• - First-half sales reach 49.53 million copies, the highest ever for a half-year period…14 million-seller teams
  • - Major IPs including BTS and BLACKPINK make consecutive first-half comebacks
  • - Will the market hit an annual all-time high? Expectations also rise for second-half performance

 

[Hanteo News = Reporter JUNG JUNHWA] Predictions that the growth of the K-POP album market, which had been driven upward by the pandemic, would slow down with the transition to the endemic era have been proven wrong. K-POP album sales in the first half of 2026 were found to have instead reached an all-time high on a half-year basis.

 

Hanteo Global, which operates Hanteo Chart, released its data report ‘Hanteo Rewind — 2026 First-Half Review’ on the 16th. Chapter 1 of the four-part report, titled ‘Return, the Return of the K-POP King,’ covered K-POP artists’ album sales and rankings for the first half of the year.

 

According to Hanteo Rewind, total K-POP album sales from January to June 2026 reached 49.53 million copies. This surpasses the previous half-year record of 46.17 million copies set in the first half of 2023. During the same period, 14 teams surpassed 1 million copies in total sales and became “million-sellers.”

 

The general outlook had been that as offline concerts and fan meetings normalized, fans’ spending would be distributed from albums to on-site events, leading to an adjustment in sales. However, the first-half report pointed in the exact opposite direction.

 

► Consecutive comebacks by major IPs including BTS and BLACKPINK

 

The primary driving force behind the record-breaking performance was the return of the so-called “K-POP kings.” BTS, which returned as a full group after its military hiatus, and BLACKPINK both made comebacks in the same half-year period, expanding the scale of the K-POP market.

 

No. 1 in total sales was BTS’ 5th full-length album ‘ARIRANG,’ released in March, with 4,713,213 copies. No. 2 was ATEEZ’s combined total of 3,037,492 copies for ‘GOLDEN HOUR’ Part.4 and Part.5, followed by rookie group CORTIS’ ‘GREENGREEN’ at No. 3 with 2,800,567 copies.

 

Other major IPs also showed formidable results. NCT WISH’s ‘Ode to Love’ recorded 1,910,316 copies, TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s ‘7TH YEAR: When the Wind Briefly Stopped in the Bramble’ sold 1,880,135 copies, BLACKPINK’s ‘DEADLINE’ recorded 1,804,472 copies, and ALPHA DRIVE ONE’s ‘EUPHORIA’ reached 1,469,637 copies. PLAVE also achieved a remarkable result with 1,298,861 copies for ‘Caligo Pt.2.’

 

► The “speed of gathering” shown by initial chodong sales

 

Initial chodong, which refers to sales during the first week after release, is an indicator that most clearly shows fandom power. Of BTS’ 4,169,464 initial chodong sales for ‘ARIRANG,’ about 95.5% were concentrated on the first day of release. This shows not simply sales volume, but how quickly a fandom can gather.

 

BLACKPINK’s five-track project ‘DEADLINE,’ released in February, set a new girl group initial chodong record with 1,774,577 copies. Even though it was a project album rather than a full-length album, it sold 1.46 million copies on the first day alone. In addition, CORTIS with 2.31 million copies, ENHYPEN with 2.07 million copies, NCT WISH with 1.82 million copies, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER with 1.80 million copies also surpassed 1 million copies in initial chodong sales, showing that “multi-million initial chodong” is no longer a record limited to only a few teams.

 

► Rookies, virtual idols, and mid-sized agencies also become million-sellers…A thicker “middle layer”

 

What stands out in this record is not the upper ranks, but the mid-tier. Rookie group CORTIS, still in its early debut period, ranked No. 3 with 2.8 million copies, while virtual idol PLAVE, rookie ALPHA DRIVE ONE with ‘EUPHORIA,’ and TWS with ‘NO TRAGEDY’ also made the million-seller list.

 

This is being interpreted as a signal that new names are rapidly entering a market that had long been centered around major IPs, and that the record was not a “temporary special effect” limited to certain teams, but was supported by the overall strength of the market.

 

► “Settling in as a standard, not a special case”

 

The music industry sees this first-half record as evidence that the album-purchasing structure formed during the pandemic has settled in as a “standard.” This is because collectible purchasing methods, including member-specific and version-specific formats as well as photocards and POB benefits, have continued even after the endemic transition, allowing concerts and albums to be consumed simultaneously rather than separately.

 

In addition, as the pattern of global fandoms in North America, Japan, Southeast Asia, and other regions gathering simultaneously at the time of release has taken root, there is also an assessment that the scale of initial chodong sales itself has structurally grown.

 

Meanwhile, the report is part of Hanteo Chart’s data report series ‘Hanteo Rewind — 2026 First Half, Revival.’ Following Chapter 1, which mainly covered album sales, the report will sequentially cover digital music performance, chart reversals, and the revival of reunited artists.

joonamana@hanteo.com