Who's Most Loyal Fandom Among HYBE, 'BIG3'? Here's What Analytics Say
According to securities firms' analyses, THESE K-pop groups' fandoms are the most loyal!
Read on to know which fanbases made it to the list!
Core Fandom of HYBE, 'BIG3' SM, JYP & YG Analyzed by Investment Firm
On January 4, IBK Investment & Securities released an analysis estimating the "core fandom" for each company and celebrity.
"Core fandom" is a unit of highly loyal K-pop fans that directly contribute to the sales of the company. If public awareness of a certain artist is high, it will help them increase advertising and appearance fees, but it is difficult to contribute significantly to the agency's sales.
To be a part of the core fandom, these fans are responsible for records, performances, goods, and content, which are key revenue sources for entertainment agencies.
Analytics were conducted using data that were re-constructed based on album sales statistics from January 2011 to September 2022. Those considered core fans purchase an average of at least 7 to 11 duplicate copies (per person) whenever a new album is released.
Usually, these fans buy multiple albums to pull rare photocards or to raise their chance to be selected for an event.
After the appearance of digital music sources, buying CD culture is already dead when it was revived thanks to fan signings, fan calls and fanmeeting events.
As a result, the cumulative core fandom of the four entertainment companies (HYBE, SM, JYP, and YG) was estimated at 3.5 million.
According to IBK, the reason it is important to grasp the size of entertainment companies is that most of their sales are generated by core fandom, not the public.
Lee Hwan Wook, a researcher at IBK Investment & Securities, added:
"Considering the number of people in their 10s and 30s in the world, the absolute value is very low. There is a lot of room for expansion through active activities."
Most Loyal Fandoms in Each Agency: ARMYs, NCTzens, More!
Among the 3.5 million core fans, HYBE has the largest number with 1.6 million, followed by SM with 760,000, JYP with 640,000, and YG with 420,000.
Starting with HYBE, the most loyal fandom is BTS' ARMY with 700k core fans.
Trailing behind them was SEVENTEEN's CARAT (320k), TXT's MOA (250k), ENHYPEN's Engene (160k), NewJeans' Bunnies (90k), and LE SSERAFIM's FEARNOT (85k).
Stray Kids
In SM Entertainment, NCTzen of NCT are most loyal with 346k. The global group is followed by aespa's MY (170k), EXO's EXO-L (130k) and Red Velvet's ReVeluv (113k).
In JYP, Stray Kids' STAY is a highly loyal fandom (320k). Next is ITZY's MIDZY (130k), TWICE's ONCEs (116k), and NMIXX's NSWER (54k).
Last but not least is YG with BLACKPINK's BLINK (280k) as the most loyal fandom. TREASURE's TEUME (110k), WINNER's Inner Circle (19k), and iKON's iKONIC (10k).
In general, HYBE Labels and BTS have the most "real and loyal fans" among the agencies. Only when all the core fandoms of SM, JYP, and YG Entertainment are combined, they can manage to outpace the first mentioned label.
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Written by Eunice Dawson.
