Soundtrack Star Ejae Tops US K-Pop Streaming Charts
In a stunning demonstration of cross-media power, Korean-American singer-songwriter Ejae has been officially named the most-streamed K-pop artist in the United States for the year 2025. The announcement comes from the year-end report published by Luminate, the premier US-based entertainment data analytics firm.
Ejae, who provided vocals for several tracks on the official soundtrack of the Netflix animated hit KPop Demon Hunters, achieved a monumental 2.1 billion on-demand streams. This colossal figure represents the total combined plays of both audio and video content, placing her ahead of every other K-pop act in the competitive American market.
The “KPop Demon Hunters” Dominate the List
The influence of the Netflix film on the annual streaming rankings is undeniable. The data reveals that a staggering eight out of the top ten most-streamed K-pop acts in the US were directly linked to the movie’s original soundtrack.
Securing the second spot was the film’s fictional in-universe girl group, Huntr/x, whose songs were partially performed by Ejae. They garnered an impressive 1.8 billion streams. The renowned boy band Stray Kids followed in third place with a strong 1.2 billion streams of their own catalog.
Further highlighting the soundtrack’s dominance, the movie’s fictional boy band, Saja Boys, landed in fifth place with 921 million streams. In a telling sign of the film’s impact, global supergroup BTS, who are slated for a full-group comeback this month, placed tenth with 892 million streams.
A New Paradigm for K-Pop’s Global Reach
Luminate’s analysis pointed to this phenomenon as a significant indicator of the K-pop industry’s continued evolution and globalization. The company noted that while KPop Demon Hunters was produced in the United States outside the traditional Korean music industry ecosystem, both the film and its accompanying soundtrack achieved “standout results.”
This success story illustrates a new model for international reach, where a globally distributed platform like Netflix can launch musical artists into the mainstream spotlight, rivaling and even surpassing the streaming numbers of established industry giants. The synergy between high-quality animation and a powerful musical score has proven to be a potent formula for capturing the attention of American audiences and redefining the charts.
The monumental performance of the KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack and its featured artists like Ejae signals a vibrant and expanding future for K-pop, one where its boundaries are increasingly fluid and its potential for crossover success is limitless.
