Top ten kpop girl groups in Korea digital wise overall

    Its way too difficult to compare between 2nd gen and 3rd gen ggs.


    But I dont think its a stretch to say that 2nd gen ggs did way better digitally in korea than 3rd gen ones. Even 4th gen ggs seem to do better and they have just started. Outside of Blackpink/Twice nobody is consistently really big or get super big hits in korea in any big period of time for 3rd gen ggs.


    So I wouldnt be surprised if the list is dominated by 2nd gen + NewJeans or Ive + Blackpink and Twice. The only issue with 4th gen is that they dont have the number of songs under their belt but they already have at least 2 way bigger hits than MMM/RV (3rd/4th best performing 3rd gen gg) ever had

    Edited once, last by z1 ().

    Quote from Beesknees

    There’s no evidence they would have all hit number one


    There’s barely any metric out there that would indicate that SNSD are even in the top 3 of such a ranking. Even using metrics that predate Gaon ;judgingpepe:

    I mean the only songs that didn't hit it fr were Gee and Genie. I hope you don't have any doubt about Gee and we could discuss about Genie, as you said it's impossible to confirm it, but considering how impacted the Gaon digital chart was by downloads, how it was SNSD's first comeback after Gee, how it peaked at #1 in the Melon weekly chart, and how there wasn't any other big new release at the time, I'd say it's almost guaranteed they'd have gotten it. If you want to insist there isn't any evidence I'll though I'll give you that, you're right.

    Only doing the ones I’m mostly familiar with.


    1. 2ne1

    2. Sistar (mainly because they had much more releases in a than BP)

    3. BP

    4. SNSD

    5. Twice (only pre 2020 Twice, post 2020 Twice isn’t making this list all)

    6. T-ara (scandal cut them very short)

    7. RV

    8. Mamamoo

    9. WG (huge hits early on but due to hiatus and changes they never really had much of a middle career but finished decently)

    Quote from girlgroupstan21

    SNSD was never that big digitally.. T-ARA and 2NE1 have better digital performances.. i know its too early but NewJeans prolly deserve to be on the list too

    I see people still saying this dumb take but it's baffling how they even come to this conclusion. SNSD in their era may not have had the most total hits or cumulative paks, backs, sacks, cracks but their stats and legacy is more than enough to show they were massive digital, not just ok like you think.


    They had 8 number hits on gaon in row but that still misses Gee and Genie which were both pre Gaon which would take the total to 10. Genie was a of course a huge hit and Gee, well it doesn't need explaining, that song alone would put them on this list due to its success and impact. When a group has the biggest hit of 2G and still had hit after hit after that instead of fading away like many groups have, saying they're not strong digitally is rewriting history or lack of knowledge.


    Their legacy and public's affection was on display last summer as they managed to out chart majority of active ggs during a very competitive season. They could've easily flopped or just high for a day or 2 and then faded away but they surpassed expectations and got to number 5 and stayed there for a couple weeks on melon. The only ones who managed to beat them were BP and 2 super rookies ie 3 of the biggest ggs currently. That's an excellent result from a 15 yo gg that came off a 5 year hiatus, that's better than most current ggs can manage.

    what about SNSD's Kissing you? I don't know about much about charts but I always see them perfoming this song among their hits, so I've always wondered if it was popular:/


    Though I guess at that time Wonder girls would have dominated the hypothetical gaon chart ^^

    Quote from Reclaimer

    Depends on your criteria, rankings can change depending on per song or overall performance. Plus Gaon/Circle changed a lot between second and third gen, and downloads were cheaper during second gen. Also the amount of Melon users has changed too, so really any attempt to rank girl groups even within a generation is a bit subjective, let alone cross generation.

    I was actually going to link to that thread of mine from last year, but I'm glad to see that you already did.


    So based on my initial analysis of Melon monthly data from November 2004 to June 2022, here are the top girl groups:


    Davichi

    Bolbbalgan4

    Twice

    2NE1

    SNSD

    Blackpink

    Red Velvet

    Wonder Girls

    Mamamoo

    SeeYa

    Brown Eyed Girls

    Sistar

    Gavy NJ

    T-ara

    Apink

    GFriend

    4Minute

    Oh My Girl

    Kara

    Girl's Day

    AOA

    Big Mama

    f(x)

    Quote from silentmoon

    what about SNSD's Kissing you? I don't know about much about charts but I always see them perfoming this song among their hits, so I've always wondered if it was popular:/


    Though I guess at that time Wonder girls would have dominated the hypothetical gaon chart ^^

    It was a hit yeah, but at that time WGs were releasing their biggest hits + ifans weren't even around back then so many don't even know about it.

    I don't think it would have been a #1 song like the rest though so that's why I didn't mention it, but people thinking SNSD was underperforming before Gee are definitely wrong.

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