Korean Music Including K-pop Hits No.4 in Global Streams: Luminate

• Luminate placed South Korean music fourth internationally for on-demand streaming beyond of native markets in 2025.
• Golden from KPop Demon Hunters came in second position internationally, while Rosé's APT. came in fourth, depicting K-pop's global reach.
• K-pop titan HYBE reported a record $1.86 billion USD in sales for 2025, showcasing how the genre is leveraging digital scale to drive growth in live and auxiliary income.

South Korean music, including K-pop, ranked fourth in global on-demand streaming volume in 2025, after only the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, according to Luminate's 2025 Year-End Music Report. The results involve streaming volumes outside of artists' home countries, emphasizing K-pop's global reach.

Luminate anticipated that global audio and video streams across all music will reach roughly 5.1 trillion in 2025, growing over 9.6% year on year. It revealed a core consumer increase, despite the fact that a small number of tracks accounted for the majority of volume.

The organization’s year-end data revealed that some Korean releases performed particularly well: the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack song Golden finished second internationally in streaming, while BLACKPINK's Rosé single APT. came in fourth. Notably, Rosé’s APT. recently won a BRIT Award for the category, International Song of the Year, while her group BLACKPINK sold 1.46 million copies on day one tied to their new DEADLINE album.

Premium Markets Drive the Momentum of K-pop

The fourth-place country ranking of South Korean music reflects broader business trends. Last year, Luminate revealed that the United States continues to dominate raw volume markets, but Asian consumption, particularly in Japan and South Korea, accounts for an increasing share of premium and subscription listening. Japan, for instance, has emerged as a key premier streaming growth engine in Asia-Pacific, while Western countries have seen both stable and expanding consumption.

K-pop’s growth trends were further highlighted by industry stakeholders during the 2026 Music Data Summit, hosted by Luminate and Korea's KreatorsNetwork on February 6 in Seoul. The summit had leaders from more than 50 Korean entertainment businesses who addressed the localization ambitions of K-pop. The meeting focused on Japan's premium streaming industry, which continues to develop year after year and is a top priority for Korean labels, thereby depicting further room for paid monetization.

K-pop and Broader Korean Music: From Streams to Revenue Power

Outside streaming, Korean acts are converting their digital exposure into sales and live revenue. For instance, South Korea's HYBE Group announced record annual revenues of $1.86B for 2025, despite tighter profit margins, owing to increased concert and ancillary income from global fan participation.

The results highlight South Korea's growing influence in the global music industry, as K-pop stars continue to dominate top-tier streaming rankings globally. Therefore, industry players are growing more dependent on granular data to drive incremental growth in surrounding markets like Japan and other high-value areas.