There are multiple ways to gauge an artist's popularity, such as their album sales number, music chart ranking, and more. However, one of the clearest ways might be see the number of fans each artist has.
A high number of fans indicates strong digital streaming power, which plays a crucial role in chart rankings and award show nominations. The fan count also reflects the key factor in an artist's long-term success given the loyal fanbase.
With the latest generation of idols, Melon, one of South Korea's largest music streaming platforms, revealed the rankings of the most popular 4th and 5th gen boy groups by fan count.
The ranking from January 1 to February 3 includes TXT, RIIZE, Stray Kids, The Boyz, PLAVE, BOYNEXTDOOR, ZEROBASEONE, ENHYPEN, NCT WISH, X1, and TWS.
Korean netizens commented:
"What the... X1 is still on the list?"
"The Boyz is 4th gen?"
"Oh wow RIIZE."
"You can see which groups are trending."
"I was looking for my bias group and realized they were 3rd gen lol."
"I can't believe X1 is still on this list."
"BOYNEXTDOOR has an impressive number of fans too."
"I think groups debuting after 2018 are all 4th gen."
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