South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia Remain in Top 3; United States Shows Rising Trend · K-Pop Radar’s Analysis of “2025 K-Pop World Map”

K-Pop Radar, a comprehensive dashboard for K-pop artists operated by music startup SpaceAudity, has released its “2025 K-Pop World Map” section focused on countries. This report analyzes global K-pop trends over the year by tallying view counts of related videos on YouTube’s artist charts, and it identifies the most popular artists in each country based on regional K-pop consumption levels, artist market shares, and changes in growth rates.

According to the 2025 analysis of country-specific K-pop consumption, South Korea, Japan, and Indonesia retained their positions as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd respectively, just like in the previous year. The United States rose one place to finish in 4th place, while India dropped to 5th. South Korea, the birthplace of K-pop, demonstrated continued growth by seeing an even higher market share compared to 2024.

The United States climbed from 5th to 4th place, accounting for 6.25% of global K-pop consumption. The approximately 1 percentage point increase in its share shows that localization strategies and global collaborations are yielding tangible results. In contrast, Japan remained in 2nd place but saw its share drop from 8.44% to 7.41%, along with a decline in total view counts, indicating that the market has entered a stage of maturity.

Taiwan entered the Top 10 by rising in rank for two consecutive years to land in 9th place, while the United Kingdom surged to 17th position, moving out of the Top 20. The simultaneous entry of Western countries such as France, Germany, and Canada signifies that K-pop consumption is expanding into a more globally diversified phase.

In the domestic South Korean market in 2025, DAY6 moved up from 2nd to 1st place, with aespa and IU ranking 2nd and 3rd respectively. G-Dragon reached 5th overall, topping the list in terms of increase in view counts with around 200 million additional views, while BIGBANG also finished in 4th place overall. Solo artists also showed strong performance, with Wooz and Jennie ranking 11th and 12th overall respectively.

In the U.S. market, Stray Kids maintained its 1st place position with a 8.63% market share. KATSEYE rose to 3rd place overall due to around 260 million additional views, confirming its competitiveness across English-speaking regions. In the United Kingdom, Rosé held both 1st place overall and 1st place in terms of increase in view counts, with an overwhelming 11.63% market share. In Taiwan, IVE stayed in 1st place with a 5.69% market share, while G-Dragon and BIGBANG ranked 1st and 2nd respectively in terms of increase in view counts, underscoring strong demand for them in that region.