2023 was an exciting year for the K-Pop industry: fans all over the world got to enjoy numerous world tours and new albums from their favorite stars. Seventeen, Twice, Stray Kids and others set new records and sold more albums than ever before!
Now we're wondering what 2024 has in store for us. Which stars have an especially successful year ahead of them, which new faces can we look forward to, and what new trends will emerge?
Like last year, we want to share our ideas with you! At the same time, we're checking whether our predictions for 2023 came true. Come along!
- Which artists have an especially successful year ahead of them?
- These boy and girl groups are debuting in 2024
- Will 2024 be a year of boy groups or girl groups?
- Fewer survival shows in 2024?
Which artists have an especially successful year ahead of them?
To answer this question, let's first look back. Who was at the very top in 2023? The easiest way to find out is by looking at the numbers. That's why we're presenting the best-selling albums of 2023 here:
The front-runners this year were clearly Seventeen, Stray Kids, NCT Dream, TXT, ZEROBASEONE and aespa, Jungkook and V.
These eight artists were the only ones who sold more than two million copies of their albums this year.
We'd like to especially highlight Seventeen, Stray Kids and TXT, because they broke this threshold with two different albums. “FML” and “Seventeenth Heaven” by Seventeen are not only the best-selling K-Pop albums of 2023, but of all time in the history of K-Pop. “FML” has already sold a fabulous 6 million copies since April!
Seventeen, Stray Kids and TXT had all already broken the two million mark in the past two years, but for all three, 2023 is the first year in which they managed to do it with two albums. So they're still on the rise, even though they've been dominating the charts for years!
We also predict an especially successful year for AESPA and ZEROBASEONE, because both groups sold more than two million copies of their albums for the first time in 2023.
AESPA reached this milestone with the third mini album “My World”, and ZEROBASEONE even did it with the debut album “Youth in the Shade”! ZEROBASEONE is a project group that will disband in about two years. But the guys have shown that they can achieve a lot more in the coming months. We can't wait to see more of them!
Unfortunately, we won't hear much from BTS in 2024, since all seven members have now begun their military service. On the other hand, we can look forward to another year with Blackpink, because all four members recently renewed their contracts with YG Entertainment!
Besides these artists, there are 13 more idol groups whose albums sold one million copies this year: NewJeans, IVE, EXO, NCT (Full Group), NCT 127, Treasure, Enhypen, Twice, Le sserafim, Ateez, (G)I-DLE, ITZY and RIIZE.
Here we especially want to highlight Le sserafim, New Jeans, IVE and RIIZE. IVE celebrated their second anniversary on December 1. Le sserafim and NewJeans are only a year and a half old, and the boy group RIIZE debuted just three months ago! In this short time, these groups have already become absolute fan favorites, conquered the charts and broken countless records.
Le sserafim and the others broke their first records right at their debut: Le sserafim's debut album “Fearless” sold more on its first day than any debut album by a K-Pop girl group before. But the group couldn't rest on this success for long, because just two months later NewJeans broke the record with their debut album “New Jeans”.
This year, too, the young girl groups constantly outdid each other and won more and more fans. Despite all their successes, though, they're still at the beginning of their careers. We have no doubt that they will present new hits in 2024 as well!
SM Entertainment's newest boy group RIIZE also set a special record: the first album “Get a Guitar” was pre-ordered 1.3 million times, more than any other debut album by an SM artist. With that, RIIZE broke the record of SM's first boy group H.O.T! H.O.T debuted in 1996 and for over 27 years was the only SM Entertainment artist whose debut album sold more than one million copies.
You may have already noticed that almost all of the artists we've listed in this article so far belong to the biggest four agencies: HYBE, SM, JYP & YG. The only exceptions are IVE, ZEROBASEONE, ATEEZ and (G)I-DLE.
So the agencies successfully defended their place at the top in 2023 as well. And it looks like they'll claim the charts in 2024 too: although they have already produced many very popular groups, all four agencies will unleash a series of new artists on the K-Pop industry next year.
Apart from sales figures, we also looked at this year's Google Search Trends: besides the artists already mentioned, the girl group Kiss of Life and the boy group BoyNextDoor have increasingly shown up there as well.
Both groups debuted this year and quickly caught the attention of K-Pop fans with their talent.
The four-member girl group Kiss of Life debuted in July with the mini album “Kiss of Life” and returned in early November with the second mini album “Born to Be XX”. The group's members had already attracted attention in advance. Natty first appeared in 2015 on the survival show “Sixteen”, in which Twice was formed. She has also released two solo albums. Belle is a songwriter who had already written songs for Purple Kiss, Miyeon of (G)I-DLE and Le sserafim before her debut! By now, Kiss of Life are known for their beautiful voices and have been nominated for several Rookie Awards.
The boy group BoyNextDoor also made their debut this year. The debut single album “Who!” came out in May, followed by the mini album “Why..” in September. Both albums placed in the top 5 of the Korean charts. The six-member boy group has even already been awarded four different Rookie Awards.
Both groups have started at full speed and will certainly not slow down in 2024. Are you also looking forward to seeing more of them?
These boy and girl groups are debuting in 2024:
Some of them have already made a name for themselves this year and may even have already conquered your playlist. We're of course talking about JYP's American girl group VCHA and YG's new girl group BABYMONSTER.
In September, JYP's survival show “A2K”, in which VCHA was formed, came to an end.
Since then, the six-member girl group has released four pre-release singles. VCHA even performed the first song “Y.O.Universe” on Music Bank. On January 26, the girl group is finally supposed to make their debut with a brand-new song!
At the end of November, YG's youngest girl group BABYMONSTER released their digital single “BATTER UP”.
YG fans had to wait a long time for the debut. BABYMONSTER was originally supposed to debut as early as 2022, but the members were only introduced in March 2023. After that, it took another eight months until the debut. Now BABYMONSTER is finally here and ready to start in full force in 2024!
That's of course not all. JYP is currently preparing three more boy groups for their debut:
Besides VCHA, a Chinese boy group, a Japanese boy group and a Korean boy group are supposed to take the stage. The seven members of the Japanese boy group NEXZ were selected through the survival show “Nizi Project Season 2”, which ended just a week ago. The members of the Korean boy group are also already familiar to fans. They competed in the survival show “LOUD” in 2021 and are supposed to finally debut in 2024!
HYBE Entertainment has big plans as well:
After Le sserafim and NewJeans debuted in 2023, three more groups are supposed to join them in 2024.
Pledis Entertainment, a subsidiary of HYBE, plans to introduce a new boy group with five to six members in 2024. It will be the first Pledis boy group since the debut of Seventeen more than eight years ago, so understandably expectations are high. Are you excited too?
In addition, two more girl groups are waiting in the wings: KATSEYE from the global survival show “The Debut: Dream Academy” and I'LL-LIT from the survival show “R U Next?”. If you've watched the shows, you already know the members. We're already really looking forward to their debut!
SM Entertainment has announced two new groups:
The last NCT unit, which is rumored to be called “NCT Wish” and was formed a few weeks ago through the survival show “LASTART”. And more than three years after aespa's debut, a new SM girl group is supposed to debut as well! Rumor has it that the group will have eight members.
Which of these groups are you most looking forward to?
Will 2024 be a year of boy groups or girl groups?
That's hard to say, because 2023 was a mixed bag as well. In album sales, it was mainly the boys who came out on top, but among the younger generations, girl groups are especially well represented. Besides Le sserafim, IVE and NewJeans, these include NMIXX and the project group Kep1er.
Recently, JYP's Japanese girl group NiziU also drew attention. At the end of October, NiziU released their first Korean album “Press Play” and with the title track “Heartris” even won first place on the music show “Show Champion”.
This is a very special win, because for the first time ever, a group without a single Korean member won a trophy on a Korean music show!
We expect 2024 to be very balanced as well. The new groups from JYP, SM and others heading toward their debut are also very diverse.
Fewer survival shows in 2024?
This year, one survival show followed another: Boys Planet, A2K, Nizi Project Season 2, Dream Academy, R U Next?, LASTART, Peak Time, Fantasy Boys …
A few are already planned for next year as well, such as I-LAND 2. However, we suspect that a few fewer survival shows will air in 2024 than this year.
That's simply because big agencies like JYP, SM and HYBE produced several shows of their own in 2023. The groups formed there will debut in the coming months. So JYP and the others have their hands full and will therefore probably air very few or no further shows in 2024.
Of course, that doesn't mean you can't look forward to any new survival shows!
As already mentioned, I-LAND 2 is supposed to launch next year, among others. In addition, there's “Build Up: Vocal Boy Group Survival” from Mnet and a show for a new girl group from UTOPIA Label.
You can also currently still watch “Universe Ticket”, a survival show from the Korean TV network SBS. It won't end until early 2024.
What do you think of our predictions for 2024? Do you have any other ideas? No matter what happens, 2024 will surely be another great year for all K-Pop fans!
Sources: Circle Album Chart, KpopStarz, Google Trends, JTBC, social media channels
