ARIRANG debuted at No.1 on the Billboard<\/a> 200, with BTS becoming, according to HYBE, the first K-pop act to top that chart for three consecutive weeks. The title track SWIM entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No.1, marking the group\u2019s seventh chart-topper.<\/p>\n The vinyl edition of the album sold 208,000 copies in a single week, which HYBE says is the highest weekly vinyl sales by a group since tracking began in 1991.<\/p>\n HYBE said on Wednesday that BTS\u2019s \u201ccomeback further reinforced the group\u2019s status as one of the defining acts in global pop and demonstrated its long-term touring power, strengthening HYBE\u2019s revenue visibility through large-scale global touring and fan engagement\u201d.<\/p>\n Revenue from artist direct-involvement activities \u2014 which includes recorded music, concerts, and ads \u2014 rose 25.2% YoY to 403.7 billion won ($276m), accounting for 58% of total revenue.<\/p>\n Concert revenue, however, was down 42.8% YoY to 88.7 billion won ($61m), reflecting the fact that BTS\u2018s 85-show world tour launched only in April \u2014 after the Q1 reporting period had closed.<\/p>\n Revenue from artist indirect-involvement activities, including merchandise, licensing, content, and fan club memberships, jumped 65.5% YoY to 294.7 billion won ($201m).<\/p>\n HYBE attributed the increase to tour-related merchandise sales, including BTS light sticks and artist-inspired character merchandise, and fan club membership revenue driven by presale access to the BTS world tour.<\/p>\n In terms of profitability, HYBE\u2019s operating profit swung to a loss of 196.6 billion won, impacted by a one-time accounting expense of approximately 255 billion won related to a stock contribution by a major shareholder used for employee and executive compensation.<\/p>\n HYBE said this was \u201ca non-recurring item that had no impact on the company\u2019s net assets.\u201d<\/p>\n Stripping out that charge, adjusted operating profit reached 58.5 billion won ($40m), up 170.3% YoY, with an adjusted operating margin of 8.4%.<\/p>\n Adjusted EBITDA was 84.8 billion won ($58m), up 79.1% YoY, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 12.1%.<\/p>\n HYBE\u2018s global superfan platform Weverse, which turned profitable on an annual basis in 2025<\/a>, hit a record 13.37 million monthly active users in Q1, up 20% QoQ from 11.2 million in Q4 2025.<\/p>\n The Q1 result marks a step-change from 2025, when HYBE posted record annual revenues of $1.86 billion but saw operating profit plunge 73% YoY<\/a> as the company spent heavily on global expansion and new artist launches while its flagship act was on hiatus.<\/p>\n Beyond BTS, HYBE highlighted performances across its wider artist roster. ENHYPEN achieved its fourth double million-seller with its seventh mini album THE SIN : VANISH. CORTIS, which debuted through HYBE\u2019s global expansion efforts last year<\/a>, saw its debut album COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES surpass 2 million copies in cumulative sales \u2014 which HYBE says set a record for the highest-selling debut album by a K-pop group.<\/p>\n In the US, KATSEYE,\u00a0the girl group formed through HYBE\u2018s partnership with Universal Music Group<\/a>\u2018s Geffen Records,\u00a0surpassed 32 million monthly listeners on Spotify<\/a>, which HYBE says is the highest figure among girl groups worldwide. Combined sales of the group\u2019s first two EPs, SIS (Soft Is Strong) and BEAUTIFUL CHAOS, reached 1 million copies.<\/p>\n HYBE AMERICA\u2018s Nashville division also featured in the results. Following the rebranding of Big Machine Label Group to Blue Highway Records<\/a> and the appointment of Jake Basden as CEO earlier this year, Thomas Rhett scored his 25th career No.<\/a>1 on country radio. At QC Music, Lil Baby\u2018s Mrs. Trendsetter reached No.1 on the urban radio chart.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, HYBE said it expects continued growth momentum in Q2 2026, supported by the BTS world tour and comebacks from TOMORROW X TOGETHER, LE SSERAFIM, TWS, ILLIT, and CORTIS.<\/p>\n All KRW-USD conversions in this article were made at the average Q1 2026 exchange rate published by the Bank of Korea.Music Business Worldwide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HYBE, the South Korea-headquartered entertainment giant behind BTS, has posted its highest-ever first-quarter revenue. According to HYBE\u2019s latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":424789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-424788","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\/424788","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=424788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/424788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/424789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=424788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=424788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=424788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n