Hanteo Chart, which tracks album and song sales in Korea, released the “Hanteo Global K-pop Report: 2021 Semi-annual Summary” covering the first half of the year.
In its Global Index of K-pop report, Hanteo Chart released the rankings based on its Global Authentication Chart, “a measure of the global fans’ power” by authenticating albums purchased by K-pop fans around the world. It said that album authentication for the first half of 2021 increased by 50.2 percent compared to the same period last year.
In the first half of 2021, fans from 119 countries and regions authenticated their K-pop albums, up from 96 in the same period last year.
The top 10 countries based on K-pop album authentication in the first half of the year are:
1. US - 19.97%
2. Malaysia - 17.65%
3. China - 10.30%
4. Philippines - 7.23%
5. Thailand - 5.99%
6. France - 5.62%
7. Singapore - 4.87%
8. Russia - 4.59%
9. Japan - 3.03%
10. Indonesia - 2.31%
In the first half of the year, Hanteo Chart said 346 albums of K-pop artists were authenticated. Among K-pop artists, BTS ranked first followed by ATEEZ, NCT Dream, Monsta X and Treasure.
Hanteo noted that BTS and Stray Kids ranked high on the list despite not releasing any albums in the first half of 2021.
Here are the top 25 K-pop artists whose albums were the most authenticated by Hanteo Chart:
1. BTS
2. ATEEZ
3. NCT Dream
4. Monsta X
5. Treasure
6. Tomorrow X Together
7. Stray Kids
8. Dreamcatcher
9. ENHYPEN
10. Wonho
11. Oneus
12. Super Junior
13. EXO
14. NCT
15. CIX
16. BLACKPINK
17. IU
18. Victon
19. Cravity
20. TWICE
21. ASTRO
22. ITZY
23. BLACKPINK’s Rosé
24. NCT 127
25. The Boyz
Hanteo Chart said the top 5 most authenticated BTS albums are: “BE: Deluxe Edition,” “BE: Essential Edition,” “Map of the Soul: Persona,” “Love Yourself: Tear” and “Love Yourself: Answer.”
The top 10 countries with the most BTS album authentication are: US (33.52 percent), Philippines (17.8 percent), Malaysia (17.01 percent), Russia, Singapore, Peru, France, Thailand, Indonesia and Chile.