Hanteo names TXT as best 4th-gen K-pop act of 2021’s first half, followed by ENHYPEN and ATEEZ
The Hanteo Chart is one of the most reputable South Korean music charts similar to Billboard and iTunes charts. It keeps a record of individual album sales with meticulous data collection that is later used as a criterion for a music show and year-end award show wins. Album purchases done from almost any legitimate store are verified by Hanteo and thus trustworthy. And now using the data collected, Hanteo has announced TXT as the leading 4th-gen K-pop act of 2021’s first half.
Hanteo took into consideration album sales and digital sales among other criteria and came up with a report for the best performing K-pop acts of the 4th-gen in the first half of 2021. While 3rd-gen artists that include BTS, EXO and Seventeen contributed towards 74% of total K-pop album sales for the first half of 2021, 4th-gen groups aren’t doing that bad either. For the first half of 2021, the total 4th-gen acts’ sales were around 25.80% thanks to groups like TXT, ENHYPEN and ATEEZ.
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Hanteo reveals best 4th-gen groups of first half of 2021
Considering album releases done between January 1 to June 20, 2021, Hanteo released their list of top 4th-gen K-pop acts in their July 22 report. With the highest album sales of more than 722k, boy group TXT took first place. They were followed by ENHYPEN which sold around 488k copies. ATEEZ came in third place with approximately 420k sales.
As for girl groups, ITZY has had 239k album sales followed by (G)I-DLE with 162k sales. Regarding digital streaming which is much easier for global fans thanks to online streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, Aespa is #1 for highest digital streams among 4th-gen girl groups. They were followed by another rookie group STAYC, thanks to the release of their viral song ‘ASAP’ and ITZY took third place.
Then we have the 'Global Authentication Chart' which verifies the authenticity of each legit album purchased. This proves the loyalty and the power of global fans as they have to authenticate their purchase individually each time they buy an album. Among 4th-gen artists, ATEEZ came in first followed by the group Treasure and then TXT.
Finally, Hanteo also considered social influence as they took in the growth of 4th-gen groups on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram. This is especially important now as due to Covid-19, artists and fans have been increasingly interacting with each other through social media. And with impressive growth in the first half of 2021, Stray Kids took first place with an increase of 3.34 million followers on Instagram. They were followed by Itzy who gained 2.72 million Instagram followers. The third place went to boy group Treasure with 950k YouTube subscribers.