G-Dragon, Plave are Melon's most popular artists of 2025 so far

G-Dragon and Plave topped Melon’s streaming charts for the first half 2023, with Plave amassing over 950 million streams and G-Dragon the most listeners.

Singer G-Dragon, left, and virtual boy band Plave were the most popular artists on Melon in the first half of this year, according to the streaming platform. [MELON]

Singer G-Dragon and virtual boy band Plave were the most popular artists on Melon in the first half of this year according to a report the streaming platform released Monday.

Plave is the most-streamed artist this year so far, amassing more than 950 million streams in the first six months alone. The band has accumulated 2.77 billion streams on Melon since its debut in 2023. G-Dragon had the most listeners on Melon, with more than 3.12 million people tuning in to his music this year. More than 2.43 million people have listened to his single “Home Sweet Home” (2024).

Even in specific categories, the two K-pop acts showed notable achievements.

Plave’s EP “Caligo Pt. 1” became the most-streamed album within the first 24 hours since its release, recording 11.33 million after dropping on Feb. 3. It was also the first album to surpass 10 million streams within that time frame on Melon.

Next in line were Seventeen’s “Happy Burstday” with 6.73 million and G-Dragon’s “Übermensch” with 4.2 million.

Big Bang, the boy band G-Dragon is a member of, was the most-searched artist on Melon with some 537,000 queries. Searches for Big Bang increased 44.7 percent on year for the same period.

The most popular song in terms of search results was “Don’t you know” by Zo Zazz, which was released on Jan. 7, with 528,000 appearances.

The platform’s operator, Kakao Entertainment, accumulated data from Jan. 1 to June 18 of this year.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]