First K-POP Song to Enter Top 10 of Hot 100 – ROSÉ’s “APT.” and KPop Demon Hunters Soundtrack Dominate 2025 Year-End Charts

ROSÉ of BLACKPINK and Bruno Mars’ collaboration “APT.” secured the 9th position on Billboard’s 2025 Year-End Hot 100 chart, rewriting K-POP history. This marks the first time a K-POP song has entered the top 10 of a year-end chart, surpassing BTS’s “Butter” which reached 11th place in 2021. “APT.” also dominated both the 2025 Year-End Global 200 and Global Exclusively US charts, demonstrating its influence across worldwide charts outside the U.S. market. This song serves as a milestone showing that K-POP has achieved sustained entry into mainstream music markets beyond mere viral success. However, the track that truly dominated the 2025 charts was “Golden,” the theme song for Netflix’s animated series KPop Demon Hunters. Performed by HUTTRIX, this song held the top spot on Billboard’s Global 200 and Global Exclusively US charts for a total of 18 weeks (not consecutive). While it ranked second behind songs like Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’s “Shut Down,” it surpassed that track to become the second-highest-charting song on the Global Exclusively US chart. On the Global 200, it is only behind Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” which stayed at the top for 19 weeks. The KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack achieved the largest-scale chart dominance by any K-POP project to date. Seven songs from it entered the Year-End Hot 100: HUTTRIX: “Golden” (25th), “How It’s Done” (68th), “What It Sounds Like” (83rd), “Take Down” (93rd); SZA BOYZ: “Your Idol” (54th), “Soda Pop” (61st); Rumi & JINU: “Free” (92nd). The soundtrack album reached 13th place on the Year-End Billboard 200, while the virtual group HUTTRIX achieved the highest year-end ranking for a virtual K-POP group by finishing 24th on the Top Artists chart. Meanwhile, Jimin’s “Who” reached 57th on the Year-End Hot 100 despite being released in July 2024. This song set a new record for the longest consecutive weeks a K-POP artist’s song has stayed on the Hot 100, at 33 weeks. K-POP’s strength was also evident in the album charts. The K-POP albums that entered Billboard’s 200 for the 2025 Year-End chart included the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack (13th), ROSÉ’s “rosie” (112th), Stray Kids’s “KARMA” (128th), Stray Kids’s “HOP” (157th), and KATSEYE’s “BEAUTIFUL CHAOS” (182nd). Stray Kids demonstrated their dominance by occupying first and second places on the World Albums Year-End chart with “HOP” (1st) and “KARMA” (2nd) for the third consecutive year. The presence of K-POP artists on the Top Artists Year-End chart was equally impressive, with HUTTRIX (24th), ROSÉ (44th), SZA BOYZ (57th), Stray Kids (69th), and Jimin (81st) making the list. This indicates that K-POP has established itself as a genre recognized for consistent chart performance rather than just temporary viral success. The KPop Demon Hunters phenomenon shows how the combination of animation and K-POP music can create a significant impact in mainstream music markets, and the fact that seven songs from a single project entered the Year-End Hot 100 will be recorded as the greatest achievement in Korean music industry history.