As of January 2023, YouTube videos from the popular K-pop boyband BTS were among the most-viewed K-pop videos on YouTube. Over the past year, Japanese viewers made up the largest share of watchers with around 918 million views on the band’s videos, followed by 778 million views from India and 658 million views from Mexico. In June 2019, BTS videos accounted for around 21 percent of all K-pop videos viewed around the world on YouTube. BTS has two official YouTube channels, “Hybe Labels” from its agency BigHit Music, as well as their own “Bangtan TV”.

Who is BTS?

BTS is a K-pop group consisting of seven South Korean men, first formed in 2013 by what was then a small agency, Big Hit Entertainment. Now BTS and its members are widely considered the most popular K-pop artists. They regularly break their own records to set new records in album sales and YouTube viewership. Furthermore, they set a new record by becoming the first K-pop group to address the United Nations. BTS is still gaining fans around the world, and these fans formed the “ARMY”. The continuous growth of their fandom is a major driving force behind BTS’ record-setting. The group’s successes also benefited its agency, Big Hit Music. On the brink of bankruptcy just a decade ago, Big Hit returned to making a profit thanks to BTS and had the highest operating profits among the Big 4 entertainment companies in South Korea. The agency has since formed a corporation by the name of HYBE, and has acquired several more labels.

Secret to BTS’ popularity

BTS started to gain popularity abroad with their music, which offers something for everyone and covers diverse topics such as mental health and contemporary social issues. They also post a large amount of content on YouTube, Twitter, and other social media platforms, such as the standard “official music videos”, behind-the-scenes videos, and variety shows. Exceptional choreography also attracted and held the eyes of the band’s audience, especially drawing in teenagers for whom the lyrics in BTS’ songs struck a chord. BTS has gathered a sizeable fanbase in the Americas where traditionally K-pop had struggled to break into the mainstream. YouTube played a major role in this success. They are also popular in many other countries, with Japan, India, and Mexico contributing the most in terms of YouTube views in 2022.

As of January 2025, the 2020 disco hit "Dynamite" was K-pop group BTS' most viewed music video, with around 1.9 billion views. "Dynamite" was also the fourth most watched Korean music video overall. Seven of their music videos have over one billion views each.

According to data on the popularity of K-pop based on YouTube views, BTS was the most seen K-pop group on YouTube, with over 5.5 billion views. Blackpink came in second place with almost 4.6 billion views, and then Twice with over 2 billion views over a one-year period from mid-2018 to mid-2019.

As of March 2025, based on the total uploaded video views on YouTube, Kim Pro was the most popular channel in South Korea, with around 56.6 billion views. Kim Pro is the first individual YouTuber surpassing 90 million subscribers with stellar growth. Most other large YouTube channels are from the entertainment business, such as the following Hybe Labels channel. Hybe Labels is the video channel of Hybe Corporation, home to various music labels and artists. The company is one of the so-called “Big 4” in the K-Pop industry. Some of the best known groups under Hybe labels are BTS, Seventeen, Le Sserafim and other successful K-Pop artists. K-Pop popularity Korean pop music channels occupied most of the top spots among popular Korean YouTube channels. One of the reasons for this is the growing popularity of Korean pop music worldwide. During the last few years, K-Pop has greatly expanded its reach and, despite most songs being mostly in Korean, garnered a lot of attention globally for their catchy rhythm and chorus. YouTube as a chance to access K-Pop For international K-Pop enthusiasts, YouTube was also the main channel to access the music videos of Korean pop artists. K-pop fans often commit to streaming a newly released music video multiple times during the first hours and days after release to try and break the record for the most viewed video at that time to support their favorite artists.

Despite having long been surpassed by Luis Fonsi's global smash hit "Despacito ft. Daddy Yankee" in terms of total views, Adele's record for fastest video release to generate one billion views still stands as of September 2023. Released in October 2015, singer Adele's release "Hello" from her upcoming comeback album “25” racked up 100 million views in the first four days of being uploaded to YouTube and crossed the one billion view mark after 102.3 days.

Viral videos on YouTube Music videos are among the most popular content on YouTube, regularly drawing huge audiences during highly-anticipated releases of leading artists. When Korean pop band BTS released “Boy with Luv feat. Halsey”, the music video generated 74.6 million views within the first 24 hours of release. This would already be remarkable on its own, but it is also significant because the record for the most streams in the first 24 hours by a music video had just been achieved by fellow K-pop group Blackpink less than a week prior to BTS’ upload. The average number of days for songs to reach one billion views on YouTube varies by year of release. Music videos with a billion or more views released in 2017 only took 171 days to reach that milestone, compared to the 290 days it took a billion-view video released in 2015.

According to data on K-pop popularity based on YouTube views, only 10.1 percent of the total number of views came from South Korea, the homeland of K-pop. In terms of audience share, the country was followed by Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. K-pop's popularity in the global music market was led by BTS, Blackpink, TWICE, Momoland, and EXO, and these five artists accounted for 54.3 percent of all K-pop YouTube views. K-pop popularity world map In terms of total YouTube views, Asia and America are evenly distributed in the top 10 rankings. However, K-pop is more popular in Asia when comparing the countries by population. According to data analyzed by K-pop experts, Korea has generated the most video views compared by population, followed by Asian countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Vietnam. When analyzed by city, people in Ho Chi Minh and Bangkok were watching Korean pop music videos more than people in Seoul. Also, BTS' popularity in the Americas and Europe is high, followed by Black Pink. In Asia, Black Pink, BTS and TWICE have gained popularity. K-pop consumption around the world As users can easily access music content online, such as YouTube and Facebook, more and more people are enjoying Korean music content. Accordingly, the amount of money spent per month on K-pop content over the world has also doubled and stood at 9.2 U.S. dollars per person in 2019. People in the United Arab Emirates particularly spent the highest amount of money on K-pop content, an average of 36.4 U.S. dollars per month which is far higher than in other countries. On the other hand, in the world an average of 14.9 hours was spent monthly watching K-pop content. People in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam spent more time enjoying the same content.

As of January 2025, the most popular video on the HYBE Labels YouTube channel was the official music video for the song "Dynamite" by BTS, with over 1.9 billion views since the video was released in August of 2020. Over half of the most popular videos had more than a billion views: "Boy With Luv" (2019), "DNA" (2017), "Dynamite" (2020), "MIC Drop" (2017), "IDOL" (2018), "FAKE LOVE" (2018), and "Butter" (2021).

As of January 2025, BLACKPINK was the most followed K-pop artist on YouTube, with 95.5 million subscribers. They, alongside K-pop giant BTS with 79.6 million subscribers, were far ahead of other popular channels belonging to K-pop artists.

As of August 2023, the popular K-pop girl group BLACKPINK garnered around 636 million views from Indonesian fans. This was followed by 551 million views from India and 493 million views from Thailand. BLACKPINK is among the most popular K-pop acts both domestically and internationally.

BLACKPINK in your area

BLACKPINK is a South Korean girl group consisting of four members under YG Entertainment, and they have been active since August 2016. After their debut, the girls continued to gain many fans. Their popularity is reflected in their album sales, with the group recording around 2.8 million album sales in 2022. On social media, each of the members also received a lot of interest, as all four members’ personal Instagram accounts had more than fifty million followers.

The sea of K-pop groups

Apart from BLACKPINK, other female artists such as IVE and Red Velvet also had a large share of album sales. Male K-pop artists with dominant sales shares included BTS, Stray Kids, and SEVENTEEN. In the past few years, the genre has gained more popularity overseas as well. The leading K-pop artists on the social media platform TikTok were BTS, BLACKPINK, and other artists such as TXT and TWICE, highlighting the continuous global interest in these groups.

As of January 2025, the music video for Korean boy band BTS single "Butter" -which was released in May 2021- was still the fastest video to reach 100 million YouTube views, achieving the result within less than one day. Up until then, the record first the fastest video to reach 100 million views was held by their video "Dynamite" generating 100 million views within one day from release. The music video for "Pink Venom," released in August 2022 and performed by the Korean girl band Blackpink, reached 100 million YouTube views in 1.4 days. Due to an engaged global fanbase, K-pop acts account for half of the music videos on the fastest viral video ranking. YouTube YouTube is a video sharing website originally founded in 2005. The website was purchased by Google in 2006 for roughly 1.65 billion U.S. dollars in stocks. Since the acquisition, YouTube has grown significantly, becoming the primary source for videos online, such as music videos, tutorials, news, gaming videos and vlogs. During the third quarter of 2024, the popular video platform generated almost nine billion U.S. dollars in advertising revenues alone. Going viral Music videos frequently rank among the most popular new videos on YouTube - the majority of the fastest viral videos based on the number of views in the first 24 hours after upload are music videos. BTS are also featured in the ranking, along with fellow Korean performers Blackpink, PSY, and Twice. The most viewed YouTube video of all times is currently Korean "Baby Shark Dance" with over 9.2 billion views globally.

According to industry reports, the direct economic effect of the placement of Dynamite by BTS on the first place of the Billboard charts in 2020 is estimated to amount to around 617.4 billion South Korean won. While the sales of Dynamite are estimated to reach around 245.7 billion won, exports of related goods are expected to reach around 371.7 billion won. The music video for this song broke the record as the music video with the most YouTube views within the first 24 hours after release. The total economic effect of the placement of Dynamite on the first place of the Billboard charts is estimated to reach around 1.71 trillion South Korean won.

According to industry reports, the South Korean economic effect of the placement of Dynamite by BTS on the first place of the Billboard charts in 2020 is estimated to amount to around 1.71 trillion South Korean won. The music video for this song broke the record as the music video with the most YouTube views within the first 24 hours after release. The direct economic impact, including sales and increasing exports, are estimated to reach around 617.4 billion South Korean won.

Esta estadística presenta el ranking de los vídeos musicales oficiales de Bangtan Boys (BTS) en función del número total de visualizaciones en Youtube a nivel mundial de la historia. A fecha de 30 de octubre de 2023, el videoclip más visto de los ídolos del pop surcoreano en la plataforma de vídeo abierto era Dynamite, con más de 1.750 millones de visualizaciones. Boy With Luv, canción en la que colaboraron con la cantante estadounidense Halsey, y DNA ocupaban la segunda y tercera posición respectivamente, ambas con más de 1.550 milloens de visualizaciones hasta el momento.

As of January 2021, the most popular entertainment profile on the social media platform Twitter in South Korea was Big Hit Entertainment with approximately 19 million followers. Big Hit Entertainment currently manages soloist Lee Hyun and idol groups Bangtan Boys (BTS) and Tomorrow X Together (TXT). Impact of BTS The boy band BTS’ popularity is constantly rising, making them the biggest boy group in South Korea as well as worldwide. Their economic impact during their three-day concerts in South Korea in 2019 alone was estimated at around 922 billion South Korean won. Furthermore, due to the consistent uploads of video content on BTS’ YouTube channel, they were the most popular K-Pop artist according to the number of views. Japanese viewers made up the largest share of watchers of BTS on YouTube, followed by viewers in Indonesia and India. The band’s popularity can be expected to continue to grow, especially after they placed two number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2020. One was with their single ‘Dynamite,’ and the other number one title was ‘Life Goes On.’ Additionally, as they are the first South Korean act to be nominated for a Grammy Award in the category Best Pop Duo/Group, they achieved yet another milestone in the history of K-Pop. K-Pop entertainment companies In South Korea, the biggest known K-Pop entertainment companies were referred to as the ‘big three,’ including SM Entertainment, YG Entertainment, and JYP Entertainment. Only recently did Big Hit Entertainment join the other three agencies as one of the leading companies, evolving the term to the ‘big four.’ In 2019, Big Hit’s sales revenue almost doubled compared to the previous year. While SM’s sales proceeds steadily increased throughout the years, similar to JYP's sales, YG’s revenue has decreased since 2014. BTS’ success and rise in popularity is a key factor in Big Hit’s increasing sales.

As of May 2024, BTS was the most followed artist on Korean web portal and app Weverse by far, with almost 25.5 million registered fans worldwide. Weverse is a social media and video content platform created by HYBE Corporation, the company behind BTS. Since its launch in 2019, both the company itself and subsequently the platform has seen rapid growth and expansion, ultimately absorbing many of its major domestic competitors. Of the ten most followed artists on the platform, six are directly affiliated with HYBE or one of its labels: BTS, ENHYPEN, TXT, SEVENTEEN, LE SSERAFIM, and NewJeans.