K-pop Dominates Global Market Last Year: "Golden" from K-Pop Demon Hunters Ranks 2nd, "APT." 4th

Luminate 2025 Music Report

K-Pop Demon Hunters still. Provided by Netflix

K-pop dominated global streaming and the U.S. physical album market last year.

According to the "2025 Year-End Music Report" released on January 14 (local time) by Luminate, a U.S. music industry data analytics company, the second most-streamed song worldwide last year was "Golden," the original soundtrack (OST) from the Netflix animation "K-Pop Demon Hunters."

"Golden" recorded 2.43 billion streams globally from January 3 of last year to January 1 of this year. The duet "Apartment (APT.)" by Ros? and Bruno Mars ranked fourth with 2.326 billion streams.

In the global music video rankings, "Apartment" secured the second spot with 1.403 billion views. "Golden" ranked fourth with 1.146 billion views, while Pinkfong's "Baby Shark" maintained long-term popularity at ninth place with 628 million views.

Seven K-pop albums were included in the top 10 for CD sales in the United States. Stray Kids' "Karma" (524,000 copies) and "Do It" (456,000 copies) ranked second and third, respectively, in CD sales. ENHYPEN's "Desire: Unleash" (261,000 copies) ranked fourth, and ATEEZ's "Golden Hour: Part 3" (223,000 copies) took fifth place.

Another Stray Kids album, "Hap" (223,000 copies), also ranked sixth, making it three albums from the group in the top 10. Tomorrow X Together's "The Name Chapter: Together" ranked tenth with 168,000 copies sold.

KATSEYE, a group formed through a joint venture between HYBE and Geffen Records, ranked seventh in U.S. CD sales with their second EP "Beautiful Chaos" (186,000 copies). Among the top 10 in this category, KATSEYE was the only girl group to make the list.

In the overall ranking, which combines physical and digital sales in the United States, Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl" topped the chart with 3,985,000 copies sold. Stray Kids ranked second overall with "Karma" (585,000 copies) and fourth with "Do It" (460,000 copies). The "K-Pop Demon Hunters" OST album ranked eighth overall with 366,000 copies sold.