Who was more popular? Peak Twice or Peak BLACKPINK

The peak year in girl group history is indisputable; it's 2023 NewJeans, but the biggest peak after that is debatable.

At some point, I plan on pulling SNSD into the conversation (only true K-Pop historians and savants could parse that out), but most of you were here for the the Twice/BP era, so who was more popular at their peak?

I think those were the absolute peak years of each group. For Twice, 2016 was their best year by far, if we contain it to a single year.

BLACKPINK is actually harder to pinpoint for their peak year, so maybe Blinks can help me. 2018 was their biggest year in Korea by far, but their international/global peak came later.

After discussing it in the thread, it's going to be

2016 Twice vs. 2020 BLACKPINK

Anyway, let's poll it.

The beginning of Peak Twice:

The beginning of Peak BLACKPINK

Quote from monalisalove

BLACKPINK imo.

What year would you pick as peak BP?

Quote from Taemin-Identity

Twice has bigger hits than Bp so I think it is logical to say that Twice in their peak were bigger than Bp in their peak

Thank you for weighing in.

By my calculations, you were about 2 years old when 3rd gen started. You've done your homework, young one

Quote from Popper-of-Ks

Embrace the truth so that it may finally set you free. 2023 NewJeans was easily the most dominant individual year any girl group has ever had by light years.

Quote from DaisyTheGenuine

Blackpink

Same question. What year would you choose as peak BP?

Quote from Tru-Multistan

idk, BP overall and Twice in Korea I guess? It's no question BP is larger globally and Twice is widely considered the Nations Girl Group along with SNSD so I feel like they win there.

All I can say, as one who lived through the era and was even in Seoul when D4 dropped, Twice felt like more of a syndrome at their peak.

The members trended for doing anything, not unlike current day NewJeans.

Tzuyu would go viral for looking like the second coming of Katniss Everdeen with her archery skills one day, and then Sana would trend "Shy Shy Shy" for what felt like an entire year.

Korea was obsessed with them.

Quote from Popper-of-Ks

They don't actually have the best numbers in all of those categories , but I know this won't stop you from pretending they do.

Things like social media followers are meaningless. They could largely be paid bots for all we know.

So where all the numbers and empirical data to counter their claim and support your stance?

Quote from ellenote

I swear this same exact thread has been made at least 5 times.

Probably by me all 5 times.

I like to gauge shift in public opinions over time.

For instance, in 2023, I made several polls about LSF and most people agreed they were the best performers and en route to becoming the second biggest girl group in K-Pop.

I did those same polls in late 2024, and the results flipped entirely.

It's just simple data collection and data points to look at later and reflect on and analyze

Quote from Popper-of-Ks

Why are you asking me? You're the resident number collector. I actually have a life.

You were caught in 4K whining in the comments section of an AKP article about LSF winning a music show over Twice. The moment you did that, you forfeited your right to accuse others of not having a life, which is a lame copout regardless.

Numbers aren't hard to find, unless you're only looking for numbers that fuel your agenda of course.

Quote from superyeah

Yet another reason why 2018 was such great and important year for modern K-pop. BLACKPINK really broke through in 2018. If it weren't for "DDU-DU DDU-DU," the rest wouldn't have followed.

You don't know how salty I was in 2018. I thought it was finally the year MAMAMOO would be the absolute top performing girl group of the year, but Bboom Bboom came out of nowhere to start 2018 and then D4 came in at the end of the summer. Not to mention Starry Night overlapped with Heize at the peak of her powers and Big Bang

It was an all-time all-time year for MAMAMOO, and their peak digital power. They were so close to be the #1 group in 2018.

Quote from bangmenah

“Mamamoos year” baby give it up

From the kpop community on Reddit: Gaon Chart: Digital Top 100 Songs of 2018

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Only two girl group songs had either a higher peak or overall score than Starry Night--BLACKPINK's D4 had both and Bboom Bboom had the overall higher score.

Yes, it was very close to being MAMAMOO's year. I was in Seoul that year. They were everywhere, and it was also when Hwasa became a massive It Girl.

2018 was peak Mamamoo.

Quote from thelightoftruth

It's clearly Blackpink. Their peak is/was on another level let's be real.

I feel like this is a little disrespectful to peak Twice.

Were you an active K-Pop fan in 2016? Twice was everywhere and being called the Nation's Girl Group with regularity.

I'm not sure who I'd pick just yet, but Twice's popularity was more than just numbers--it was all encompassing. Kind of how NewJeans is today and SNSD was in their era.

BLACKPINK have the global numbers and their obvious impact, but I don't know if they ever consumed and dominated the K-Pop landscape quite like Twice in their peak.

I think it's at least debatable.

Quote from thelightoftruth

BP's global success is far greater than any difference than their peaks nationally. I'd argue that Jennie's impact alone asa celeb at her peak in Korea is/was as big as Twice if not bigger.

I think you're going way overboard now. We have enough time and perspective to know better than to put Western validation on that much of a pedestal, and it completely ignores that by the numbers Twice is the most successful K-Pop group in Japan ever, the second largest music industry in the world.

A lot of people say "global" when they just mean the U.S., because if you actually look at it globally, Twice at their peaks were dominant in several countries.

What would you even define as global success for BLACKPINK? Statistically I mean.

But yes, it absolutely is disrespectful to say Jennie has ever been more popular than peak Twice. That's insanely disrespectful.

The only third generation idol I would put on that level is Jungkook.