ENHYPEN: A group showing explosive growth

ENHYPEN, the 7-member group consisting of Jungwon, Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo and Ni-ki , has shown some amazing growth after the release of their latest album “ROMANCE: UNTOLD”, which was anticipated by fans all around the world.

The 2nd full studio album, which had contributions from notable producers around the world such as Cirkut for the b-side “Brought The Heat Back” (the main producer of their 2023 hit title Bite Me) , as well as from the members themselves (all of them are credited as lyricists on the song Highway 1009, which was produced by Heeseung, as well as the leader Jungwon’s big contributions in creating the song Hundred Broken Hearts, both of which are fan favourites), was highly appreciated by fans in the first reviews following the release. 

The album with the lead single “XO (Only If You Say Yes)”, which was produced by the popular American artist JVKE, managed to top album charts all around the world and make ENHYPEN reach new heights in their still relatively young career as artists. 

To track back a little, one thing has to be noted: “ROMANCE: UNTOLD”, which was the first of ENHYPENs albums to surpass 2.2 Million pre-orders, was loved by ENGENE as soon as the concept pictures came out. 

Directed by the creative Nicola Formichetti, who has worked with big artists such as Lady Gaga for some of their most iconic looks, the concept pictures for the versions INCEPTIO, ARCANUM and CONCESSIO were all-around perceived to be on a new scale for ENHYPEN. 

And who knows ? Maybe this was a tale of what was to come.

ENGENE, ENHYPENs fanbase, not only loved the visual direction of this comeback, but also the musical one.

ROMANCE: UNTOLD debuted with 8.1M streams on Spotify, the most for any ENHYPEN release yet and catapulted the group close to the global Top 50 Artist Chart (peak: 53), which was a new career high with over 12M daily streams overall, the biggest streaming day for ENHYPEN ever on the platform.

Are you seeing where this is going?

This was not the only milestone that the fanbase achieved in their appreciation for the new album.

ENHYPEN topped the French Album Chart (SNEP), tying with BTS and Stray Kids as the only acts to ever do it. And they did it in a release week competing with one of the biggest rappers of modern day, Eminem.

As you probably know, Eminem is a huge name in the western and global rap scene, notably Europe and the US. And even though ENHYPENs first BB200 No.1 was prevented by his release “The Death of Slim Shady” that topped the chart with 281k units, ENHYPEN achieved another personal best by doubling their on-demand streams for ROMANCE: UNTOLD (9.53 Million) and immediately debuting at #1 of the Billboard Top Sales Chart (117k pure sales) , totalling at 124k units, which makes this ENHYPENs first album to surpass 100k units. 

ENHYPEN also managed to achieve personal bests in some of the most competitive charts of recent years, with hits by artists such as Taylor Swift or Billie Eilish showing longevity at high placements in some of the Top 10 Music markets , for example Germany.

On the Official German Album Chart, they joined BTS, BlackPink and Stray Kids as the only acts to ever chart in the Top 5 (#4, new career peak) and were in the company of aforementioned artists while doing so (Taylor Swift topped the chart with her hit album “The Tortured Poets Department”, while Eminem debuted at #2 and Billie Eilish was occupying the 5th place spot directly behind ENHYPEN).

In Japan, ROMANCE: UNTOLD debuts with over 300k sales in their first week on Billboard Japan, becoming ENHYPENs top selling album.

The album, which achieved the mark of 2M+ in their first week on the Korean Hanteo Albums Chart, is not only performing well on Spotify, but on Apple Music as well. Garnering dozens of entries on album main charts, the first week results in other markets in Europe and Asia speak for themselves.

In the UK, ROMANCE: UNTOLD achieved ENHYPENs highest entry on the Official Albums Downloads Chart (#11.) In France, Belgium, Germany, Spain and Italy, ENHYPEN currently is or tying with the highest charting Korean act in 2024 (at #1,#4,#4, #12, and #30 respectively), their career peaks being surpassed is a non-issue to mention here.

In France and Germany, ENHYPEN is currently the group with the highest entries on the Album Charts overall, second only to the K-pop legends and global sensations BTS.

In Belgium , ENHYPEN ties 4th gen trailblazers Stray Kids as the Korean Acts with the most entries in the Top 5 of the Wallonia region.

But as mentioned earlier- not only the physical album version saw success. On the European Apple Music Chart, ROMANCE: UNTOLD debuted in the Top 10 at 7 with higher streams than their 2023 hit album Dark Blood. It had entries in more than 30 countries on the entire continent.

Let that sink in.

In ENHYPEN country, otherwise known as the Philippines, their huge local fanbase, which makes up a considerable amount of fans overall, managed to propel the newest release into the Top 10 of the Weekly Album Chart of Spotify Philippines (#9.), becoming the highest entry for the release week in the country

ENGENEs from Singapore managed to debut all of the tracks on their Top 200 Spotify, with the introductory track “Moonstruck” being a surprise favourite in all regions in which it charted.

On Spotify South Korea and Spotify US, ENHYPENs biggest streaming day was also a their peak for the regions overall, which is exciting to think about considering these two markets importance for K-pop overall.

ROMANCE:UNTOLD was one of the most streamed albums in its first release week on Spotify , with a global Top 3 regarding new entries and ENHYPENs first Top 50 (#47 on the Global Weekly Top Albums Chart) for any album in its first week.

In times of declining album sales, where digital results prove to be the biggest contributor to a groups growth, ENHYPEN managed to become the group with 3rd highest week sales for 2024 and beat their previous record held by their November release “ORANGE BLOOD” by over 300k sales. 

The growth in sales in quite stagnant times for K-pop industry sales overall, especially in China (less exports compared to 2023) and new European peaks show that ENHYPENs music catalogue, while not as big compared to senior groups, can speak for itself and that their concepts and musical direction is becoming more loved as the years pass by.

High main chart entries, especially in Europe, are usually very difficult to achieve unless you have a strong and active fanbase in the region, which is why it is so rare for Korean Acts to enter the Top 10, Top 5 or enter at the highest position (as ROMANCE: UNTOLD did in France by beating Eminems latest release).

What does this tell us? ENHYPENs fanbase in Europe has been steady and consistent , and is growing at an extremely fast pace compared to where other , older groups stood at at the same age after debut. 

ENHYPEN is a group that is anticipated globally, appreciated in different regions and has fans that want to see them perform.

European ENGENEs especially have shown their loyalty and patience by charting ENHYPEN almost ever since debut and supporting them at the events they perform at (Kpop Flex Germany and Spain (2022,2023) as well as Music Bank in France (2023)).

Seeing as ENHYPEN will grace the European stages again at Music Bank Madrid this year, it can definitely be said that ENGENEs in the region are anticipating their next steps there.