Defeating K-pop sensations BTS and SEVENTEEN, the dearly loved boy group Stray Kids took the lead as the biggest live Korean pop act in this year. As the octet’s fans would have you say it, Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and IN truly “ate” and “dominated” the highest grossing K-pop tour of the year list, thanks too their ‘Dominate World Tour.’

Over a week ago, Billboard released its year-end Boxscore charts, revealing the rank of this year’s top tour, venues and promoters. Therein, the US music magazine also ended up setting aside the biggest scene stealer genre by genre.

Upon the release of their K-pop world tour rankings, Billboard’s findings indicated that the leaderboard was largely dominated by idol groups, with three of the Top 10 ranks reserved for soloists. Of these three, two were snagged by BTS members j-hope and Jin, and BIGBANG legend G-Dragon owned the final remaining spot.

Notably, BTS, as a group, has been on hiatus due to members RM, Jin, Suga, j-hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook’s respective military stints. In 2022, the K-pop idols announced the temporary group break during the FESTA celebrations. Since then, the septet has been pursuing solo projects. The Grammy-nominated music act’s post-military comeback is expected to arrive in the spring of 2026.

As you will notice down below, 6 of the top 10 K-pop tour grossers are managed by the multi-branched South Korean entertainment giant HYBE Labels. It encompasses sub-labels like BIGHIT MUSIC (BTS, TXT), PLEDIS Entertainment (SEVENTEEN), BELIFT LAB (ENHYPEN), ADOR (NewJeans) and more.

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Stray Kids beats BTS, SEVENTEEN and more: Highest grossing K-pop tour of 2025

According to Billboard’s report, the JYP Entertainment boy group’s year-end totals of the ‘Dominate World Tour’ soared to a gross of $185.7 million. Across Asia, Europe, North and South America locations, the boy band sold 1,300,000 tickets all through 31 shows.

In an even bigger news, a cinematic version of the highest grossing K-pop world tour (Stray Kids: The dominATE Experience) will be coming out in theatres and select IMAX cinemas worldwide in February 2026.

SEVENTEEN was next in line, thanks to its ‘Right Here World Tour’ in Asia and the United States. With 964,000 tickets sold throughout 34 shows, the HYBE Labels’ K-pop act gained earnings worth $142.4 million.

At No 3, BTS singer j-hope’s concert earnings associated with the ‘Hope on the Stage Tour’ stood at $79.9 million, as per Billboard The talented dancer and rapper sold 504,000 tickets across 33 shows in Asia and North America.

Fellow HYBE Labels group ENHYPEN sat at rank 4 with a year-end total of $76.1 million concert gross from the ‘WALK THE LINE World Tour’ in Asia, US and Europe. Members Heeseung, Jay, Jake, Sunghoon, Sunoo, Jungwon, and Ni-Ki bagged those earnings worth millions of dollars by selling 556,000 tickets at 25 shows.

The Billboard report further indicated that ATEEZ’s ‘2025 WORLD TOUR [IN YOUR FANTASY]’ shows across Europe and North America rang in a year-end total gross of $70 million. Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho’s united stance scored this significant win with 28 concerts.

Taking the 6th position, TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s (TXT) 39 shows of the ‘ACT: TOMORROW’ tour across Asia, Europe and the US brought them a total gross of $64.3 million. This bag was secured after the sale of 485,000 tickets.

‘#RUNSEOKJIN_EP.TOUR’ performed by BTS’ Jin snagged the 7th rank on the list of the highest grossing K-pop tours this past year. After selling 287,000 tickets across 18 shows in Asia, US and Europe, the tour earned $46.1 million.

Girl group LE SSERAFIM was next at No 8. 27 shows of Sakura, Kim Chaewon, Huh Yunjin, Kazuha, and Hong Eunchae’s ‘Easy Crazy Hot Tour’ across Asia and North America rang in sales of  237,000 tickets, amounting to a gross worth $34.1 million.

Legendary K-pop icon G-Dragon, who is also a member of BIGBANG, settled at the penultimate spot in the Top 10 roster with his ‘Übermensch World Tour.’ With 9 shows’ data recorded by Billboard across US, Sydney and Paris venues, the tour in question earned $27.1 million after selling 117,000 tickets.

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Finally, SM Entertainment’s trend-setting girl group aespa’s 15 shows tied to the ‘Synk: Aexis Line’ tour sold 138,000 tickets across 15 shows in North America and Europe. According to Billboard, members Karina, Winter, Ningning and Giselle closed out the Top 10 highest grossing K-pop tours list with a total gross of $18 million.

More about Stray Kids

The iconic and self-producing K-pop group swept the year-end award ceremonies this year. Scoring multiple Grand Prizes (Daesang), the group’s performances were billed as some of the most anticipated highlights of shows like the 2025 Asia Artist Awards and the music festival 2025 SBS Gayo Daejeon.

The octet particularly won big at the Asia Artist Awards 2025, as it took home the following trophies: Best Artist  (Top 10 Bonsang), Best K-pop Record, Best Producer (3RACHA, aka Stray Kids’ producing line Bang Chan, Changbin and Han) , AAA Best Choice singer, AAA Popularity, AAA Grand Presence of K-pop, Album of the Year (Daesang) and Artist of the Year – Singer (Daesang).

On top of that, the JYPE boy group also snagged VISA Album of the Year (Daesang) and Fans’ Choice Top 10 (Male) at the 2025 MAMA Awards. All these glorious victories were attributed to their latest studio album “KARMA,” which was released in August 2025.

The boy group has often been the subject of hilarious viral moments at such award ceremonies. At this year’s Asia Artist Awards, only two of the three members of the Stray Kids producer sub-unit 3RACHA ended up accepting the award while they waited for Han to rush out to the stage after a “bathroom crisis.”

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The boys were again at the centre of a comedic moment at the SBS Gayo Daejeon festival on Christmas, as Hyunjin lost one of expensive Cartier earrings while dancing. While losing it was one thing, the group’s laughter-inducing reaction after Felix subsequently found it on the floor became a talking point among K-pop enthusiasts.” The development had the fans joking how it was a “Christmas miracle,” especially since the piece of jewellery’s price tag listed on the official Cartier website is 80.5 million won.