Now that we're fully in 4th gen times, things have started to change. Some 3rd gen groups have disbanded or left their company, some have lost members, new groups have debuted and made their marks, summarily, the K-pop scene is undergoing changes once again.
But how much? Like who are the digital top groups in South Korea these days, which groups rule the Korean charts?
Based on Gaon's results of the past 1-2 years, I'd say the current ranking goes something like this:
1. BTS
2. Blackpink
4-5. Aespa / Oh My Girl
6. Red Velvet
7. STAYC
8. TWICE
9. Mamamoo
Did I miss some groups? I couldn't see any boygroups besides BTS that had a good digital performance, but maybe NCT Dream on 10?
Do you agree with the list? And how do you expect it to change this year?
Note: after reviewing various comments and arguments in the thread and revisiting Gaon, I changed the ranking to a what I think more accurate description of the real situation:
1. BTS
2-3. Aespa / Blackpink
4. Oh My Girl
5. Brave Girls
6. Red Velvet
7. STAYC
8. TWICE
9. ITZY
(10. IVE?)
Reasoning behind this is described in this post of page 3:
So I did a 'quick & dirty' scan for all the groups and their songs. Basically an 'How did the best performing songs of each of the groups fare?'
What can I say? It was a slow Sunday.
It did show me some surprising discoveries. What I found:
BTS: ON (peak: #1, wk 20: #30), Dynamite (#1, wk20: #3), Life Goes On (#3, wk20: #33), …