K-POP Radar's 2025 report shows global trends, with Korea, Japan, and Indonesia leading in consumption, and notable shifts in rankings.
February/19/2026 17:31
The K-POP artist comprehensive dashboard "K-POP Radar," operated by the music startup Space Oddity, has released the "2025 K-POP World Map (Country Edition)." "K-POP Radar" aggregates the view counts of related videos on the YouTube artist chart for one year from January 1 to December 31, 2025, analyzing global K-POP trends. The results are summarized in the "2025 K-POP World Map." The newly released "Country Edition" allows for a quick understanding of the most supported K-POP artists in each country based on K-POP consumption scale, artist share, and growth rate changes. According to the analysis of K-POP consumption by country in 2025, Korea, Japan, and Indonesia maintained their positions as the top three. The U.S. rose one rank to fourth, while India dropped to fifth. Changes in country shares indicate the future direction of K-POP consumption. Korea, the home of K-POP, further expanded its share compared to 2024, showing a growth trend again. The U.S. accounted for 6.25% of global K-POP consumption, moving up from fifth to fourth place. The nearly 1% increase in share supports the effectiveness of localization strategies and global collaborations. Japan maintained its second position, but its share decreased from 8.44% to 7.41%, with total view counts also declining, indicating a mature market phase. Taiwan rose to ninth place for the second consecutive year, entering the top ten. The U.K., previously outside the top 20, surged to 17th place. The ranking of Western European countries like France, Germany, and Canada indicates that K-POP consumption is expanding globally and diversifying. The 2025 Korean K-POP market showed dynamic movements with the return of legendary artists alongside existing strong players. DAY6 rose from second to first place, with aespa and IU ranking second and third, respectively. BIGBANG's G-DRAGON saw an increase of about 200 million views, achieving the highest increase and rising to fifth in the overall ranking. BIGBANG also ranked fourth overall, reaffirming its strong support in Korea. The rise of solo artists was also notable, with Cho Seung-youn (WOODZ) increasing views by about 160 million, ranking 11th overall and second in increase. BLACKPINK's Jennie ranked 12th overall and third in increase, proving her individual brand power. In the U.S. market, Stray Kids maintained first place with a share of 8.63%. KATSEYE recorded an increase of about 260 million views, achieving the highest increase and ranking third overall, impressively showing rapid growth. In the U.K., Rosé achieved an overwhelming share of 11.63%, simultaneously reaching first place overall and in increase. KATSEYE also ranked high, demonstrating strong competitiveness across the U.S. and U.K. markets. Taiwan continued to grow for the second consecutive year, entering the top 10 K-POP consuming countries. While i-dle maintained first place with a share of 5.69%, some of the share decrease was analyzed to have shifted to G-DRAGON and BIGBANG, who recorded the first and second highest increases, respectively, reaffirming strong demand in the Taiwanese market.
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