that’s actually a really good but often overlooked point! there’s a reason most songs that got paks actually don’t perform as well as that artist’s previous release (eg: gidle’s tomboy vs nude, ive’s love dive vs after like, aespa’s next level vs savage, taeyeon’s weekend vs invu, mamamoo’s um oh a yeh vs you’re the best): the paks show the impact of people’s anticipation after a preceding hit song, not the pak song itself, but peeps who have no knowledge of charts keep using paks to start fanwars thinking a song with paks always means bigger hit song than no pak lol. It’s embarrassing for them really
For me the initial anticipation of the next release is one of the biggest indicators of impact of a song (especially for newer groups). TT had more PAKs and higher peaks then Cheer Up on anticipation alone.
Using Twice as an example - Signal was the first dent in Twice's initial run and even though the song itself hit no.1 off the back of Knock Knock, Likey is Twice's only song between Cheer Up --> Yes or Yes to not hit number one on Melon and that came after Signal being underwhelming for the public (which was a strongly vocalised opinion at the time). Likey not hitting number one at the time felt more indicative of Signal's reception (songs used to routinely peak first few days back then), as their next song (Heartshaker) went back to hitting number one and Likey got the 2.5m certification from Gaon (whilst Signal remains their only title track from that period to not have it).
So Signal had the peaks, all-kills and no.1 but Likey turned out to be the bigger song without the no.1 on Melon and the subsequent success of Heartshaker also proves that.
