![\"K-pop](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/642bfe61-00d2-43f4-9a2e-f2c48a0890e4.jpg\")
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K-pop boy band BTS performs during the Tokyo leg of the group’s “ARIRANG” world tour at Tokyo Dome, April 18. Courtesy of BigHit Music<\/p>\n
HYBE, the company behind K-pop megastar BTS, posted a sharp rise in first-quarter revenue on the back of the band’s comeback, but swung to an operating loss due to a one-off accounting cost tied to stock-based compensation for employees.<\/p>\n
The company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday that its January-March revenue rose 39.5 percent year-on-year to 698.3 billion won ($468 million), marking a record high for a first quarter, which is typically a slow season for the music industry.<\/p>\n
Operating loss came to 196.6 billion won, compared with a profit of 21.6 billion won a year earlier, missing the market consensus of 42.6 billion-won profit compiled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data service of Yonhap News Agency. Net loss stood at 156.7 billion won.<\/p>\n
HYBE said the loss reflected a 255 billion won one-off expense after Chairman Bang Si-hyuk, the company’s largest shareholder, granted shares from his personal holdings as employee incentives. The firm said the cost did not involve an actual cash outflow.<\/p>\n
Excluding the one-off item, adjusted operating profit was 58.5 billion won.<\/p>\n
Revenue from activities involving “direct participation” from its artists, including album and music sales, concerts, and advertising, rose 25.2 percent year-on-year to 403.7 billion won. Album and music sales, in particular, nearly doubled to 271.5 billion won, driven by the sales of BTS’ fifth full-length album, “ARIRANG,” released last month.<\/p>\n
“The album sold 3.98 million copies on the first day of its release alone. Data from global music data analytics firm Luminate showed the LP sold 208,000 copies in a single week, the highest for any group since tracking began in 1991,” HYBE said.<\/p>\n
The album topped the U.S. Billboard 200 chart for three consecutive weeks, the first for a K-pop act, while its lead single, “Swim,” became the band’s seventh No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.<\/p>\n
Other artists under HYBE, including ENHYPEN, KATSEYE and Cortis, also contributed to the growth, according to the company.<\/p>\n
Revenue from artists’ “indirect participation,” which includes merchandise, licensing, content and fan club memberships, rose 65.5 percent to 294.7 billion won, supported by strong demand for tour-related goods and presales for the ongoing BTS world tour.<\/p>\n
HYBE said it expects revenue and operating profit to increase in the second quarter, driven by new releases from multiple groups, including Tomorrow X Together, TWS and ILLIT, and the reflection of sales from the BTS tour.<\/p>\n
CEO Lee Jae-sang said in a conference call that sold-out shows at stadiums with more than 50,000 seats proves BTS’ global appeal. “The strong fan turnout across North America, Europe and Asia has demonstrated the global expansion of K-pop,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"K-pop boy band BTS performs during the Tokyo leg of the group’s “ARIRANG” world tour at Tokyo Dome,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-424410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=424410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}