The Korean music taste tends to go against the world trend.
In 2022, when BTS topped the entire world,
the Koreans watched more IU than BTS.
So while BTS was the most viewed singer of the world, in Korea the most viewed singer was - IU!
I got this list somewhere. The numbers might be a bit different but the rank should be similar.
Most viewed artist of Youtube Korea, Dec 1 2024 - Dec 1 2025
1 Day6 (JYPE) 553M views
3 IU (Edam Entertainment) 460
4 Big Bang (Used to be YGE, I don't know where it is under now) 441
5 GDragon 418
7 New Jeans (Ador, for now) 314
8 Yonezu Kenshi (Reissue Records, whose only artist is Yonezu) 273
9 Roseanne Park, MBE (YGE) 266
10 BlackPink (YGE) 262
11 Bruno Mars
12 Lim Youngwoong
13 E.Jae - KDH
14 Qwer
15 Huntr/x - KDH
17 Woodz
18 Lee Mujin
19 Andrew Choi - KDH
General review -
KDH's impact in Korea was smaller than imagined.
Yonezu Kenshi is popular enough to be ranked in one of the top 10 in Korea. I don't know how high he ranks in Japan.
Day6 got stronger while qwer declined.
I don't know whether JYP wants to laugh or cry about this since his act did reach #1 but it is not an act which will make him the most money since it is a mature act and it is likely that because it was not profitable until 2024 he did not care too much about it and granted a term more favorable for the members.
aespa always falls short of the top for whatever reason, and although all the songs from the former owner of Edam Entertainment bombed this year, the locals are not completely weaned off from the Senior Singer.
And, New Jeans, despite of everything, still retained enough popularity to remain in the top 10 with just one new song , which was only performed one time, in 2025.
