Hope everyone’s having a great weekend. New York looks like it’s about to get blanketed in snow and ice once again, so I’ll be staying cozy, taking all meetings from home and listening to ATEEZ’s CD on my new Walkman. Here’s a breakdown of the big chart moments that caught my eye this week.

With ATEEZ’s first new album after embarking on a stadium tour in the U.S., GOLDEN HOUR : Part.4 secures one of the biggest sales weeks for K-pop in the States ever — but misses the top spots because of the heavy competition for this particular week.

Billboard reports GOLDEN HOUR : Part.4 debuted at No. 3 on Billboard 200 and earned 200,000 units in the U.S. (195,000 in traditional album sales and 5,000 in streaming-equivalent albums), which is the biggest sales week of ATEEZ’s career and the third-largest sales week of the year — only behind the two albums before it this week with J. Cole’s The Fall-Off (which earned 298,000 units for No. 1) and Bad Bunny’s post–Grammy + Super Bowl jump with DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (which earned 250,000 units — remarkably, it’s best sales week ever more than a year after release).

It’s not a stretch to say that if ATEEZ had released any other week this year, they’d be looking at their third No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 but timing is, of course, everything.

Still, there was no lack of effort when it came to pumping up the album’s sales. Alongside K-pop’s go-to indie label and distributor partner hello82, GOLDEN HOUR : Part.4 had 25 different versions for fans to purchase — most crucially with vinyl versions available, which few K-pop acts have had available for their release week.

The big week sees ATEEZ earn the 10th-largest sales week for a K-pop album in America, putting the KQ Entertainment boy band in top company with BTS, Stray Kids and Jung Kook. Any artist who wants to crack into this club now has to sell 200,000 or more — so, game on. Paid subscribers can see a full list of the highest K-pop sales weeks ever here.

^{*-Notes the release was not a full-length album release}

Here’s the group-only list of best K-pop album sales weeks, which includes just BTS, Stray Kids and ATEEZ — naturally, these are also just happen to be the only K-pop acts with multiple No. 1s on the Billboard 200 to date.

^{*-Notes the release was not a full-length album release}

While Billboard’s newest chart-rules updates gave more weight to premium streaming services, ATEEZ also suffered a bit on the Billboard Hot 100 with the heavy competition from J. Cole and Bad Bunny.

Last year, ATEEZ snagged their first two hits last year with the (excellent) tracks “Lemon Drop” (which peaked at No. 69) and “In Your Fantasy” (No. 68), Part.4 lead single “Adrenaline” missed the Hot 100 entirely and posted at No. 19 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. But I don’t see this as a failure or cause for concern, since this week’s chart includes 21 new entries from J. Cole and 18 from Bad Bunny (including 13 songs re-entering the chart this week).

Chart traffic will clear up for this upcoming week, but release week was likely ATEEZ’s best shot to hit the Hot 100 again with “Adrenaline” as the efforts were maxed out across physical (with CD singles as well as “Tiny Vinyl” versions) and digital/streaming (an Adrenaline (Remix) single was released on digital services with a remix, sped-up and slowed down version).

The most surprising effort to push the single has to be the Tiny Vinyl releases, which Billboard reported have a new partnership with hello82 and will release mini records for multiple artists on the roster — which could/should include the likes of Baekhyun, Taemin, P1Harmony, xikers, and more.

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Jennie Helps Tame Impala…Question Mark? Despite the multiple songs J. Cole and Bad Bunny spew across the Hot 100, Tame Impala’s “Dracula” still managed to climb 43 steps this week, from No. 88 to No. 45.

While there’s no doubt that the crossover-approved remix with Jennie aided its numbers massively, the song is still credited to just Tame Impala, which must mean more than half its chart points are still coming from the original. My take is that the radio play for “Dracula” must be growing substantially (its position is still strong across the board, though it fell a few spots on the Pop, Rock, and Alternative Radio charts this week, while hitting a new peak on Adult Pop radio).

I feel the Jennie remix is thinking larger picture of making this song a bigger pop hit and giving it a greater mainstream moment.

NMIXX’s Critically Acclaimed “Blue Valentine” Bows: One of the very best K-pop songs of last year is getting its radio moment as “Blue Valentine” by NMIXX stays steady at No. 37 on Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart this week.

The JYP Entertainment girl group (signed to Republic Records in the U.S. and being supported stateside by The AMA Company) truly found its stride last year with two excellent album releases with “Blue Valentine” becoming their breakout hit in Korea and earning the group a No. 1 hit at home. While the Billboard chart lists the song as “Blue Valentine,” I presume the English version is the one making its way across U.S. airwaves. While it needs to at least crack the Top 20 to really make any kind of impact, this song feels like one that could truly gain casual fans, if just for that irresistible “blue-ooh-ooh-ooh valentine” hook.

Fifty Fifty Gets Back to Radio by Offering “Skittlez”: Remember the underdog breakout story of K-pop girl group Fifty Fifty scoring a legitimately viral hit with “Cupid”? It was a pandemic mainstay and still the only song by a K-pop girl group to hit the Top 10 of Billboard’s Pop Airplay chart, but a lot has changed with the group’s members, label, and management all torn up in ongoing legal cases. Real quick...take a breath...Fifty Fifty lost all four of its members, one came back, the label added four new members, the three departed original members (including the two who sing the English version of “Cupid”) now perform in a new group...it’s a saga and continues to be. But…the group is back on the radio, represented now by Sony’s Arista Records and its Korean label ATTRAKT, after a massive fallout between ATTRAKT and Warner Music that, ironically, was the catalyst to helping spur the song into real mainstream territory.

Curiously, the B-side “Skittlez” off the newly reformed Fifty Fifty’s November single “Eeny Meeny Miny Moe” has hit No. 38 on the Pop Airplay chart. While “Eeny Meeny Miny Moe” had both a K-pop and an English version, it seems “Skittlez” only has its K-pop version, giving the record a mix of Korean and English lyrics that always seem like tough sells to radio. What helps is the mix of a catchy, childhood-reminiscent rhyme scheme and hip-hop beats across the chorus and verses.

But the main difference between “Cupid” and “Skittlez” is what was happening ahead of the radio play. Before “Cupid” landed on Top 40 radio, it was percolating all over social media, soundtracking so many TikToks and Reels that the song was essentially guaranteed to connect on radio across multiple formats. From what I’ve seen, “Skittlez” has very little traction beyond a music video from three months ago. Fifty Fifty didn’t even opt to include it in their medley at the 2026 D Awards the other day.

Considering both of these new K-pop contenders at Top 40, “Blue Valentine” does have a strong chart reign and numbers behind it that more so justifies a belated radio push, “Skittlez” is much more of a radio gamble…and I can’t see how this ends up helping the group. But hey, I love to be proven wrong, so go for it.

—With 12 million active monthly users, HYBE’s Weverse is profitable with Puck exploring ‘What Disney Can Learn From a K-Pop App’: “Joon Choi, the C.E.O. of Weverse, spends a lot of time thinking about attention—the benefits for companies that can command it at scale, and the risks for those who can’t. Most streamers ‘put all their own effort [toward making] their businesses work through pure viewership,’ Choi told me this month from his office in Seoul. But an engaged audience, he argued, correlates with both higher spending and “a better conversion rate into our more exclusive membership tiers.” While exclusive content may attract casual customers, Choi continued, it’s the sense of community, and the opportunities for contributing, that keep those users around and encourage them to spend.”

—Tablo from Epik High spent an hour answering fan questions on Reddit…but apparently only he can see the answers 😂 (@blobyblo)

—”[The K-beauty industry] feels at odds with the advancements made by K-pop idols in challenging stereotypes. From the colorful, floppy hairstyles of Korean boy band Stray Kids, or the non-binary wardrobes of trailblazing singers like G-Dragon of BIGBANG and Seonghwa of ATEEZ, K-pop’s male idols have long fostered diverse expressions of masculinity. They have no qualms about wearing clothes largely viewed as feminine – like skirts, corsets or heels – and openly use makeup and skincare. (Indeed, BTS members V and Jung Kook were last year appointed ambassadors for Korean makeup brand Titir, and Chanel Beauty, respectively.) (CNN)

—Jang Yeojun of CLOSE YOUR EYES will take approximately one week off after being diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a scary medical condition where damaged skeletal muscle breaks down at a rapid pace. (@closeyoureyes_7)

—Former-wannabe-K-pop-star-turned-right-wing-grifter Oli London revealed he braided cornrows on the top half of his dry blonde hair to portray Tarzan of ALLDAY PROJECT. While we haven’t heard much from them since they stepped away from the claim of “transitioning from a British man to a Korean woman,” this was apparently something anti-”woke” enough to bring them back to their “roots.”

—I can’t get enough of the new single “Kawasaki” by HYBE Latin America’s debut boy band Santos Bravos — and now it’s even more addictive by adding HYBE’s first Japanese boy band &TEAM to a remix.

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