Seoul: South Korea's exports of K-pop albums exceeded US$300 million for the first time last year, customs data showed Friday, underscoring the genre's continued strength overseas despite weakening domestic sales.

According to Yonhap News Agency, overseas shipments of K-pop albums reached a record high of US$301.7 million in 2025, marking a 3.4 percent increase from the previous year. Japan remained the largest market with US$80.6 million in sales, followed by China with US$69.7 million and the United States with US$64 million. While exports to Japan decreased by 10.2 percent from the previous year, shipments to China saw an increase of 16.6 percent, allowing China to reclaim its position as the second-largest market for the first time since 2022, surpassing the United States.

Taiwan, Germany, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Canada, France, and Poland were also among the top 10 importers of K-pop albums. Despite the record export value, data from music sales tracker Circle Chart indicated that overall K-pop album sales, including both domestic and overseas markets, dropped for a second consecutive year to approximately 93.5 million copies in 2025, down from about 120 million in 2023. Analysts have attributed the decline to a sluggish home market, even as international demand continued to expand.

"K-pop maintained its global appeal last year, helped by titles such as the soundtrack of 'KPop Demon Hunters,' but the local market was dampened by environmental concerns over plastic CDs and a pullback in fan-targeted marketing," said Choi Kwang-ho, secretary-general of the Korea Music Content Association. He further noted the widening gap between artists who are successful in markets like the United States or Japan and those who are not, due to the limited size of the domestic market.