I didn't expect this. BTS has better longevity on charts compared to IU.

Looking at time spent in the top 100 of Gaon Digital Chart, I took an average of the top 10 songs and then the top 20 just to see how b-sides and smaller singles would influence the average. It did by quite a bit.

IU

Through the Night 168

Blueming 106

Love Poem 94

Friday 83

Eight 82

Give you my heart 74

Meaning of You 73

Not Spring Love or Cherry Blossoms 66

Palette 56

Hold my hand 54

Merry Xmas in Advance 51

Celebrity 44

BBIBBI 41

Lilac 36

Ah puh 35

Cant Love You Anymore 32

Autumn morning 27

Love story 26

Twenty three 26

Coin 26

Top 10 Avg: 86.5 wks

Top 20 Avg: 60 wks

BTS

Spring day 250

Boy with Luv 138

DNA 82

Idol 79

Dynamite 67

Savage Love Remix 61

Blood Sweat & Tears 56

Life Goes On 54

Fake love 52

On 51

Black swan 40

The truth untold 38

00:00 35

Friends 33

Mikrokosmos 32

I'm Fine 30

Go Go 29

Butter 28

Moon 27

Make it right 26

Top 10 Avg: 89 wks

Top 20 Avg: 60.4 wks

And before anyone comes in here telling me that charting worked differently before 2017, I know. But there's a big spread for IU. She has songs from 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 on her list. BTS has songs from 2016-21.

IU and BTS both have b-sides included. IU has an OST as well (Give you my heart is from "Crash Landing on You").

Quote from tomorrowxtiana

IU is still the queen

Yeah, Lilac Aoty at MMA in a few hours

Quote from nevermindmejin

IU is the only act I don’t mind BTS being compared to.. both are such strong and deserving acts

Period. The fact that she is still reigning after 11 years is honestly super impressive.

Quote from Minazuki

I thought about it in 2018 when DNA had better longevity than Autumn Morning despite being blocked during release time - apart from the night - lol

I think of that more of an one off. A Flower Bookmark II was strong at the start but didn't serve longevity.

Honestly, with IU's decade-long run from Nagging to Strawberry Moon, it's even more surprising that BTS narrowly wins.

Quote from stan12345

I'm not getting your numbers - are you looking at average weeks spent in the top 10 and top 20?

No, time spent in the top 100

Quote from Minazuki

It was shocking for me years ago, because BTS didn't have half of the general public support and respect they have today, It was something they built slowly with time. So the older songs having more longevity than her shocks me more than the new ones...

Agreed, it really shows that people grew to love them for their music.

Quote from stan12345

This just feels like it's skewed by outliers too much to conclude BTS have better longevity i.e. what's the average if you remove Through the Night and Spring Day.

BTS's range is 224 whilst IU's is 142, that's a huge difference.

It can't be helped if Spring Day, TTN, and BWL are outliers. Plus the averages aren't that far apart, especially when doing the top 20; they're separated by 40% of a week.

Quote from stan12345

Outliers skew averages. It's the biggest weakness with calculating a mean average.

From a maths standpoint, excluding outliers can make the result more statistically significant which seems pretty apt for this situation and to conclude on the point you're trying to make.

So get rid of the top 2 for each of them? Those are the songs with 100+ weeks.

Quote from HardcoreBLINK

Artificially boosted chart placements

IU chart runs are legit ✔️

BP was not mentioned yet here you are on page 1.

Quote from BlackpinkHouse

You're using Top 100 longevity and you're using Gaon instead of Melon. Gaon is too easily manipulated by fandoms, BTS has 10 songs that hit #1 on Gaon Weekly, but they only have 4 songs that hit #1 on Melon Daily (and maybe only 3 that hit #1 on Melon Weekly i dunno what Fake Love did). Also, dont forget that musty trot singer Lim Yang Wong got like 47 MILLION Gaon points in a week because of his fandom, Gaon just isnt reliable anymore.

Dumbass acting like Melon wasn't easily manipulated for years which is they created 24Hits in the first place lol. BTS doesn't even have 10 #1s on Gaon, you can't even get all your "facts" right.

No one takes lim youngwoong seriously besides his fans, let's be honest. Even though his fans are dedicated as fuck.