The Global-K Chart, a combined K-pop chart operated across South Korea, China and Japan by the music platform Melon, has surpassed 3 million monthly active users. About 85% of those users came from outside South Korea, underscoring the chart's growing role as a platform linking K-pop fans worldwide.
Kakao Entertainment said on the 22nd that the Global-K Chart recorded 3,011,516 monthly active users in September, up about 45.5% from 2,069,000 at its launch in June.
The Global-K Chart was launched on June 1 by Melon of South Korea, with China's Tencent Music and Japan's LINE MUSIC taking part. It compiles rankings by combining streaming data and fan activity metrics from the three countries' music platforms.
Growth among overseas users was especially pronounced. Overseas monthly active users numbered 2,564,133 in September, accounting for about 85% of the total. That is a 152% increase in three months from 1,017,573 in June, the service's first month.
Overseas users logged in from a wide range of countries, including Indonesia, Japan, the United States, Brazil, Australia, the United Kingdom, Spain, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Germany. Traffic to Melon's mobile website, which overseas users can access, also rose. Excluding mobile app users, Melon's mobile web monthly active users reached 5.72 million in September, the highest level this year.
Melon attributed the user growth to an expansion of content and services that global fans take part in directly. A leading example is the artist interview program FANSWER, in which Melon, Tencent Music and LINE MUSIC jointly collect questions from fans for artists to answer themselves.
FANSWER, which began in August, has featured Stray Kids, IVE and NCT WISH. The NCT WISH edition, held Sept. 15-16, drew 15,817 questions over the two days.
Fan participation has also been expanding steadily. A cheering feature introduced on the Global-K Chart on Sept. 30 drew more than 50% of its participants from outside South Korea in its first week. Cumulative cheers over 20 days reached 1.08 billion.
As of the second week of October, the top 10 countries by participation were South Korea, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Japan, the United States, Myanmar, Mexico, Thailand and Taiwan. Participation came not only from Asia but also from North America and Latin America.
Melon has also created a Global Top 10 category tied to the Global-K Chart for MMA2026, a K-pop awards show and festival to be held Nov. 14-15. The aim is to reflect K-pop consumption data from the three countries' music platforms in the awards.
"Four months after launch, more than 3 million users are visiting the Global-K Chart, and the fact that most of them are overseas fans shows it is emerging as a new benchmark for global K-pop trends," a Melon official said. "We will keep widening the space where fans around the world can take part and communicate directly, through content produced jointly by the three companies and features such as cheering, and grow this into a K-pop chart enjoyed together without borders."