Which K-pop bands were the most tweeted about in 2021? And which countries’ K-pop fans tweeted the most?

Twitter saw more than 7.8 billion engagements with K-culture last year, driven by the ongoing global fascination with K-pop and K-drama
The top acts mentioned were BTS, NCT, Enhypen, EXO and Blackpink, and Twitter users in Indonesia and the Philippines tweeted the most about K-culture

Blackpink

Tamar Hermanin United States

Published: 7:20pm, 10 Feb 2022

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Between the virality of K-pop acts like BTS and Blackpink and K-dramas such as Squid Game and Hellbound, South Korean entertainment content dominated pop culture conversations on Twitter last year, and in 2022 that is expected to continue.

Last year, more than 7.8 billion engagements with K-pop music and artists took place on the social media platform, compared to 6.7 billion engagements in 2020.

The most popular K-pop act on Twitter in 2021 was BTS, followed by NCT, Enhypen, EXO, Blackpink, Tomorrow X Together (TXT), Treasure, Seventeen, Ateez and Stray Kids.

According to YeonJeong Kim, head of global K-pop and K-content partnerships at Twitter, K-pop conversations outpace all other pop culture discussions on the platform. Esports and gaming, another sizeable community on the site, in comparison had 2.4 billion engagements in 2021.

The countries that were the biggest sources of tweets about K-pop in 2021. Photo: Twitter

Twitter users in Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and the United States tweeted the most about K-pop in 2021, and these countries, along with Japan, have the most K-pop fans.

Twitter K-pop fans are not limited to any specific demographic, Kim says.

Each country’s audience has its own distinct taste and favourite acts, although trends in the popularity of emerging artists typically follow those in South Korea. BTS were the most talked about K-pop act in the top 10 countries, while in Thailand NCT dominated the conversation. “K-pop fans are really diverse, but at the same time unified,” Kim says.

She says Twitter identified India and Latin American countries as the biggest emerging markets for K-pop on the platform last year.

Twitter analysed mentions of official Twitter accounts of K-pop acts and bands, along with their official names, to calculate their official #TwitterKpop 2021 data between January 1 and December 31.

The countries with the most K-pop fans on Twitter in 2021. Photo: Twitter

Gen Z users are especially active, with Kim saying many begin using the platform at least in part, if not wholly, because of the scale of the conversations on it about K-pop.

According to Kim, “K-content” – Twitter’s umbrella term for all facets of South Korean culture and pop culture discussed on the site – also had a milestone year, largely thanks to discussions spurred by hit K-drama series, including shows such as Squid Game.

Twitter being a conversational platform for K-pop fans has helped increase general K-content conversations, says Kim.

The most tweeted about K-pop artists globally in 2021. Photo: Twitter

“It is kind of beyond K-pop, from music to dramas to webtoons to films and games, and even fashion and food,” she says.

In 2022, Twitter plans to focus on spotlighting other elements of Korean popular culture, working with K-drama and film stars and creators. Having an existing audience is helping.

“On Twitter, there is a global fandom, already existing, and they are driving diverse conversations,” says Kim. “They’re also focusing on related dramas, and the original soundtracks, and the fashion, and gaming. Those kind of conversations are spurring diverse conversations in terms of K-pop. It’s like a hurricane.”

One example of this cyclical content discourse around K-content was the popular Netflix show Our Beloved Summer. “The show was popular, but there was also an original soundtrack by V from BTS, so that trended and he was contributing to the popularity of that drama.”

Fandom activations, both ones naturally created by fans and others featuring artists using Twitter, helped boost engagement, says Kim. K-pop stars regularly appear on Twitter’s Blueroom live-streaming engagement platform, and several have joined Twitter’s voice-only conversational Spaces.

Several of the most popular Spaces hosted in 2021 were by K-pop stars, including BamBam of Got7 and members of NCT. Real-time translations have helped make the conversations more accessible to fans from around the world.

The top 10 most mentioned K-pop artists by country on Twitter in 2021, ranked in order of engagement:

Indonesia