Circle Chart: Hwasa Tops Digital Singles, SAY MY NAME Leads Albums

• Hwasa’s Good Goodbye leads digital charts yet again.
• SAY MY NAME leads physical album sales, pushing CORTIS to second in physical album sales.
• Digital charts show broad listening, while physical sales stay mostly concentrated among artists with their own fanbase.

South Korea's national music chart, Circle Chart, released its rankings for the new year week of Dec 28, 2025, to Jan 3, 2026, highlighting a competitive scene in both digital streaming and physical album sales. A few days ago, the chart released its year-end chart rankings from Dec 21 to Dec 27, 2025, where CORTIS led physical album sales.

Notably, Hwasa's Good Goodbye is once again at the top of the digital singles charts. The track scored 17.88 million points, increasing her advantage over others in the first chart week of 2026. Ranking second is Fromis_9's White Memories with 12.22M points, followed by HANRORO's Landing in Love in third with 11.82M points.

WOODZ's Drowning (11.59M points) and NMIXX's Blue Valentine (10.44M points), which ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, were two more high-performing digital singles that demonstrated the continued desire for both well-known and upcoming performers. The diversity of listener interaction across platforms is shown by the top ten's multi-genre mix, which includes KPop Demon Hunters’ Golden by HUNTR/X (10.32M points) and seasoned pair Davichi’s track Time Capsule (10.14M points). Additionally, ALLDAY PROJECT’s ONE MORE TIME (9.69 points) ranked eighth, with Lee Chan Hyuk’s song Endangered Love (8.79M points) ranking ninth, while another of HANRORO’s songs, 0 + 0 (8.75M points) closed off the top ten.

Physical Album Leaders of K-pop in the New Year Week

With 154,182 copies sold, rookie group SAY MY NAME with &Our Vibe took the first weekly top place on the physical album chart, a great start for a young band. CORTIS' COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES came in second with 35,308 sales, while AHOF's The Passage (WITHVUU) and Stray Kids' DO IT (PLVE) ranked third and fourth on the chart, respectively, with 35,005 and 21,580 copies sold. PULSEPHASE by Kang Daniel rounded off the top five with 12,500 copies, showcasing the diversity of the physical market beyond the typical K-pop titans.

Furthermore, Chuei Li Yu's Sweet Dream (10,346 copies sold) ranked sixth in physical album sales, followed by The Classic by Kyuhyun (8,013 copies sold), which came in seventh. On the other hand, ALLDAY PROJECT made two appearances on the chart. Its conventional ALLDAY PROJECT (5,629 copies sold) release ranked ninth, while the ALLDAY PROJECT (Nemo) edition (6,107 copies sold) ranked eighth. Also, XLOV's UXLXVE (5,088 copies sold) took tenth place, completing the top ten K-pop artists with the most physical album sales.

Digital vs. Physical Trends

There is a noticeable pattern in the digital as well as physical consumption during the first Circle Chart week of 2026. The rankings depict continued engagement for artists like HANRORO, ALLDAY PROJECT, CORTIS, Stray Kids, and Hwasa, who had maintained their stay in the charts from the last year-ending week. Overall, the charts highlight the different consumption patterns influencing South Korea's music market by demonstrating that digital performance reflects wide listening habits while physical sales are centered around fandom-driven sales.