World Tour Just 16 Months After Debut

Statistics show that it takes an average of 16 months for new 5th-generation IP groups to hold their first solo concerts and embark on world tours. This is a significant reduction compared to the 3rd generation (21 months) and 4th generation (28 months), indicating that it now takes much less time for new artists to establish themselves in the market, surpass the break-even point, and generate substantial revenue.

While artists of the 3rd and 4th generations gradually built their careers based on domestic fanbases before expanding overseas tours step by step, 5th-generation groups form global fanbases right from their debut and immediately move into the high-revenue concert stage.

BABYMONSTER Launches World Tour 9 Months After Debut

A prime example illustrating this change is BABYMONSTER, an artist under YG Entertainment. Debuting officially in April 2024, BABYMONSTER kicked off its first world tour, “HELLO MONSTERS,” on January 25, 2025, at the KSPO DOME in Seoul’s Olympic Park—just 9 months later. Given that it used to take years for new artists to perform in large-scale stadiums, this speed is unprecedented.

Starting with the Seoul show, BABYMONSTER significantly expanded its performance venues to major cities across Asia and North America, laying the foundation for overseas revenue generation.

Additional Revenue Streams and IP-Based Diversification

Once a world tour is established, various supplementary business areas emerge in addition to ticket sales at the concerts, such as sales of official MD (planned merchandise) targeted at fans attending the shows and operations of local pop-up stores. By combining concerts, distribution, and offline events around a single IP, the profitability per unit becomes significantly diversified.

According to JYP Entertainment’s reported financial results for the first quarter of 2026, the company’s MD sales surged by 85.2% year-on-year to 60.6 billion won, surpassing concert sales—traditionally the core revenue source—which amounted to 40.9 billion won. Localized MD product lines, such as TWICE’s MD items tied to their overseas tours and pop-up stores in various cities, as well as STRAYKIZ’s relay pop-ups using their own character IP “SKZOO,” are credited as key drivers of this improvement.

Concert-related revenue also experienced rapid growth. JYP’s concert sales for the first quarter of 2026 reached 40.9 billion won, a sharp increase of 88.7% compared to the same period last year. This growth reflects the combined impact of TWICE’s world tours in North America and Taiwan, as well as the success of concerts and fan meetings by other major artists like DAY6, ITZY, NMIXX, and NiziU.

Entertainment companies are also actively pursuing business strategies to maximize the value of artist IPs by going beyond simple concert merchandise sales, including character product development, licensing, and online and offline pop-up spaces.