Is K-pop's golden age back? Album sales hit record high through May

South Korea's physical album market is showing signs of a remarkable resurgence in the first half of this year, posting some of the strongest sales figures in recent memory. The driving force has been K-pop fandom, whose collective buying power has breathed new life into the industry — while a wave of fifth-generation rookie acts has begun winning over the general public, signaling a generational shift on the charts.

Fifth-generation idol groups in particular have been chipping away at the towering wall of long-running hits that have dominated streaming charts, delivering the most electrifying shake-up in the domestic music scene this half-year. A string of extraordinary viral revivals fueled by YouTube has also contributed to the surge in album sales.

Million-sellers multiply as album market surpasses its 2023 peak

Fears that K-pop's momentum was fading now look unfounded. Fans mobilizing to push their favorite artists to career highs have sent the physical album market into overdrive.

According to Circle Chart, operated by the Korea Music Content Association, monthly album sales cleared the 10 million mark in both April and May — two consecutive months.

Cumulative sales through May reached a staggering 45.4 million copies, surpassing even 2023 — the year widely celebrated as K-pop's golden age, when annual sales first crossed 100 million — by 2.4 million copies.

Two acts have been the twin engines of the million-seller boom. RIIZE topped the June monthly album chart with 1.4 million total copies sold — 1.01 million from its second mini-album "II" alone, with platform and photo-card editions accounting for the rest. TREASURE also cleared the 1.01 million mark within June, adding further momentum to the million-seller wave.

Big Hit Music's youngest act, CORTIS, went even further, selling 2 million copies with its second mini-album and capturing a 24.3 percent share of the entire album market in May alone. The market's underlying strength has never looked more solid.

Group Hearts2Hearts [Provided by SM Entertainment]

Concrete charts and 'new-song fatigue'

The streaming chart, however, remained as impenetrable as ever. According to Melon's first-half 2026 chart recap — the domestic market's largest music streaming platform — IVE and AKMU dominated the weekly No. 1 spot for the longest stretches of any artists.

IVE's "BANG BANG," the title track from its second full-length album, held the daily No. 1 spot for 40 days. AKMU traded the top position back and forth between "Joy, Sorrow, Beautiful Heart" and "Paradise of Rumors," keeping a single artist atop the daily chart for a combined 41 days. The two acts each held the weekly chart's top position for six weeks, effectively splitting the mainstream audience between them.

The deeper concern is a growing phenomenon observers are calling "new-song fatigue" — listeners gravitating almost exclusively toward familiar tracks and social media playlist staples rather than actively seeking out new music.

Total streaming volume across the top 400 tracks in May fell 1.6 percent from the previous month and 2.3 percent from the same period last year. Despite a wave of major comebacks in April and May — aespa, NMIXX, ITZY and BABYMONSTER all released new material at once — the share of songs less than three months old on the chart actually slipped from 21.8 percent in April to 20.2 percent in May.

BTS, with no members away on military service, kept "SWIM" at No. 1 on global charts for three consecutive months, and I.O.I's "Suddenly," riding a wave of 10th-anniversary nostalgia, swept four chart categories on the June Circle Digital Chart. Even so, breaking through with new releases remained an uphill battle.

Fifth-gen idols crack the chart and a meme rewrites history

A handful of acts managed to break through the "new-song fatigue" barrier and emerge as the true standouts of the first half — the so-called fifth-generation idols.

The upper reaches of the charts had long been treated as the exclusive domain of established groups with years of accumulated narrative behind them. This half-year, however, fifth-generation acts armed with polished, breezy easy-listening sounds finally began making their presence felt at the very top.

Starship Entertainment's breakout rookie KiiiKiii reached No. 1 on Melon's Top 100 just 16 days after releasing "404 (New Era)" in January — the first new song of the year to claim the top spot. The group, less than a year into its career, went on to hold the daily chart's No. 1 position for 12 consecutive days and the weekly chart's top spot for two consecutive weeks.

SM Entertainment's fifth-generation act Hearts2Hearts debuted on Melon's Top 100 at No. 74 within an hour of releasing the house-beat-driven "RUDE!" before climbing as high as No. 2. The group then sustained a run inside the daily chart's top 10 through June, firmly establishing its mainstream appeal.

T-order announced Tuesday that it has entered into a brand partnership with RESCENE, with plans to collaborate across advertising, content and promotions. The company said this marks RESCENE's first partnership with a company in the IT sector. [T-order]

HYBE's mega-rookie CORTIS followed up its dominant album sales with a streaming breakthrough. The group's house-inflected new track "REDRED" — written with input from every member — reached No. 1 on the June Circle Streaming Chart and swept two categories in the week 27 digital and streaming rankings. Having captured both the fandom and the general public, CORTIS has firmly staked its claim as the defining act of the fifth generation.

RESCENE has rewritten the charts through pure subculture momentum rather than any big-budget promotional campaign, making the group the undisputed discovery of 2026. The act is currently writing what may be the most extraordinary viral revival in domestic chart history.

"LOVE ATTACK," released in August 2024, climbed as high as No. 5 on Melon's Top 100 as of late June, and at 10 p.m. Wednesday overtook I.O.I's "Suddenly" to reach No. 1 on the Top 100 chart — a coronation nearly two years in the making.

RESCENE's rediscovery traces back to a single offhand remark by member Wonyi on her YouTube channel. A small meme — a phrase referencing the city of Geoje — spread through short-form video like a game among users, and as public attention shifted to the song itself, streaming surged 2,019 percent and listener counts jumped 977 percent as of late June.

The first half of 2026 in the domestic music scene can be summed up as a victory for content and narrative. Even as major distributors dominated market share and pushed their playlist placements, what ultimately opened listeners' wallets and ears was the fresh musical quality that fifth-generation rookies brought — and the organic new-media memes that devoted fans created and spread on their own.

"Planned, big-money promotions still work," an official at a mid-sized agency said, "but what the industry is discovering is that even artists from smaller companies can survive if you give fans a playground where they can create their own content and have fun with it, and if you offer music that listeners can enjoy without any pressure."

shee@heraldcorp.com