Most popular SM groups internationally?

  • Aespa debut on Spotify and Ripia's last thread inspired me to create this thread. I guess people generally understand internationally as the same as "in the west", but here please understand internationally as any country outside Korea


    I think fandom-wise NCT 127 and Dream have beaten EXO for over a year now, and Aespa certainly beats Red Velvet


    But looking at their stream status things start to get more blurry. Red Velvet seems to have more listeners than Aespa, plus Red Velvet has Spotify hits Psycho (300 million) Bad Boy 200 million and other 3 songs with over 100 million streams


    EXO seems to be a bit stronger on Spotify than NCT 127 despite their inactivity. I realized NCT 127 has only one song with over 100 million streams and a second one very close to 100 million (Kick it with 100 million), EXO has 6, including one song with over 200 million (Love Shot). NCT Dream has none so far (Boom is closer to 98 million), but their last comebacks did very poorly so I don't see them reaching 100 million either, although Hot Sauce can get there eventually. From NCT U we have boss (109 million).


    On the new Circle digital page seems like RV and EXO have the only recurrent hits from SM too (Love Shot and Psycho): https://circlechart.kr/page_chart/global.circle?termGbn=day


    But to be fair Aespa is a newer group so they, of course, can't have last impact hits yet, I'm sure Next Level will easily become a recurrent hit too. It's still at a very high position (35) 1 year after its release.



    So I guess that's about it. Red Velvet and EXO are the most popular SM groups, and Aespa and NCT 127/Dream are the ones with the bigger fandoms. If they will surpass RV and EXO's popularity... I guess we shall see

  • tbf nct's really close to reaching their second song will 100 million streams :shuhua-shove:


  • EXO is the most popular SM internationally overall. And It's time to people stop underestimating them because of other groups of the same Label they want to drag.


    - In China, nor only their physical sales were crazy, despite not being available on QQ Music until 2018 or 2019, they were the first and only K-pop act to reach 1 billion total streams on Xiami, another plataform;


    - SEA + Western popularity are measured on the fact they are still the 2nd most viewed korean boygroup on YouTube and 4th group overall. Until the first half of 2018, when they were more active, they used to have the second biggest amount of Monthly Listeners on Spotify. The 3rd biggest korean boygroup on the plataform, 5th overall and were 2nd until less than two months ago. Still the second most followed boygroup.


    - The legends used to debut on Billboard 200 with digital sales + streams when distribution weren't even a thing and until 2017 they used to tour on North America even though they weren't promoted there and the market wasn't as opened as It is today.


    - Their popularity in Japan is overlooked, because they were badly promoted, but, in their rookie years, XOXO sold over 150k copies on Oricon, all their japanese singles are gold certified and they were doing 3-nights-in-a-row on Tokyo Dome in the year of their debut in the country.


    Stan EXO, bye.


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  • Damn you tell em the facts, queen!

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  • I’m glad you made this post icaro I didn’t want to post on the other one kekekeke.


    Most iTunes #1 all ten spots are held by EXO


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    Most followers on Spotify

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    There are more and more causal kpop listeners so the goal post for Spotify ULs increases for every group with each consecutive cb. So unless EXO release more music we can’t compare that directly.


    But EXO on their off season and without having released a promoted comeback since 2019 and a full comeback since 2018 have over 4.1 million ULs. (We can say this is their core fanbase)


    Compare that to 127 who have only 3.1 million and Dream with two full releases already this year have 4.8mil when even DFTF was able to cross 5 mil something (I forgot how much it got eye- but it was over 5 million)


    Now coming to aespa GG’s in general have more appeal than BGs so I don’t mind admitting that in the very near future they may indeed have more international popularity and fanbase than EXO. But at the same time I want to say it’s hard to say any anything when EXO isn’t really releasing any promoted music.


    Coming to sales… it’s been raising exponentially for everyone. Does that indicate a bigger fandom or increased accessibility to albums? EXO albums never had broader releases. Only two of their albums were even available in selected international stores like Amazon. I can walk in now to target and get an NCT or aespa’s album. These things definitely affect Gaon sales. Plus ofc we have increased access to very cheap albums. I had to pay $30 with shipping to buy the war. This is a good thing and I’m happy for kpop and NCT/Aespa but Times have changed a lot since 2017/18 for SM acts. No two ways about it.


    TLDR : I miss EXO

  • Ily 😭😭😭😭😭

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    Always have, Always will.


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    Psycho was such a smash my me shake my head is disbelief how poorly Red Velvet career has been managed after that, no company would give such B-list treatment for a group that just released their biggest song WW


  • I'll include the data from NCT Dream. I don't know what to do with Boss and Make a Wish, they are technically NCT U but I think it's good to mention them nonetheless

  • I think they still are the 2nd when we count EXO-K/M together. I often feel MAMA and Overdose suffer a bit because they aren't on EXO's main page, SM should have included them with EXO tag, just like SM did with a couple of NCT U songs

    Iirc, EXO + EXO-K/EXO-M and Stray Kids are both on 2,8B, but I don't know the exact numbers. Regardless of how It is, It's impressive how EXO is holding it/held for so long If you take into consideration they aren't as active It's been almost 4 years.

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  • Psycho was such a smash my me shake my head is disbelief how poorly Red Velvet career has been managed after that, no company would give such B-list treatment for a group that just released their biggest song WW

    Wendy had a serious injury and Irene a scandal that was pretty talked about. + COVID ofc. If none of that had happened it would have been much different.

  • Mmmh is also close to 100 million:


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  • Mmmh is also close to 100 million:


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    Yessssssss. ☝️☝️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

  • Mmmh is also close to 100 million:


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    Kai debut album deserves all the success, It's so good ;(

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  • Yeah exo at their peak wouldn’t demolished all sm groups save for rv maybe on Spotify


    People underestimate how popular they were, really the only boy group besides bts since 3rd gen to consistently get people tuning in each comeback

    Psycho does better than LS on Spotify but LS does better than psycho on YouTube. But I think they’re both SM’s peak for internationally appealing song but both groups couldn’t follow that up and capitalize with more releases because of various reasons (military for exo, injury for RV) which is a pity.

  • “Charted better than EXO


    The comeback in question : DFTF :angryr: :cryingr:

    I'm still shocked with how poorly this song did on K-charts. I wasan't expecting a hit or anything , but it has less unique listeners on Genie than side-tracks from Obsession (which itself was already a step back from their popularity compared to DMUMT, The War, Exact and Exodus). Its performance was behind their 3rd gen peers (Seventeen, NCT) which was unthinkable for me.


    On Spotify it did alright I guess. It's not like you can expect much streams from a group with no fandom activity.

  • Psycho does better than LS on Spotify but LS does better than psycho on YouTube. But I think they’re both SM’s peak for internationally appealing song but both groups couldn’t follow that up and capitalize with more releases because of various reasons (military for exo, injury for RV) which is a pity.

    I agree circumstances played against them, but I feel they were just too old for SM to bother with them. This company still seemed to have a backward mindset that when a kpop group debut you exchange the focus from older ones. EXO is on hiatus, yes, but Red Velvet still pretty much here and they deserve a bit more hype and promotions. You don't need to comeback more than once a year, but you need to make your best to the comeback be at least meaningful and eventful

  • I'm still shocked with how poorly this song did on K-charts. I wasan't expecting a hit or anything , but it has less unique listeners on Genie than side-tracks from Obsession (which itself was already a step back from their popularity compared to DMUMT, The War, Exact and Exodus). Its performance was behind their 3rd gen peers (Seventeen, NCT) which was unthinkable for me.


    On Spotify it did alright I guess. It's not like you can expect much streams from a group with no fandom activity.

    Even fandom can’t save the low effort of DFTF lol.

  • I agree circumstances played against them, but I feel they were just too old for SM to bother with them. This company still seemed to have a backward mindset that when a kpop group debut you exchange the focus from older ones. EXO is on hiatus, yes, but Red Velvet still pretty much here and they deserve a bit more hype and promotions. You don't need to comeback more than once a year, but you need to make your best to the comeback be at least meaningful and eventful

    RV does well internationally best with their velvet song


    Any velvet RV song will do better than both NCT and aespa even now IMO. Let’s hope their next cb is a velvet track 👀👀👀

  • Lol what even .. this is like me listing Super junior's past success currently they're really nowhere near nct. Not even close.

    I'd say that the other way around. NCT still not able to match EXO streams on foreign platforms, their popularity is even leaning heavily towards EXO, as EXO still has more listeners despite being on heavy hiatus while NCT keep coming back from time to time.


    Sales wise I agree, NCT is much bigger now, their fandom is far bigger

  • Obsession is bigger than every single NCT release what are you talking about.

  • I'd say that the other way around. NCT still not able to match EXO streams on foreign platforms, their popularity is even leaning heavily towards EXO, as EXO still has more listeners despite being on heavy hiatus while NCT keep coming back from time to time.


    Sales wise I agree, NCT is much bigger now, their fandom is far bigger

    Why are you matching popularity with streams though? You can be popular in the sense people know you but not necessarily like your music.

  • Most of exos streams and listener's are from older songs in their prime


    If we are talking about Obsession, it performed just as well as most NCT songs really. If it's past Obsession, they only released one song after the military hiatus, which had no promotion, budget, hype... I would understand that assertion if their older song streams have plummeted, but that's not the case. For instance, the last NCT comebacks all did poorly on stream charts, Sticker, Favorite, Glitch Mode, Beatbox... we are talking about DFTF level without a military hiatus


    Should we also consider NCT is past its prime and are no longer popular? Because that's what's your reasoning are leading me to believe



    Sales rise I agree, NCT beaten EXO consistently since 2020 I think. Even with their hiatus, DFTF sold 1,3 million shows that NCT eclipsed them completely fandom-wise

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