These Were The Top 15 Best-Selling K-Pop Companies In 2020

As 2020 begins to wrap up, it’s a good time to look back and see which K-Pop companies had the most successful year for their musical artists.

There have been many popular debuts this year that helped bring in new fans to some of these companies, as well as plenty of older and already developed artists that have huge loyal fanbases that were eager to purchase their albums.

These are the top 15 best-selling K-Pop companies in 2020 in terms of album sales!

15. Source Music

Source Music’s main group right now is GFRIEND! This year, they released 3 albums in the 回 series: 回:Labyrinth, 回:Song of the Sirens, and 回:Walpurgis Night. 回:Song of the Sirens was the best-selling of the three, bringing in about 90k sales by itself.

It’s great to see this highly talented girl group taking off more each year! In total, Source Music made 234.4k album sales in 2020 through GFRIEND.

14. FNC Entertainment

FNC Entertainment is home to SF9, AOA, CNBLUE, F.T. Island, N.Flying, Cherry Bullet, and just recently, P1Harmony! SF9 was one of their best-selling groups this year between their two album releases, 9loryUS and First Collection, with about 220k sales on their own.

N.Flying also released an album called So, 通 (소통), which made about 70k sales. Between them and a couple other releases from the company this year, FNC Entertainment made 292.5k total album sales in 2020.

13. Yuehua Entertainment

Yuehua’s main artists based in South Korea are UNIQ, WOODZ, EVERGLOW, and Cosmic Girls. WOODZ was their biggest-selling artist in 2020, releasing two albums — Equal and Woops! — which together made around 245k sales on their own.

EVERGLOW released two mini-albums, Reminiscence and -77.82X-78.29, which made about 78k sales between them. With these and a few other things, such as Cosmic Girls who are co-owned by Starship Entertainment, the company made a total of 324.2k sales this year!

12. BE:LIFT

BE:LIFT is the joint venture formed between BigHit Entertainment and CJ ENM that recently debuted ENHYPEN! Given that this new group is their only artist and they only just debuted on November 30 — just two weeks ago — the fact that they made this list is incredible. With their debut album Border: Day 1, the group has made BE:LIFT 369.5k album sales so far!

11. Cube Entertainment

Cube Entertainment’s most successful artists at the moment are (G)I-DLE, PENTAGON, and CLC. (G)I-DLE released a mini-album, I Trust, and a single album, Dumdi Dumdi, which together made around 275k sales.

PENTAGON also released two albums, Universe: The Black Hall and WE:TH, and CLC made their much-anticipated comeback with Helicopter, so in total, Cube Entertainment made 490.8k album sales this year.

10. Konnect Entertainment

Konnect Entertainment is Kang Daniel‘s self-made label, through which he releases his own very successful albums. He came out with two this year — Cyan and Magenta — and both were incredibly well-received. Together, his albums made about 604.7k unit sales in 2020.

9. RBW (Rainbow Bridge World)

RBW’s best-known artists are MAMAMOO, ONEWE, and ONEUS. MAMAMOO recently released their latest album, Travel, that made around 165k sales on its own, and their Reality in Black album came out late enough in 2019 that it likely made many sales in 2020 too.

Between Hwasa, Solar, and Moonbyul‘s solo releases this year, they made a lot of sales as soloists too! ONEUS released a single album (In Its Time) and mini-album (Lived) this year, which made around 150k sales together. Between these and some other albums, RBW made 670.7k album sales this year.

8. KQ Entertainment

KQ Entertainment’s single artist in 2020 was ATEEZ. This still-young group saw enormous success this year with the release of their two albums, Treasure Epilogue: Action to Answer and Zero: Fever Part. 1. On their own, ATEEZ made KQ Entertainment 711.8k album sales in 2020.

7. Starship Entertainment

Starship Entertainment’s most popular artists are MONSTA X, CRAVITY, Cosmic Girls (co-owned by Yuehua Entertainment), Wonho (under their Highline subsidiary), K.Will, and Soyou. MONSTA X’s mini-album, Fantasia X, and full-length studio album, Fatal Love, made around 550k sales together.

CRAVITY’s two mini-albums, Season 1. Hideout: Remember Who We Are and Season 2. Hideout: The New Day We Step Into, also did well, making an impressive 320k sales for this rookie group! With these and other releases, Starship Entertainment sold 993.4k album units this year.

6. Off The Record Entertainment

Off The Record Entertainment’s two main artists are IZ*ONE and fromis_9. IZ*ONE has had a stellar year in album sales, with this Produce 48-created group making nearly a million sales on their own between their BLOOM*IZ and Oneiric Diary albums they released this year.

Fromis_9 also released an album, My Little Society, a couple months ago, which made around 55k sales in total. Between these and other sales, Off The Record Entertainment sold 1.51 million album units this year!

5. YG Entertainment

YG Entertainment has several well-known artists, and those that released albums in 2020 include BLACKPINK, TREASURE, iKON, WINNER, Sechskies, and Mino. BLACKPINK’s The Album was by far their best-seller, bringing in around 1.25 million sales on its own. WINNER and iKON both released an album this year too with Remember and I Decide respectively, which both did very well.

TREASURE also did remarkably well for a rookie group, with their three single albums in the The First Step series making around 700k sales!  Mino’s album, Take, also made over 100k unit sales. With these plus others, YG Entertainment brought in 2.75 million album sales in 2020.

4. Pledis Entertainment

Pledis Entertainment is home to SEVENTEEN and NU’EST. SEVENTEEN in particular really took off this year, with Heng:garae making nearly 1.5 million sales (their highest-selling ever), and ; [Semicolon] right behind it with just over a million sales.

NU’EST had a successful year too! They released The Nocturne this year, which made nearly 200k sales on it’s own. Between these two artists, Pledis Entertainment made 2.92 million album sales this year.

3. JYP Entertainment

JYP Entertainment has had an incredibly successful year with their most popular artists, including TWICE, GOT7, Stray Kids, ITZY, and DAY6. TWICE was their highest-selling group, making over a million sales between their More & More and Eyes Wide Open albums, but GOT7 isn’t too far behind with DYE and Breath of Love: Last Piece together totaling about 730k sales.

Stray Kids and ITZY, though younger groups, have already proven to be popular. Stray Kids made around 760k sales between Go Live and In Life, and  ITZY’s IT’z ME and Not Shy brought in about 370k sales. With these along with DAY6’s album The Book of Us: The Demon and some others, JYP Entertainment sold 4.07 million album units in 2020.

2. SM Entertainment

It shouldn’t be too surprising to see SM Entertainment near the top of this list, with huge names such as EXO, NCT, Red Velvet, SHINee, SuperM, BoA, and various solo artists from these groups under their label. Though EXO didn’t have a full comeback this year, Baekhyun, Suho, and Kai together made huge sales with their respective albums, Delight, Self-Portrait, and Kai, which on their own brought in around 1.41 million sales.

NCT was their other biggest contributor to their sales this year. NCT 127, NCT Dream, and NCT U, along with WAYV, all had big comebacks this year with releases such as Neo Zone, Reload, the NCT RESONANCE series, and Awaken the World all making a ton of sales. Taemin‘s Never Gonna Dance Again two-part series also brought in around 270k sales as well. With these and many other album drops, SM Entertainment sold about 8.16 million albums this year.

1. BigHit Entertainment

And finally, of course, is BigHit Entertainment, home to the massively popular BTS as well as their very successful younger brother group, TXT. BTS’s two main 2020 albums, Map of the Soul: 7 and BE, together made around 7 million sales just on their own, which is incredible. They also re-released their old album, Skool Luv Affair (Special Addition), which since its 2014 release has now made around 680k sales.

TXT also came out with a couple albums this year, The Dream Chapter: Eternity and Minisode1: Blue Hour. Together, these two albums brought in another 800k sales for BigHit Entertainment! In total, this company sold about 10.05 million albums in 2020.