Peak year from the top 5 3rd gen girl groups out there

*DISCLAIMER*

What does peak mean?

- Huge general public anticipation for their upcoming releases, big UL numbers or significant international relevance

- As for physicals, big jump in numbers are what truly matters here

- Keep in mind that to be considered a peak, it has to be somehow maintained over a significant period of time. As an example, both Psycho and Hip era were pretty big, but the following (or previous) releases didn't meet the good expectations and they were mostly "sleeper" hits with great longevity

TWICE

peak: 2018

Three pretty big digital hits in a row (WIL, DTNA and YoY), surpassed 300k in Japan for the very first time (first time for a 3rd gen GG too) and over 1 million album sales on Gaon

BLACKPINK

peak: 2020 (so far)

Two smashing hits with insane longevity, first GG to ever hit 1 million sales for a physical release and increasing international visibility/streaming power

RED VELVET

peak: 2017-first half of 2018

Red Flavor became an anthem and the anticipation for Bad Boy (being also one of their biggest success in western platforms) and Power Up was pretty big

MAMAMOO

peak: 2016-first half of 2017

2016 was a year of PAKs, chart topping B-sides and Decalcomanie, one of their biggest hits so far. By this period they were considered digital monsters domestically and their concerts were sold out in minutes (something rare for non big 3 groups)

GFRIEND

peak: 2016

Rough was their ticket to glory and Navillera was more than enough to maintain them as a relatively big contender for Twice. Their physical sales around this period were also very solid

Quote from hueningkaiskai

also redvelvet hasnt had a comeback yet its too early to say whether they peaked or not

They won't have more than one comeback per year from now on. There's little to no chances for them to grow bigger than they are now. Also, Monster was kind of a semi comeback and it didn't do well except for the album sales increase (which every group out there experienced during 2020)

Quote from crissies

Wew, so few BTS nominations, idk why I'm surprised since I already knew that r/kpop dislikes them.

what does BTS have to do with this thread? lol

Quote from crystal105

For Mamamoo I might still pick 2019. Their general popularity went up, building on the hype they got from the 2018 4S4C project. They had a huge jump in physicals, views and recognition. Their group and solo songs did really well on the charts too - Gogobebe, HIP, Twit and Good Bye.

In terms of longevity Gogobebe didn’t do well. I personally think it was a big underperformance. Also their Queendom song fell really fast

The hype for them was clearly missing during that year (compared to their golden years ofc) and Hip only with time became strong as it’s initial numbers weren’t that impressive

I’m not counting solos here btw. Only full group releases and activities

Quote from theVillain

Hard to tell. I could als say you can make an equally compelling case for 2017 or 2019 for Twice.

2017 they first truly blew up in Japan and had 3 number 1's in Korea and, at the time, their biggest international hit Likey.

Similarly 2019 while they didn't do as well in Korea they had their biggest selling/highest earning year in Japan. Releases Fancy and Feel Special(up until ICSM) their number 1 and 2 biggest international songs. Played the first ever dome tour for a girl group and posted, at the time, by far their best ever streaming numbers. Had a world tour.

So I think you could say either 2017, 2018 or 2019...I think at a stretch you might even be able to make a case for 2016 being their peak year.

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True. It depends on how you see it

But still, 2017-2018 was the year that settled their popularity in Japan and considering how bad Feel Special did domestically I don’t think it would be fair to call it their peak year