I wrote that in the 3rd Gen of KPop only those from the major companies, Red Velvet, Twice and BlackPink in order of debut (Mamamoo belongs to a slightly different category), and in addition to them, GFriend reached top tier. (OhMyGirl rose too late to matter)
In the 4.5th gen, it seems Illit's first player effect seems to be too much to overcome.
Last year, there were just two major KPop hits. (Songs by the 1,351 years old and Bibi are excluded since they are not KPop. Fate is not exactly KPop so not counted. APT. does not involve any Koreans so it is not a KPop song.)
One of them was Supernova and the other was Magnetic.
When GFriend broke out with Rough, Twice answered with Cheer Up and then TT, ending GFriend's ambition to become the first act to win a Grand Prize while from a nugu company. (Big Hit/Hybe was not a nugu company because 2AM won a Golden Disk award while under Big Hit.)
However, it is almost a year since Magnetic came out, and none of the new acts have even come close to it.
Granted Illit's second song was weak, but the songs by other acts which debuted around Illit had weaker songs.
I wonder whether Illit's first player advantage was too much for other acts to overcome.
