Has 4th gen surpassed 3rd gen already?

I’m going to say no as long as we have bts, blackpink, red velvet and twice. All of these groups chart good, except for twice’s recent releases.

3rd gen still holds the crowns

no enhypen or stray kids arren't bigger than nct and seventeen because they have more spotify streams

No no one is touching twice and bp 4th gen needs to tour first then we can talk

i mean 4th gen gg needs to tour first I doubt aespa can sold stadium itzy might

The only problem of twice is korean charting melon mostly but it’s gosh melon and jyp has a beef so prolly there’s back story why twice isn’t charting good there anymore but no other gg can touch bp and twice overall in terms of concert views etc no one yet. Prolly the hybe new gg and yg new gg can but let’s be honest until today’s date no one

too early to say right now. As of currently, 4th gen has A LOT of work to do to catch up to 3rd.

4th gen imo is close to surpassing 2nd gen if they haven't already.

no but I think overall 4th gen groups soon will become more relevant than 3rd gen groups aside from bts. For girlgroups it's harder to predict

All the bgs txt, treasure, enhypen, SKZ and ateez would be considered as flop groups without the BTS wave.

All of them have the album sales and Spotify/Yt numbers with the help of the core Fandom.

Groups like EXO or W1 didn't had these benefits from BTS where they had a much larger audience to show their talent.

So I would say we can't really compare them.

SKZ achieved a BB200 number 1 this week but be honest did it have a similar impact like BTS first BB200 with their Hot100 Top10 debut?

Of course not since only the Fandom cares about SKZ. The same with the other 4th gen groups.

It's the same with comebacks when Exo had a comeback the Kpop community knows it. But when SKZ, txt or ateez makes a comeback I don't see the Couruisty within the kpop community.

Thats the reason why I won't say that the 4th gen groups surpassed the 3th gen.

4th gen hasn't surpassed 3rg gen in anything

urm no???3rd gen is still going strong

Not the top groups like BTS / NCT / Twice / Blackpink / Seventeen but overall they have surpassed a lot of 3rd gen groups.

Quote from reina-en

1-2 years ago allkpop was filled with threads like "why is 4th gen flopping", " 4th gen will never surpass 3rd gen", "we haven't seen anything admirable from 4th gen". What is the situation now?

We have girl groups such as Aespa, Idle, Stayc completely dominating the kcharts. They go against senior groups, very strong ones at that, and still manage to beat them on charts (latest example is i-dle and red velvet). Not only in Korean charts, girl groups also do very well in international ones. Ive and their spotify records, aespa and their big sales, itzy and their billboard achievements and so on.

Boy groups, on the other hand, such as txt, enhypen, stray kids have much bigger international popularity than any of the current active 3rd gen boy groups (exception is bts, maybe nct too). They own large physical sales, their spotify metrics are big, we notice stable and big fandoms, nearly each comeback those groups have a song that goes viral among the kpop community and so on.

The more time passes, the more we start to see achievements like " aespa/stray kids/ive/enhypen/txt/etc is the fastest/first kpop act to ____" instead of the usual "__ is he first/fastest 4th gen group to__".

So what do you think? Has the fourth gen finally taken over?

Ps. I have to say that when we talk about 3rd gen and 4th gen, we understand that bts can not be surpassed by any of the current generation or the next few ones at least. We are talking about every other third gen group out there as we need to stay realistic.

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What relevant first kpop act achievements are out there that don’t already belong to BTS or BP or Twice??

And the reason why people say 4th Gen may not surpass 3rd Gen is because of legacy. Obviously we all know popularity won’t last forever and soon a next generation will have to take over but the issue was if 4th Gen could ever attain the status the 3rd Gen top groups built up in kpop.

Just compare the top groups in each Gen to each other

3rd Gen: BTS , BP, twice, exo, red velvet, nct, seventeen, ikon

4th Gen: txt, stray kids, aespa, enhypen, g idle, ateez, ive, itzy

There’s still a big gap between the two Gen. Give 4th Gen more time

They havent surpassed 3rd gen internationally

4th gen didn't just start yesterday anymore, so groups had a chance to grow in fandom.

And even a newly debuted group like IVE is doing amazing.

So, keeping BTS out of the equation, I think we are at a point now where 3rd gen groups' headstart is becoming less of an advantage as it was. Fresh new groups are gaining interest + have a history/growing discography now too.

Summarized, about two years ago, it was:

3rd gen:

Had the time to grow a fandom that anticipates their releases

Large discography

Many funny moments that fans like to look at

Experience

Known for quality

vs

4th gen:

Just a starting fandom

Maybe 1 or 2 nice songs to attract attention.

Still shy and personalities are not known.

Little renown if any.

Now:

3rd gen:

All the above of 3rd gen, but maybe less freshness.

Need to evolve to stay interesting

4th gen:

Still less experience than most 3rd gen BUT

Increased fandom

More songs

Better known faces and personalities

More global opportunities as rookies than 3rd gen had due to increased popularity of Kpop

Getting more comfortable as an idol

Potentially already known for talent etc.

Quite interesting here are also the increase of casual Kpop fans, that seem very open to listen to more songs (especially girl group songs) and don't necessarily only support one group they've been with for years.