Leading digital singles in South Korea 2024
In 2024, the song "Supernova" by K-pop girl group aespa was the leading digital single on the Circle Digital Chart. The Circle Digital Chart is the industry standard chart used in the South Korean music industry for singles. "Supernova" scored almost 590 million points on the Circle index. Pop rock band DAY6 was the only artist with two singles, both several years old, to appear twice.
Impactful girl group debuts
Although NewJeans debuted in 2022 and ILLIT only debuted in March 2024, both girl groups have experienced early successes and gained a lot of popularity. NewJeans's total album sales since then have already exceeded 8.1 million copies in the domestic market, while ILLIT sold about 1.2 million albums in their first year. In 2023, NewJeans also set a record as the fastest K-pop act to reach one billion streams on streaming platform Spotify. Other popular girl groups with high album sales include (G)I-DLE and aespa.
K-pop boy bands in the spotlight
Despite the dominance of female groups in digital charts, male groups led in physical album sales. In 2024, SEVENTEEN sold around 3.2 copies of their album “SPILL THE FEELS.” Alongside SEVENTEEN, other notable male K-pop groups with the high album sales included Stray Kids and ENHYPEN. Globally recognized boy group BTS sold nine million albums in 2020 alone. The group's album sales were lower in 2023, reflecting those of its earlier releases, as the individual members focused on solo releases or mandatory military service that year.
