NCT Dream, BTS, and EXO Baekhyun are the Top 3 Most Influential Artists in the First Half of 2021 + See Top 10

On July 1, Hanteo Chart revealed the list of most influential artists that had a big impact in the K-pop market during the first half of 2021, and NCT Dream, BTS, and EXO Baekhyun secured the Top 3 spots.

Continue reading to know who else was included on the list.

NCT Dream, BTS, EXO Baekhyun
(Photo : Official Twitter Accounts)

NCT Dream, BTS, and EXO Baekhyun are the Top 3 Most Influential Artists Regarding Sales on Hanteo Chart

The list of most influential artists is included in Hanteo Chart's 2021 semi-annual summary report, which shows the performance of album sales in the first half of the year.

ALSO READ: SEVENTEEN, EXO, & NCT Dream Record Top 3 Best-Selling Albums on Hanteo Chart for June 2021 + See Top 10

The criteria for ranking the artists are their album sales (cumulative sales, first-week sales, real-time data, etc.), song (chart performance, channel performance, etc.), media/broadcasting (music video, radio/TV, etc.), social media (SNS data, activity, mentions, etc.), portal (search amount, mention amount, etc.), and global fandom (user authentication data, Whosfan activity, etc.).

The data were accumulated from Jan. 1 to June 20 by Whosfan Big Data Lab.

NCT Dream
(Photo : NCT Dream Twitter)

The list includes a total of 50 artists, and among them, 35 are male singers and 15 are female singers. In the Top 10, there are six male artists and four female artists. Three solo artists managed to enter the Top 10.

Sitting at No. 1 on the list of most influential artists during the first half of 2021 is NCT Dream. The boy group was the first to reach the one-million mark and eventually contributed to the K-pop market.

READ MORE: BTS, TWICE and More: These are the Most Viewed K-Pop Music Videos in June 2021

Within the first week of sales, NCT Dream "Hot Sauce" sold 1,010,766 copies on Hanteo Chart. It maintained good sales even after the first seven days, adding 945,792 copies and achieving total cumulative sales of 1,956,558 in the first half of 2021.

BTS Butter
(Photo : Big Hit Music Twitter)

Following NCT Dream is BTS. While the boy group did not release a physical album during the first half of this year, they recorded total sales of 1,155,970 copies with one of their previous albums.

EXO Baekhyun claimed the No. 3 spot in the list of most influential artists, according to the Hanteo Chart. It can recall that the male soloist broke the record of highest first-week sales for a solo artist with "Bambi."

EXO Baekhyun
(Photo : EXO Twitter)

Baekhyun "Bambi" reached 868,840 copies, surpassing the record of 600,908 set by his previous album "Delight."

Among the 50 artists, here are the Top 10 Most Influential Artists in the First Half of 2021:

  1. NCT Dream
  2. BTS
  3. EXO Baekhyun
  4. EXO
  5. SEVENTEEN
  6. IU
  7. BLACKPINK Rose
  8. TXT
  9. BLACKPINK
  10. TWICE

Hanteo Chart Sees Increase in the Korean Music Market in the First Half of 2021

Hanteo Chart stated that the K-pop market is steadily improving, particularly the physical album sales even in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From January to June, a growth rate of 34.25% was recorded on the physical album sales. To be precise, a total of 4,950,652 more albums were sold.

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According to Hanteo Chart, the K-pop market has been seeing improvement since 2016 and BTS has a significant contribution to this as they have achieved success in the global music market and their global fandom continuously grows.

EXO Don't Fight the Feeling
(Photo : EXO Twitter)

In terms of the first-week sales of all artists, an increase of 16.23% was seen during the first half of 2021. This is because many singers are breaking their own sales in the first seven days.

This year, the artists who sold more than 500,000 copies in the first week are SEVENTEEN, NCT Dream, EXO, Baekhyun, and TXT.

In addition, the global album certification volume rose by 50.02%, proving the expansion of the global K-pop fandom in the first half of the year.

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Written by Mhaliya Scott

Tags
NCT Dream
BTS
EXO
exo baekhyun
Baekhyun
hanteo chart
influential
album sales
2021
first half of the year
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