No one considers exo 2nd gen. Not in any korean site. Not anywhere.
Exo is seen as the group that ushered in and the starting point for 3rd generation. You can’t re write kpop history with your vague understanding of generations.
So the year they debuted the groups that faded away are considered 2nd gen. While EXO and groups there after is considered 3rd gen.
I never said EXO is 2nd gen though, I said that they did compete against 2nd gen bgs
i never said charts are separated by debut years. just that exo’s main competitors for most of their career have been bts. at one point their sales were at par with bts. same is the case with skz and ateez. their sales, digital, everything are close to groups like txt and not the ones in third gen. this is the point i was making. as for bigbang, you can’t be serious. exo were never really in much competition with them. bb have always killed at digitals and exo’s physicals were untouchable. plus bb was like five years exo’s senior and it was common knowledge that both groups coexisted at the same time. bigbang were undisputed legends, they still are. exo was the top boy group back then
EXO main competitors were BTS but Bigbang were also seen as competition for what I know, and at the end of the day the same happen with these supposedly "4th gen groups" they may have similar sales between each other and may not have big sales but they do compete with some 3rd gen groups in sales and ranking overall as how big a group is, even with groups that are peaking latter now this do reflects that 3rd gen aint dying and that this new bunch of groups till 2019 is 3.5.