HYBE's CORTIS Leads Physical Sales, GO! Hits 100M Streams

• Hwasa’s Good Goodbye remained No. 1, confirming strong year-end digital streaming dominance.
• Rookie group CORTIS topped physical album sales, signaling robust early fandom demand.
• Mariah Carey’s holiday hit re-entered the top 10, reflecting seasonal listening patterns in Korea.

South Korea's Circle Chart (previously known as the Gaon Chart) has announced its ranking for the final full week of the year 2025. The rankings focused on digital singles and physical album performance for the week of Dec 21 to Dec 27, 2025. The chart, created by the Korea Music Content Association, is regarded as the industry standard for measuring music consumption in South Korea.

Digital Singles: Hwasa’s ‘Good Goodbye’ Holds No. 1 in South Korea

Hwasa's Good Goodbye topped the national digital singles chart with 18,715,710 points, solidifying its place as one of the year's most popular songs across platforms. The song's continued popularity through December indicates high streaming and download traction even after its first release in October 2025.

Following Hwasa, EXO's winter-themed single The First Snow came in at No. 2 with 12,718,723 points, while solo singer WOODZ took No. 3 with Drowning at 11,058,682.

Other significant songs included HANRORO's Landing in Love, NMIXX's Blue Valentine, and HUNTR/X's Golden, from the KPop Demon Hunters, which is trending on local as well as global K-pop charts. Rounding off the top 10 were releases from legendary duet Davichi, ALLDAY PROJECT, fromis_9, and even Mariah Carey's famous track All I Want for Christmas Is You.

Physical Albums: CORTIS and KATSEYE Lead Sales

HYBE has been shaking up the K-pop scene ever since it launched BTS, and now its newer groups CORTIS and KATSEYE are walking on the same path. On the Physical Albums Sales Ranking, CORTIS entered at No. 1 with COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES. The extended play of the rookie act sold 61,700 units, indicating strong fandom sales and retail demand.

Additionally, BigHit Music confirmed on Jan 4, 2026, that CORTIS’s debut intro song GO! achieved 100 million cumulative streams on Spotify, as of Jan 2. Reportedly, it is the fastest music by a rookie K-pop boy band, launched in 2025, to reach this milestone, having done so only four months after its release.

Moving forward in the rankings, KATSEYE's BEAUTIFUL CHAOS followed after CORTIS. The KATSEYE album sold 19,092 copies and has recently gained newfound success on the U.S. music charts. According to Spotify's most recent data release on Jan 3, 2026, the group's new song Internet Girl debuted at 6th on the Daily Top Songs US and 13th on the Daily Top Songs Global, immediately after its release. The song received about 2.87M streams on Spotify in 24 hours, which reflects the biggest first-day streaming numbers in the group's catalog to date. 

Ranking after KATSEYE, Stray Kids' DO IT (PLVE) came in third place. Other entries in the chart rounding off the top acts were RESCENE's Lip Bomb (WITHVUU) and MIYEON's MY, Lover (LP), CHUEI LI YU’s SWEET DREAM, msnz Beyond Beauty (Cosmo) of tripleS, WayV’s Eternal White - Winter Special Album, and Highlight’s HIGHLIGHT LIVE 2025 (RIDE OR DIE).

Seasonal Trends and End-of-Year Listening

Mariah Carey's appearance on the top ten digital list highlights the seasonal listening trend for legendary holiday music. This is consistent with global chart behavior, as festive mainstays re-enter charts each year, indicating long-term cross-genre consumption even in the Korean market.

Across the country, the diverse range of K-pop acts that dominate both digital and print charts indicates a large listener base. From renowned names like Hwasa and EXO to upcoming acts like CORTIS and HANRORO, the Dec 21-27 rankings show how fan interaction and streaming behavior define South Korea's year-end music scene.

Chart Methodology & Industry Context

The Circle Chart compiles nationwide weekly download data, streaming numbers, and music usage data from key services to provide a comprehensive picture of music popularity in South Korea. It is still a major industry benchmark, comparable to Billboard in the United States or Oricon in Japan, and it influences year-end retrospectives, award season nominations, and market evaluations.

For K-pop fans and industry experts alike, the current rankings provide both a reflection on a successful year for Korean music and a glimpse into which songs and albums had the greatest listener interaction in 2025.