The end of the year is almost here, and so is Tumblr’s annual Year In Review, a series of lists that reveal the most popular entities on the social media platform. A microblogging site dominated largely by fandoms, K-pop and Korean artists in general are incredibly popular on Tumblr and the 2018 Year In Review includes a Top 50 ranking of who the most popular K-pop stars on the site were over the past 12 months. Like last year's, the 2018 list saw each of BTS’ seven members rank in the top spots and three of EXO’s members round out the Top 10.
Tumblr’s newly-released ranking is based on individual K-pop stars' engagements with original posts, reblogs, likes and searches on the site. This year’s list reveals that a handful of acts dominate a majority of the site’s interaction with K-pop fandoms: only BTS, EXO, NCT, Stray Kids, Seventeen, Monsta X, and GOT7 garnered more than a single member’s inclusion on the list while SHINee’s Onew and TWICE’s Momo are the sole representatives of their individual acts. In contrast, BTS is the only group to appear in its entirety, which is no surprise considering that the chart-topping septet is the site’s overall top fandom of 2018.
On an individual level, though, there was some movement between BTS’ members as Jungkook and Jimin swapped places this year, with BTS’ youngest member taking the top spot on the 2018 list and Jimin moving into No. 2 after previously being in first place in 2017. Combined, the pair's tags made up over 27% of all K-pop stars' engagement on Tumblr in 2018.
This year’s list expanded from those of past years', growing to include 50 spots after previously ranking only the 30 most interacted-with K-pop stars. According to Tumblr’s content insights associate Beatrice Vantapool, the decision was directly related to the inclusion of the sole female on the list, TWICE’s Momo at No. 46. “Going through the data we noticed that towards the end we actually had our first female member on the year-end list,” she said. “We wanted to really include that so that people were seeing that, just because K-pop is such a male dominated sphere. But Momo of TWICE is on this list. That’s a big deal.”
Aside from it getting its first show of female representation, Tumblr’s 2018 year-end K-pop stars list also revealed a generational shift, with many newer groups making their mark and rising to prominence in the ranking. Stray Kids in particular showed an immense increase in interest this year on Tumblr, following a busy year that saw them release four albums. Four members of the group debuted on the Tumblr ranking, with Bang Chan appearing in the Top 15 at No. 14. Vantapool credits his popularity with his role in the group’s formation and his being one of the act’s prominent songwriters.
Another popular rookie act that did well on this year’s list is NCT, which was formed in 2016 and features a variety of groups under its title. This year's list saw 12 of its 18 members chart and two appear in the Top 15. In comparison, last year’s top K-pop band members list featured only members of BTS, EXO and GOT7, all more senior acts with sizable global fanbases, in the first 15 spots.
“I think Tumblr [users] really, really loves rookies. I think they love watching a group come together, grow as individuals and musical artists,” said Vantapool.
Below is the entire list of Tumblr’s 2018 K-pop Stars ranking, with shifts in position referred to by the numbers beside names while new debuts are bolded.
- Jungkook | BTS +1
- Jimin | BTS −1
- V | BTS
- Suga | BTS
- Jin | BTS
- J-Hope | BTS
- RM | BTS
- Baekhyun | EXO
- Chanyeol | EXO
- Kai | EXO +1
- Sehun | EXO −1
- Jaehyun | NCT +5
- Haechan | NCT +14
- Bang Chan | Stray Kids
- Xiumin | EXO −2
- Jaemin | NCT
- Doyoung | NCT
- Jackson | GOT7 −4
- Wonho | Monsta X −3
- Mark | NCT
- Suho | EXO −9
- Jungwoo | NCT
- Jeno | NCT
- WinWin | NCT
- Yuta | NCT
- Chen | EXO −11
- Renjun | NCT
- Hyunjin | Stray Kids
- Vernon | SEVENTEEN −5
- Jeonghan | SEVENTEEN −9
- Onew | SHINee
- Lucas | NCT
- Hoshi | SEVENTEEN
- Mingyu | SEVENTEEN −12
- Felix | Stray Kids
- Chenle | NCT
- Jooheon | Monsta X −9
- Wonwoo | SEVENTEEN −13
- Han | Stray Kids
- Mark | GOT7 −22
- Kihyun | Monsta X −12
- JB | GOT7 −22
- BamBam | GOT7 −20
- Hyungwon | Monsta X −14
- Woozi | SEVENTEEN
- Momo | TWICE
- Lay | EXO −28
- Minhyuk | Monsta X
- Shownu | Monsta X
- Seungkwan | SEVENTEEN
