Now that we’ve reached the midpoint of the year, I thought I’d finally give you guys the top 3 ranking so far of 5th gen girl groups. I’m taking into account charting, album sales, youtube views, and spotify. Here we go… 
- I feel this one is a bit obvious seeing as they have the most album
sales (1.8 Million), Have the most songs with high peaks on Melon Daily, and while they’re not the first in spotify monthly listeners, they have more songs with over 100 million streams and their youtube views are crazy. Enough said, their crown isn’t tipping.
- Now I know people like to put ILLIT first because of Magnetic but imo since their other songs haven’t come close to it, it’s not fair to have them leading with only Magnetic to carry. Taking into account all the overall groups, ILLIT comes first in spotify monthly listeners (11M), but they only have 2 songs over 100M streams. They have the second highest album sales (1.6M) and have had only 1 song to chart in the top 20 of Melon daily. So I put them at number two.
- The reason I’m putting h2h third is bcs while they haven’t been a group long they’ve already shown promise. They sold over 400,000 copies of their debut in the first week and The Chase ended up becoming a semi hit in Korea (Peaking at 34 on Melon daily). For an SM debut I would call this a smash. Not to mention they have 3M monthly listeners on spotify currently and Style is continuing to rise on the charts. I’m sure their actual mini album is going to sell like hotcakes and the group goes viral on social media everyday so imo H2H has the third spot pretty secured.
Honorable Mentions:
1. KiiiKiii
- KiiiKiii is a peculiar case. They sold well with their debut (over 200k in the first week) and I Do Me became a hit in korea (Peaking at 14 on Melon Daily). However, IDM isn’t their actual debut and their actual debut song, Been That Girl, did not receive the same success or even hype. KiiiKiii aren’t even at 1M monthly listeners on spotify, nor are any of their songs even close to 50 million streams. As of now they only have one hit song and if they prevail with their first comeback and create another hit, they could compete with h2h for the third spot.
2. Meovv
- Meovv have seen success in the little time that they’ve been a group. Though their debut song (Meow) was a hit or miss for certain people, it still charted decently in korea. As of 2025, they’ve released a mini album and have sold over 250k copies. Hands up has peaked within the top 20 of Melon Daily and the group currently has 4M monthly listeners on spotify. By their next comeback they could compete as well for a top 3 spot and shake up the ranking.
3. TripleS
- Now TripleS is a curious group seeing as they always have subunits. But so far as a whole they’ve sold 1.1M albums in the almost 3 years since the group’s debut. Their highest peaking song peaked in the 30s on Melon Daily and they have about 1M monthly listeners on spotify. Personally I don’t see them becoming a top 3 girl group but who knows what could happen.
- Need I even say anything? Their controversies have put them in a position to where they’re not as popular in the kpop world as of now. Their recent comeback only peaked at 88 on Melon Daily and while their previous ones were more well received by korea, their downfall has knocked them out of the top 3 ranking imo. If they bounce back then there could be some hope for them but until then they’re no longer in the top ranking.
