ive are the 4th gen leaders and i don't see it changing anytime soon

Quote from tongiks

IVE is clearly #1 right now, and I don't see any other group taking it away from them atm. IVE effortlessly stomping digitally both in domestic and international, selling physical albums like hotcakes, have the it girl of the 4th gen and got the japanese market. I'm not sure what happened to aespa, but SM is clearly mismanaging them sooooooooooo bad because they have so much potential like they were doing so well from next level to savage. Ive and Aespa remind me so much of what happened to SNSD and Wonder Girls. Wonder girls (aespa) dominated Korea but were shipped to America, then SNSD took over (IVE).

Wonder Girls were mismanaged way worse than any group this gen, and I was a huge stan. Quite literally left for America for over a year cold turkey, and had their 2nd most popular member leave (Hyuna), added 2 new members, had their leader leave...etc. Not to mention JYP had wonder girls in a) illegal housing, b) extended the employment visa for them to even remain in America for so long (which wasn't allowed), and c) the girls didn't even have health insurance. Also Wonder Girls had a MASSIVE car accident that injured them for a while, and so they were hurt by momentum.

SNSD had a lot of unpopular releases...there wasn't really a strong hit streak like Wonder Girls with No Body, Tell Me, So Hot back to back.

Aespa had a polarizing comeback, and still hit the sales target. I think now SM is focusing on Korean audience for Aespa (since New Jeans and Ive are doing well there) and they may get them on varieties/MCing/that kind of stuff.

Nonstop comebacks like Ive doesn't work with Aespa because the music is very different. SM saw Girls didn't work and the public liked stuff like Next Level/Savage. If Aespa has multiple comebacks the allure of the concept wears off.