Blackpink and BTS Lead the 2025 Hallyu Report and Become Strategic Assets for the Nation!
K-pop continues to be the main driving force behind the explosion of Korean cultural content on the global stage. This genre of pop music from the Land of Ginseng has successfully captured the largest share of international media attention in all major regions of the world, according to a government report released on Wednesday.
The 2025 Hallyu trend report, published by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism together with the Korea Culture Information Service Agency, analysed approximately 1.5 million media reports and social media posts from 30 countries between October 2024 and September 2025.
The data shows that K-pop accounts for the largest share of media coverage of the Hallyu phenomenon globally. The percentage of media attention in various regions is as follows:
The female vocal group Blackpink leads this category with 14.2% of total global K-pop media coverage. In second place, the phenomenal boy band BTS secured a 7.3% share, followed by the group NewJeans with 3 percent.
The report also highlights the strong interest in the solo projects of the Blackpink members. Their individual activities made a significant contribution to the coverage:
The United States recorded the largest number of foreign media reports on Hallyu with 725 articles, followed by India, Argentina and Vietnam. In the US market, K-pop dominates the coverage of Korean content with 33.8 percent, surpassing films (21.8%), television series (12.7%) and Korean food or K-food (11.6%).
For the category of individual works, the global Netflix animated series KPop Demon Hunters became the most popular Korean cultural content. This success is attributed to the creative combination of traditional Korean folklore elements, such as grim reapers and goblins, with popular food symbols such as gimbap and ramen.
Other major contributors include the series When Life Gives You Tangerines, which successfully boosted tourism to Jeju Island, and “Squid Game” Season 3, which topped the streaming charts in 93 countries upon its release.
Korean cuisine is also experiencing rapid growth. Traditional culinary terms such as kimchi, soju, ramyeon and bibimbap are trending alongside keywords such as chef and Squid Game.
The report analysed that this surge is a direct result of the exposure of cuisine in popular Netflix titles, in particular the cooking variety show Culinary Class Wars and the drama Squid Game. (The Korea Times/Z-10)
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