K-pop artists dominated major positions on the newly released Billboard Japan 2025 Year-End Charts, showcasing the genre’s impressive staying power across digital, streaming, and album metrics.
Billboard Japan Reveals 2025 Year-End Rankings
On December 5, Billboard Japan announced its official 2025 Year-End Charts, covering data collected from November 25 last year through November 23 this year. The rankings reflect one of the most competitive years in the Japanese music market and K-pop artists stood out prominently across the board.
Rosé Achieves Highest K-pop Ranking on the Japan Hot 100
Rosé of BLACKPINK earned the highest placement among all K-pop acts on the Japan Hot 100, securing No. 3 with ‘APT.’, the pre-release single from her first full-length album. The song remained one of the year’s most streamed K-pop tracks in Japan, reaffirming her influence as a top global soloist. Aespa also made their mark, placing No. 30 with ‘Whiplash’, the title track of their 5th mini album. BABYMONSTER followed with ‘Drip’ at No. 63, continuing their rising popularity in the region.
BTS’s Jimin secured No. 73 with ‘Who’, the title track from his second solo album. He stands out as the only male K-pop soloist to appear on the year-end Japan Hot 100 a testament to his remarkable individual presence in the Japanese market.
OST & Rookie Hits Also Make the Rankings
Netflix’s K-pop Demon Hunters OST track ‘Golden’ by Huntrix debuted at No. 81, while ILLIT’s breakout debut single ‘Magnetic’ charted at No. 91, closing out a competitive list driven by global streaming.
K-pop also performed strongly on Billboard Japan’s Hot Albums chart, where multiple artists secured top rankings: Rosé’s debut full album ‘rosie’ placed at No. 13, while the K-pop Demon Hunters OST followed at No. 22.
BABYMONSTER’s ‘Drip’ ranked No. 26, SEVENTEEN’s ‘HAPPY BURSTDAY’ landed at No. 32, and Jennie’s ‘Ruby’ placed at No. 36.
Aespa’s ‘Whiplash’ appeared at No. 45, ILLIT’s Japanese mini-album ‘SUPER REAL ME’ at No. 60, and &TEAM entered twice at No. 64 and No. 81 with their Japanese and Korean releases. Stray Kids placed No. 70 with ‘Hollow’, MISAMO (TWICE unit) landed at No. 73 with ‘HAUTE COUTURE’, and TWICE’s full album ‘THIS IS FOR’ followed at No. 77. TXT secured No. 78 with ‘TOGETHER’, LE SSERAFIM achieved No. 85 with ‘HOT’, and Jimin’s solo album ‘MUSE’ ranked No. 87.
K-pop Artists Lead the ‘Artist 100’
When combining chart metrics from across the year, the Artist 100 list also saw heavy K-pop representation. aespa (No. 22), LE SSERAFIM (No. 28), Stray Kids (No. 32), ILLIT (No. 33), and Rosé (No. 34) all placed within the top 40. They were followed by &TEAM (No. 38), TWICE (No. 40), SEVENTEEN (No. 41), BABYMONSTER (No. 43), TXT (No. 49), IVE (No. 51), Jin (No. 58), TREASURE (No. 64), ZEROBASEONE (No. 66), and ENHYPEN (No. 67).