Spotify has been a huge supporter of K-Pop since the launch of the first K-Pop flagship playlist “K-Pop Daebak” in 2014. Today Spotify, the most popular global audio streaming subscription service, reveals a series of statistics and trends which show how the world fell in love with K-Pop.

From 2014 to Jan 2020, K-Pop’s share of listening (and lovers) on Spotify increased by more than 1,800% and that same “K-Pop Daebak” playlist now has more than 2.4 million followers. Since 2014, K-Pop music has been streamed for more than 134 billion minutes on Spotify.

So how else is K-Pop Dominating?

Spotify’s most-streamed K-Pop group, BTS, released their album MAP OF THE SOUL : 7 on Friday, February 21st, and on Spotify the group’s journey has been marked by a series of milestones:
● In 2019, BTS was the first group from Asia to surpass 5 billion streams on Spotify
● As of February 2020, BTS has clocked more than 8 billion streams. In 2019 alone, the group’s music streamed more than 3 billion times.
● In September 2017, BTS became the first K-Pop artist to enter Spotify’s Global 50 chart, with the track “DNA.”
● BTS has the most-streamed K-Pop track on Spotify: “Boy With Luv” featuring Halsey, with more than 380 million streams. The track was released in April 2019, so it took less than a year to become Spotify’s most-streamed K-Pop track.

“There’s no denying the massive global explosion of K-Pop over the last few years, and we’ve witnessed it first hand on Spotify,” says Kossy Ng, Head of Artist and Label Marketing in Asia. “This is truly the first Asian music genre to resonate so well with a global audience. K-Pop fans are among the most passionate and active, and K-Pop fandom – the way fans function, communicate and connect with one another – is like no other. There’s no doubt that K-Pop’s immense popularity will only continue to grow, and we’re excited to continue driving discovery and connecting K-Pop artists to fans all over the world.”

In 2015, Spotify launched an entire genre hub dedicated to K-Pop. It features playlists catering to the many facets of this exciting genre, from rising artists, to collaborations, and to original soundtrack recordings from Korean film and TV dramas, known as OSTs. Fans can also check out BTS’ MAP OF THE SOUL : 7 The Enhanced Album, an exclusive to Spotify and featuring original content directly from BTS.

Notable K-Pop Data Highlights on Spotify

● To date, there have been more than 41 billion K-Pop streams on Spotify
● 53% of K-Pop listeners are aged 18-24 and 73% of K-Pop listeners are female
● Spotify users around the world have added K-Pop songs to more than 96 million playlists
● The top 10 countries for streaming K-Pop at the moment (in the past 90 days) are, in order: USA, Indonesia, Philippines, Japan, Brazil and Mexico (see complete top ten below)
● K-Pop music streams in all 79 of the markets Spotify is in, and these countries are seeing notable growth (percentages represent increases in the rate of K-Pop streaming from Jan 2019- Jan 2020):
○ Egypt – 33%
○ Vietnam – 30%
○ France – 13%
○ Colombia – 8%
● The top-streamed K-Pop artists on Spotify are: BTS, BLACKPINK, EXO, TWICE and Red Velvet (see complete top ten below). BTS’s music has streamed more than 8 billion times on Spotify.
● The top-streamed K-Pop track on Spotify is the east-meets-west collaboration “Boy With Luv” from BTS and US singer-songwriter Halsey. The track has been streamed more than 380 million times (see complete top ten below).

The top ten countries for streaming K-Pop at the moment (based on streams from the last 90 days):
1. USA
2. Indonesia
3. Philippines
4. Japan
5. Brazil
6. Mexico
7. Thailand
8. Malaysia
9. Canada
10. Singapore

Most-streamed K-Pop artists globally on Spotify (from Jan 2014 – Jan 2020):
1. BTS
2. BLACKPINK
3. EXO
4. TWICE
5. Red Velvet
6. BIGBANG
7. SEVENTEEN
8. Monsta X
9. iKON
10. NCT 127

The top ten K-Pop tracks on Spotify (from Jan 2014 – Jan 2020):
1. “Boy With Luv” – BTS, Halsey
2. “Kiss and Make Up” – BLACKPINK, Dua Lipa
3. “FAKE LOVE” – BTS
4. “Kill This Love” – BLACKPINK
5. “DNA” – BTS
6. “DDU-DU DDU-DU” – BLACKPINK
7. “Blood Sweat & Tears” – BTS
8. “Gangnam Style (강남스타일)” – PSY
9. “SOLO” – JENNIE
10. “As If It’s Your Last” – BLACKPINK

Most-streamed K-Pop artists on Spotify in the Philippines (from Jan 2014 – Jan 2020):
1. BTS
2. BLACKPINK
3. TWICE
4. EXO
5. Red Velvet
6. SEVENTEEN
7. MOMOLAND
8. BIGBANG
9. iKON
10. IU

The top ten K-Pop tracks on Spotify in the Philippines (from Jan 2014 – Jan 2020):
1. “Kill This Love” – BLACKPINK
2. “DDU-DU DDU-DU” – BLACKPINK
3. “BBoom BBoom” – MOMOLAND
4. “Boy With Luv (feat. Halsey)” – BTS, Halsey
5. “As If It’s Your Last” – BLACKPINK
6. “Kiss and Make Up” – BLACKPINK, Dua Lipa
7. “BOOMBAYAH – KR Ver.” – BLACKPINK
8. “SOLO”- JENNIE
9. “FAKE LOVE” – BTS
10. “BAAM” – MOMOLAND

Check out our blog post on For the Record for a downloadable infographic highlighting some of our K-Pop stats.