- K-pop album exports surpassed $300M USD in 2025, balancing its weak domestic market.
- Japan maintained its dominance despite softening exports, while China's resurgence proved to be a pleasing surprise.
- The export-sales split indicates a shifting K-pop economy.
K-pop album exports exceeded $300 million USD for the first time in 2025. This illustrates the genre's persistent appeal overseas despite a continual fall in record sales. According to Korea Customs Service figures quoted by South Korea's largest news agency, Yonhap, international exports of K-pop albums hit a record $301.7M, an increase of 3.4% year on year. The milestone demonstrates how export markets are successfully compensating for the domestic slowdown, as 2025 marked the second consecutive year of weakened spending.
China’s K-pop Market Rebounds as Japanese Exports Soften
According to the reports, Japan remains the largest market, recording $80.6M in album imports. Yet, exports to Japan dropped 10.2% from the previous year. Notably, China appeared to be one of the fastest-growing key markets, with imports increasing by 16.6% to $69.7M, leading Beijing to restore its position as the second-largest K-pop album market for the first time since 2022, surpassing the United States, which accounted for $64M in imports. This comes as a surprise as the country has been restricting foreign content, including K-pop, for a long time.
Amongst other prominent importers of K-pop albums, Taiwan, Germany, and Hong Kong were included, along with the Netherlands, Canada, France, and Poland, showcasing the genre’s expanding popularity outside East Asia and North America.
However, this export growth is in contrast to the overall sales patterns noticed in the last two years. As per Circle Chart data, total K-pop album sales, including domestic and abroad markets, decreased to around 93.5M copies in 2025, marking the second straight annual decline and a significant dip from 120M copies (roughly) in 2023.
K-pop’s Global Popularity Holds as Domestic Album Sales Retreat
Industry experts like Choi Kwang-ho, who is also the Secretary General of the Korea Music Content Association, stated that K-pop "maintained its global appeal last year," because of releases like the 2025 soundtrack for KPop Demon Hunters. However, he stated that local demand was limited by environmental worries about plastic CDs and a reduction in fan-targeted marketing approaches. “With such a small home market,” Choi added, “the gap between artists who succeed in the United States or Japan and those who do not appears to be widening.”
The gap between export performance and overall sales suggests a rethinking of K-pop's economic model rather than a loss of global significance. As physical albums become increasingly regarded as international goods, and pop merch instead of domestic music products, the industry's next challenge will be whether labels can turn export impetus into long-term growth without depending on volume-driven fan consumption at home.
