PLAVE Makes History with Virtual K-Pop Concert

• PLAVE attracted 37,000 fans in, marking a milestone for virtual K-pop audiences.
• The concert drew more than half a million presale attempts, highlighting growing fan demand.
• Virtual idol merchandise and collaborations contributed significantly to the parent company’s revenue growth.

PLAVE attracted 37,000 admirers in Seoul this weekend, pushing virtual K-pop to new heights. The ensemble packed the Gocheok Sky Dome, a venue usually reserved for K-pop's best in-person acts.

The 2025 Asia tour of the virtual K-Pop group, DASH: Quantum Leap Encore, concluded with two sold-out performances on November 21-22.  The turnout, which was boosted by more than half a million presale efforts, indicates that virtual idols' business drive is rising.

PLAVE Breaks Records with Virtual Idol Concert 2025

According to industry reports, PLAVE became the first virtual idol group to fill the stadium.  Ticket sales totaled around 530,000, with all three pre-sale shows selling out. The waiting list also grew to around 30,724 fans. Their debut extended play (EP) sold 1,095,600 copies in its first week, becoming the first virtual-idol release to sell over a million copies, a rare seven-digit milestone even for actual K-pop boy groups.

Ads and IP collaborations account for the majority of virtual idol earnings. In 2024, VLAST (parent company of PLAVE) recorded ~45.4 billion KRW (about $32.5 million) in revenue and ~9.9 billion KRW (roughly $7.1 million) in operational profit at a margin of around 22%. Meanwhile, pop-up stores featuring virtual idols produced over 7 billion KRW (~$5 million) in one event, showing substantial fandom-driven expenditure beyond music and shows.

PLAVE, two years after its debut, continues to show that a virtual idol concert in 2025, is no fluke. They are redefining live K-pop by giving a tough competition to human stars, supported by robust ticket sales, global streaming, and stadium-sized crowds. Their Gocheok Sky Dome performance depicts how virtual groups can also attract anime enthusiasts, tech-savvy viewers, and die-hard K-pop fans, bringing them under one umbrella.

Real-Time Avatars Bring Virtual K-Pop to Life

PLAVE's concerts use real-time motion capture. Artists wearing sensor gear bring anime-style characters to life onstage. That approach enables the characters to adapt instinctively to fan cries, crowd energy, and unexpected situations, resulting in a reactive, immersive experience rather than a pre-rendered display.

Inside the sky dome, audiences experienced the same social atmosphere as at large human-idol events. The atmosphere was driven by synchronized light-stick waves, coordinated chanting, eye-catching visual effects, and audience participation.