for the first week after its release on Oricon’s Combined Albums Chart, international albums chart and Digital Albums Chart and its title song stayed in the top 10 of LINE MUSIC’s daily chart for the first week as well. Thanks to the popularity SAKURA and KIM CHAEWON were already enjoying not only in Korea but also in Japan even before LE SSERAFIM’s debut, as well as having the power of HYBE behind them, the group was already set up for worldwide success. On top of all that, the impressive performances of the global sensation that is HYBE’s girl group adds on another means of pursuing success. FEARLESS fell outside the top 100 on Melon’s daily chart the day it was released but steadily climbed throughout the month to as high as number eight. fromis_9 similarly started off at number 129 with “Stay This Way” and was number 100 by July 17, during which time the number of listeners increased by more than 15,000 people, jumping from 46,120 on the first day to 61,940. Whether they started out at HYBE or found real success after joining, the company’s girl groups have all found continuously increasing success thanks to their music and performances. The groups gained as many fans as possible before releasing their albums and found even more listeners afterward.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER and ENHYPEN both show how a fourth-generation boy band backed by HYBE’s proven success from the outset can develop and grow. TOMORROW X TOGETHER became the first non-Japanese artist to top the weekly Oricon album chart in their first week with minisode 2: Thursday’s Child and stayed there for six consecutive weeks—a length that ties girl group TWICE. And in the three weeks following its release, global streaming figures on Spotify for all tracks off the album totaled 53,018,299, with streams from the US totaling 10,368,376, or around 20% of all streams worldwide. Just like BTS before them, TOMORROW X TOGETHER are finding popularity equally in Korea, the US and Japan. minisode 2: Thursday’s Child has also been on the Billboard 200 for 11 weeks straight, making it the longest-reigning K-pop album on the chart this year. Not surprisingly, the album is number one on the iTunes Top Albums chart in 43 countries, and the group has number ones on the Top Songs chart in 19 countries, reflecting their global popularity. Although BTS’s success was unprecedented, TOMORROW X TOGETHER proves that HYBE can build on the success pioneered by BTS with the company’s fourth-generation boy bands.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER holds the honor of being the second-most followed K-pop boy band on TikTok after BTS, with over 17.5 million followers as of July 22. Whereas BTS’s primary vehicle of global recognition was YouTube, TOMORROW X TOGETHER has been navigating a newer media environment—one where TikTok plays a pivotal role in the music industry—that lays the groundwork for success. Including through taking part in various challenges on TikTok, the group actively engages with Generation Z, their core fanbase. Around 80,000 videos on the platform used “Good Boy Gone Bad” as their background music and the videos racked up a combined 300 million views, representing a personal high for the group. ENHYPEN similarly trended with K-pop fans around the world through the TikTok challenge based on their song “Polaroid Love” from DIMENSION: ANSWER, the repackaged version of their first studio album. In addition to making waves with the TikTok challenge, ENHYPEN’s video “‘Polaroid Love’ Selfie cam ver.” on their self-titled YouTube channel was also viewed more than 23.89 million times as of August 2. The song also made it onto the Melon TOP100 chart and was streamed over 100 million times on Spotify. The song’s popularity on TikTok translated to YouTube views and landing a place on the music charts, all the while increasing awareness of the group. They developed a following as they progressed toward their debut on the audition show I-LAND, found a way to interact with them, and has found fans all across the world beyond their core global fandom through substantial use of TikTok, YouTube, Twitter and more.

The day ENHYPEN made their comeback with MANIFESTO: DAY 1, a total of 12 related hashtags, including #FuturePerfect and #ENHYPEN, were among the top 50 trends worldwide on Twitter. Five of the hashtags, #MANIFESTO_DAY1 and #ManifestoDay1_OutNow among them, continuously jockeyed for first and second place. ENHYPEN now had a platinum album less than two years after their debut, showing how quickly the group, which began with a global debut, found its footing and started to grow. Their meteoric rise came despite debuting during the pandemic and not being able to hold a world tour to see their fans in person. This is the case in general at HYBE, in fact. Though the pandemic threw the K-pop industry into crisis, HYBE instead took the time to actively expand its share of the market by joining forces with PLEDIS Entertainment for the debuts of ENHYPEN and LE SSERAFIM. By the time in-person performances returned this year, HYBE had become a very different company from just two years earlier. Back in 2020, when BTS was topping the Billboard Hot 100 with “Dynamite,” TOMORROW X TOGETHER was fairly new, with only a year’s experience under their belts, fromis_9 wasn’t a part of HYBE and neither ENHYPEN nor LE SSERAFIM were around yet. But fast forward two years and HYBE is able to hold activity retreats through producer Na Yeongseok’s popular web series The Game Caterers featuring only their own artists. First BTS appeared by themselves on the show, then the other groups appeared in their own episodes of the same show with each other for three weeks. This is what HYBE has been working toward for two years, and in the first half of 2022, the fruit of those labors—global expansion and increased media presence —became plain to see. And then, on July 22, the HYBE label ADOR debuted its girl group, NewJeans. The title of one of their debut songs sums up what not only the group but also all of HYBE are set to experience during the second half of the year: “Attention.”