The 100% Flawless 2016 K-pop Girl Group Tier List

It's spring, and every spring since 2013 Sports Chosun has released a ranking of K-pop girl groups based on overall popularity, composed by industry insiders. They're fun, they're interesting, and they get people talking, but there are always parts of it that make you question whether these "industry insiders" are just kids that joined OneHallyu three months ago: groups appear in the list one year and then disappear the next, some are placed far too high or far too low, and often little or no reasoning is given for each group's placement (if there is any it's usually vague and seemingly unsourced). Despite the amount of clicks it probably gets them they've yet to make a list year, and so I've taken it upon myself to make my own list and shove my worthless opinion in people's faces.

This list measures domestic success using the Gaon charts as its main source, specifically the weekly and yearly digital, download, and album charts. The social chart has not been used, nor have YouTube views, Facebook likes, or Twitter followers; a lot of this is inflated by international fans and the international K-pop fandom is irrelevant — I don't care how many tens of copies your faves sold to reach number two on Billboard's world chart. Similarly, success in Japan/China isn't counted (though placing T-ara in Tier 2 would have been a laugh).

Also note that this ranking is based on current popularity — T-ara definitely mean more to K-pop in the long-run than AOA but at the moment the latter are undoubtedly more popular in Korea. Since we're only a third of the way through 2016, both figures from this year and last year have been taken into account.

Tier 0:

KARA

Eternal queens; KARA may have disbanded (well, I suppose that depends on who you ask) but as a result they have transcended this trivial ranking to a higher plane — a place where their legacy shall be immortalised. KARA are no more in K-pop, but they are forever more in our hearts *wipes tears*.

Tier 1:

Girls' Generation, SISTAR

And no-one was surprised. I was actually going to place Girls' Generation in their own tier but I was worried I'd just look like a shameless SONE (I mean I am but that's besides the point). They may not be as untouchable as they were at their 2010-13 peak but Lion Heart sold nearly 150,000 physical copies last year and "Party", "Lion Heart", and Taeyeon's "I" were all digital hits; even Taetiseo's special Christmas album outsold every other girl group album that wasn't Pink Memory or 4 Walls.

SISTAR may have unremarkable physical sales but, to their credit, 19,000 is fairly decent for a girl group. I don't think anyone will argue that they're the digital queens though — they're able to release utter shit and it'll still be the second best-selling girl group single of the year. They were also the only girl group last year to have a B-side chart in the top ten.

Tier 2:

Apink, Girl's Day, AOA, EXID

Pink Memory was the best-selling physical album among girl groups last year after Lion Heart, and whilst "Remember" certainly did well their 2014 single "LUV" was successful right into 2015 — it didn't leave the weekly charts until mid-May and landed at 69 on the yearly digital chart. On top of all this Eunji's latest single has just recently debuted at number one as well.

LOVE didn't exactly perform spectacularly last year (despite being great), but Girl's Day are undoubtedly still a top girl group. The album still sold an impressive 30,000 copies whilst "Ring My Bell" placed comfortably in the yearly chart behind "Dumb Dumb". Hyeri seemed to get very positive reception for her starring role as Duk Sun in "Reply 1988", and Minah's solo debut landed her a top 20 single.

A lot of people seem hesitant to call AOA a top girl group but I don't understand what people think is holding them back: "Heart Attack" came in just behind "Only You" and "Shake It" in the yearly chart (and within the top 20, at that) whilst physically shifting over 40,000 copies — a very impressive number for a girl group. Meanwhile Seolhyun and Choa are both very popular individually and Jimin's "Puss" was placed right after "Heart Attack" in the yearly chart, rounding out the top 20. Feel free to point out what it is I'm missing here, because AOA are definitely not just a "trend" anymore.

EXID proved themselves similarly to AOA in 2014 though arguably did an even better job: overall they were the second best-selling girl group digitally last year (if you don't want to count "I" and "Dear Santa" then they're most likely number one), Hani was shoved onto more or less every variety show in the country, and Solji gained recognition as a vocalist on "King of Mask Singer".

Tier 3:

TWICE, G-FRIEND, Red Velvet, MAMAMOO

I'm hesitant to put TWICE in Tier 2 because of how new they are, but they're outperforming basically everyone at the moment; "Like Ooh-Ahh" has been far and away the most successful debut single from any girl group since probably "Bad Girl Good Girl", The Story Begins has sold well over 60,000 physical copies and "CHEER UP" rocketed straight to number one in the charts upon release, gaining an all-kill. Tzuyu's received lots of attention for her visuals, and Sana's "shy shy shy" line has become a meme on online forums. People (including myself) have been saying that there most likely won't be another "Nation's Girl Group" after SNSD, but TWICE look like they may be it.

G-FRIEND have become digital monsters in just over a year since debut: "Glass Bead" sneaked into the tail-end of the yearly chart but "Me Gustas Tu" managed to rank higher than both "Lion Heart" and "Remember". But it's their latest release that's really cemented them as a top girl group: Snowflake has impressively sold around 30,000 copies whilst "Rough" was one of the year's first big hits — even now, three months after the song's release, the song is still frequently in the top 20 of Melon's real-time charts.

Somehow, possibly in the hype surrounding the two groups above, people underestimate Red Velvet; sure, they may not be at the positions Girls' Generation and f(x) were in at the same stages of their careers (though the K-pop climate was very different five years ago; seven, even more so) but they're strong both physically and digitally — last year they managed to land third place in Gaon's rankings chart for overall sales.

MAMAMOO have managed to get lots of praise for being vanilla refreshing and different compared to other girl groups as well as for their vocals, and as such are sort-of becoming the second Brown Eyed Girls the vanilla queens. "Um Oh Ah Yeah" proved to be their breakout hit whilst three singles from Melting reached the top 10.

Tier 4:

2NE1, f(x), miss A, Lovelyz, Wonder Girls

2NE1 are here mainly because there's nothing to really go off at the moment except "Hello Bitches"; if they actually do return in the summer they'll probably move up, but after Bom's scandal, Minzy's departure, and over two years of no group promotions I'm not certain if they'll return to Tier 1 when it does happen.

I've seen people on some forums say f(x) should be on Tier 2 but all they really have is a strong fandom; sure, all four members are well-known, and 4 Walls was the third best-selling girl group album last year, but the lead single failed to make the yearly chart and the album sold a fair bit less than Pink Tape and Red Light. They're hardly struggling, but f(x) are a long way from their peak days in 2011-13.

miss A definitely had a successful comeback last year — "Only You" became the most successful girl group single last year. Despite this their physical sales were the lowest out of everyone in this group, and even though they're six years in Suzy is still the only well-known member.

Lovelyz haven't taken off in the same vein as Red Velvet or G-FRIEND but they're no slouches. "Ah-Choo" may have missed the top 20 in the weekly digital charts — and it missed the yearly chart altogether — however it's been downloaded over 800,000 times since its release, proving to be quite the sleeper hit. I'm not sure if "Destiny" will have the same digital success but at the very least it looks like it'll chart higher.

Wonder Girls finally returned after three years of inactivity as a group, and they did decently considering this. "I Feel You" was a minor hit and performed about as well as "Ring My Bell" overall, but their physical sales were only slightly above miss A's, indicating that the hiatus significantly affected their fandom numbers.

Tier 5:

4Minute, Brown Eyed Girls, T-ara

4Minute are in a similar boat to f(x) in that both peaked a few years ago (in fact 4Minute had the same peak era as f(x)) and both seem more popular than they actually are — "Crazy" just about scraped the yearly top 100 and "Hate" only did slightly better than last year's pre-release "Cold Rain" whilst shifting a paltry 7,000 copies. Act.7 may just be a one-off-flop, but given Jihyun said they'd consider leaving Cube if it sold poorly (and it did) I don't know if we'll get a chance to find out.

Brown Eyed Girls are capable of throwing out a top 10 hit when they bother to release something, but Basic did poorly considering the group's status; in fact, the single "Brave New World" was completely eclipsed by Gain's "Apple" and "Paradise Lost".

T-ara's flawless "So Good" hardly tore up the charts but fared slightly better than "Sugar Free", and despite their tragic digital performance they still have a decently-sized fandom, selling over 20,000 album copies.

Tier 6:

9MUSES, AFTERSCHOOL, SECRET

9MUSES survived a year of no promotion but definitely took a hit from it — after the relative success of "Drama" it looked like they would finally rise to the upper-mid level but neither of their follow-up singles did anywhere near as well. They have, however, established themselves as the most popular unpopular girl group and recently managed to hold their first concert.

AFTERSCHOOL and SECRET have both been inactive as a group (well, in Korea anyway) for a while now, but I doubt they'll have too much of a problem making the top 40 if they do return. However, Hyosung's recent Colored EP has performed worryingly, and three years of no promotions will be very difficult for AFTERSCHOOL to recover from.

Tier 7:

OH!MYGIRL, Dal Shabet, Crayon Pop, Rainbow, Ladies' Code, Sunny Hill

The popularity borderline — these groups are by no means trendy or chart-toppers, but they're fairly well-known. OH!MYGIRL are quite clearly the odd-one-out here but they'll likely move up within the year. Ladies' Code have only just starting promoting again and they could well move up later on, but for now I can only really go off Myst3ry's modest success.

It was particularly painful putting Dal Shabet here since their singles consistently reach the 20 but their flawless "Someone Like U" went wildly off course and they barely charted at all. Maybe it'll just be a one off, but it's unlikely at this stage for Dal Shabet to rise any higher than Tier 6.

Crayon Pop and Rainbow are similar in that both had a hit (Rainbow had two) but neither really took off, and now they just about scrape the digital top 40. The same goes for Sunny Hill, who fare sightly better digitally but have pathetic physical sales.

Tier 8:

FIESTAR, HELLOVENUS, BESTie, SPICA, STELLAR

We're now in flop town. FIESTAR are a bizarre case in that you'd think with Yezi and Cao Lu both recently getting lots of positive exposure that they'd be on the same level as 9MUSES at the very least, but "Mirror" was the worst-charting single they've ever done (even worse than the awful "We Don't Stop").

People thought BESTie were sure to quickly rise through the ranks when they debuted — and they looked like they would after "Thank U Very Much" — but since then they've remained more or less stagnant. HELLOVENUS are an even more extreme case in that they were modestly successful at first but plummeted around 2014, and everything from "Sticky Sticky" onwards hasn't done anywhere near as well as their earlier singles.

Meanwhile, SPICA had two almost-hits in "Tonight" and "You Don't Love Me" but after the mediocre "Ghost" have vanished off the face of the earth. Supposedly they're coming back very soon but in their absence MAMAMOO have taken their place in the market.

STELLAR's "Marionette" may have given them relevancy but it also doomed their chances of ever making it to the top — people outright refuse to support STELLAR, no matter how brilliant their music is, because of their concept (i.e. they don't like their idols to be self-aware). It's laughable when you consider Gain's "Fxxk U" (where she is raped in the video) did so well and was considered "classy", but we're talking about K-pop fans here.

Tier 9:

CLC, Sonamoo, APRIL, Tahiti, Laboum

Eunbin was added to CLC in a desperate attempt to make them relevant but she lost all of her popularity immediately after she was revealed to be in the group. Sonamoo were bullied by Shawols over light-sticks. APRIL charted once and then never again, as did Tahiti. Laboum got free promotion from Suzy when she took a screenshot of herself listening to "Journey to Atlantis" but its impact was negligible. I'm not sure if any of these groups will ever get their big break (well, Tahiti almost certainly won't), but wow it must suck to debut under a big label like Cube and yet still be at the bottom of the barrel.

Tier 10:

Everyone else

This is it: complete and utter nugudom. The only really notable group from here would be SIXBOMB after getting attention for their amazing outfits but considering "Wait 10 Years Baby" still failed to chart (it entered the social chart but as I said at the beginning I'm not counting social media) I doubt their next releases will get any attention.

And that's it, phew. I might do another one later in the year but I probably shouldn't make any promises given my terrible track-record with this blog. In the meantime, let's all pray to Queen Jessica so that Dal Shabet and FIESTAR can assume their rightful positions at Tier 1.