When is an idol group considered "not nugu" anymore?

Quote from icyruios

Is Momoland nugu?

I am not in Korea so not sure but based on what we see nowadays, yes. I mean Momoland is barely surviving.

Feels like all the members are just waiting for the contract to end.

Nugu group is a group that when you ask about that group to peoples, they would say "nugu? (who?)". So if people knows about that group then they're not nugu group anymore.

Quote from cle19

nugus are not nugus and not nugus are nugus

Same energy:

i believe when they are making some profit or break even at least. Even if they don't have good digitals; more than 50k album sales is when i would assume they can cover the comeback cost and generate some profit.

But there are some groups that are mostly famous in korea like b1a4; ab6ix; onf; onlyoneof; lovelyz; oh my girl; oneus. For groups like these that are mostly popular in korea; even 20-30k sales is enough because they can earn well from concerts in korea. For groups like ateez and a.c.e that have big international fandom and small korean fandom; they need more album sales around 50k plus because they can't sell as much in concerts because of small korean fanbase.

Although with online concerts and fansigns; i think it has become easier for groups with more int fans. They can have online concerts for int fans otherwise touring in foreign countries can be expensive.

Then there are groups with small album sales but there is a popular member who gets cf/ acting roles like Lovelyz Mijoo or Doyeon from Weki Meki and until recently Naeun from April.

there's always going to be a difference of opinion as to what exactly nugu is...

but if we take the original meaning of the word as in who which is the literal definition then those groups which are literally not know by anyone I would consider nugu...

I would also state that not successful does not mean nugu - there are plenty of groups who are not successful or doesn't hit it big...but it also doesn't mean that they are unknown...

GG = sell 50k

BGs = sell 100k

Streams are abysmal for most groups outside the ones that are popular internationally, so I'm done here.

album sales? popularity? I really don't know

When BEG4DAWIN knows who they are