This summer, ATEEZ were in season 🐟
ATEEZ’s summer run played out like a salmon’s.
From the global market back home to Korea, swimming upstream against the current.
They swept the world, came home in glory, and got a very warm welcome (?).
Hanteo Rewind looked at that run through the data.
First, the 3-line summary
Already 1.5M copies a year in 2021, and 3.37M in 2023. This is also their third Billboard 200 No.1. In other words, the fandom was already solid.
The Hanteo streaming index was 0 pts in 2018 and 2019 and 12,278 pts in 2025. In 2026 it is 467,550 pts. Proof that this year’s activity widened their mainstream reach at home.
Confirmed artist cover challenges alone came to 83 entries and 299M views. Covers, parodies and other spin-offs of the new single “BAD” took over social media and drove huge buzz.
In one lineFor ATEEZ, the summer of 2026 is set to be remembered as a symbolic one. It was the season the metrics changed. The album axis, which stands for the size of the fandom, was already solid, and the streaming index, the one the general public moves, shot up.
2026: holding the fans close, reaching the public
The Hanteo streaming index is measured only on the days you make the chart. Miss it and you score 0. ATEEZ scored 0 for their first two years after debut, and never passed 50,000 pts in a year after that. And then…
The summer of 2026 brought an overwhelming change in the streaming index — the metric read as a measure of “mainstream reach”.
Before you ask“Didn’t the counting rules change?” — No. The total rank_point across all of Hanteo Chart stayed steady at about 180M every year from 2018 to 2025 (measured). The 2026 increase is not an allocation rule, it is real performance.
Split it by month and it gets more fun. Albums spike in the release month and stop, but streaming peaks two months after release.
The pointAlbums peaked in June, streaming in August. Streaming peaking two months after release is not fandom pre-orders — it is a sign that the public reaction exploded afterwards.
Honestly, the albums… always sold well
Album sales measure the size of a fandom. ATEEZ passed 1.5M copies back in 2021 and peaked at 3.37M in 2023. The sharp drop in 2025 (-71.3%) was not fans leaving — it was because they released only one new album that year.
Look at first-week sales album by album and the growth is even simpler. From 5,239 copies on the debut to 1,929,597 copies on the 18th album. That is 368×.
⏳ 8-year time machine
| Release date | Album | First week (copies) | vs previous best | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-10-24 | TREASURE EP.1 : ALL TO ZERO | 5,239 | — | Debut |
| 2020-07-29 | ZERO : FEVER, PT.1 | 245,483 | +291% | First 200K |
| 2021-09-13 | ZERO : FEVER, PT.3 | 675,790 | +114% | |
| 2022-07-29 | THE WORLD EP.1 : MOVEMENT | 936,055 | +155% | |
| 2023-06-16 | THE WORLD EP.2 : OUTLAW | 1,521,275 | +295% | First 1.5M |
| 2023-12-01 | THE WORLD EP.FIN : WILL | 1,707,870 | +12% | Billboard 200 No.1 |
| 2026-02-06 | GOLDEN HOUR : Part.4 | 1,544,168 | +134% | |
| 2026-06-26 | GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5 | 1,929,597 | +25% | Personal best 🏆 |
The “BAD” wave rode social media to 299M views
The real engine behind “BAD” climbing the domestic streaming charts was short-form. As of August 21, 2026 we confirmed 83 entries of artist challenges, with 299M views.
🎰 Today’s random challenge draw
Want to take a spin?
| Participant | Agency | YouTube |
|---|---|---|
| Momo (TWICE) | JYP | 13.9M |
| Yeonjun (TXT) | HYBE | 3.67M |
| Taemin (SHINee) | SM | 2.95M |
| Kai (EXO) | SM | 2.93M |
| Dino (SEVENTEEN) | HYBE | 2.44M |
| Soobin (TXT) | HYBE | 2.4M |
| Sungchan · Wonbin (RIIZE) | SM | 1.68M |
| Kyungmin (TWS) | HYBE | 1.31M |
| Wonpil (DAY6) | JYP | 550K |
| Taeyong (NCT 127) | SM | — |
| Ryo (NCT WISH) | SM | — |
| Yeji · Ryujin (ITZY) | JYP | — |
| Participant | Field | YouTube |
|---|---|---|
| Lee Jung (YGX leader) | Dancer | 13.1M |
| Chase Infiniti | Hollywood actor | 8.92M |
| Lee Sang-yi | Actor | 8.05M |
| BB TRIPPIN | Choreography crew | 5.75M |
| Kwak Beom | Comedian | 5.48M |
| ATEEZ security team | Other | 3.64M |
| T.M.Revolution | Japanese rock singer | 3.48M |
| Yewon (ex-Jewelry) | Actor · TV personality | 2.66M |
| Chimchakman | Webtoon artist · streamer | 2.59M |
| Yoo Byung-jae | Comedian | 2.39M |
The pointTeams without much name recognition — MADEIN, izna, THE WIND, TRENDZ — joined in of their own accord, which is also a sign that the challenge was consumed as algorithm material, not as fandoms trading favours. Solo artists like Sunmi, Baekho, Wonho, Choi Yena and Seo In-young joined voluntarily too, and the whole thing grew.
CaveatThose 83 entries are only the ones we could confirm by search, not an official count — the real number is higher. Videos using the official TikTok sound: 68,900.
So what is this “Grand Duke of the North”?
Ask why 83 entries spread and the answer narrows down to one person: San (Choi San), and his killing part in the chorus. “Grand Duke of the North” comes from web-novel romance fantasy, where it means the duke who rules the northern territory; the nickname stuck during the “Ice On My Teeth” promotions in November 2024, from a hard-hitting choreography performed in a suit. The “BAD” run is what took the nickname mainstream.
KeyThe 11 entries San joined took 43.3% of confirmed views. Per entry that is 2.8× the overall average. Momo (13.9M), Lee Jung (13.1M), Chase Infiniti (8.92M), Lee Sang-yi (8.05M) — most of the top-viewed videos are the ones shot with San. Which means “Grand Duke of the North” was not just nickname play but a variable that created real reach.
📰 When did the press start using “Grand Duke of the North”?
To see when the nickname left the fandom and spread to the public, we went year by year through the times “Grand Duke of the North” showed up in article headlines. Three stages stand out clearly.
- 11.18 SBS “Dolsing Foreman” — San talks about the burden of the “Grand Duke of the North” image (“I’m always conscious of it on music shows”)
- 12.25 [T Photo] ATEEZ San: “The Grand Duke of the North is a gimmick”
- 02.25 [T Photo] “The Grand Duke of the North’s irresistible aegyo”
- 07.13 Kyunghyang Shinmun — “The beast idol back on short-form··· ATEEZ’s Grand Duke of the North, Choi San”
- 07.20 Ten Asia — “Grand Duke of the South Choi San lit the fire”
- 07.20 Ma Dong-seok joins the Choi San challenge — “the true Grand Duke of the North”
- 07.25 “The Grand Duke of the South who swept the algorithm”
- 08.09 [TD Photo] ATEEZ Choi San: “the Grand Duke of the North gaze”
What kind of fandom is ATINY?
On the Hanteo Fandom Card (as of 2026.8.13, 144 registered artists), ATEEZ score 63.2 pts overall — the top 9.7%. Their size tier is “Super-large”, and their fan type is classified as “Super-large · public-leaning”.
Bingeing 8 years of the ATEEZ story
From a hopeful who mailed one CD to a company that did not even hold auditions, through Coachella and Billboard, all the way to the Korean mainstream charts. We put the ATEEZ story in order.
A company that did not even hold auditions
KQ Entertainment had no audition system. Kim Hongjoong, an aspiring producer at the time, burned his own songs onto a CD and mailed it in with a letter. KQ left the CD unopened for over a year, found it while clearing out for an office move, and called him. Hongjoong was the company’s only trainee for 6 months. He wrote around 40 songs before debut. At the end of 2017 Hongjoong, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho went on “MIXNINE” and all were eliminated (42nd, 43rd, 63rd, 72nd). At debut KQ had about 10 employees and had never built a K-pop group before.
“Global love calls.. ATEEZ go worldwide”
They were all but unknown at home, yet pushed ahead with a world tour just 5 months after debut. 5 cities in the Americas, 10 in Europe, 2 in Australia — 17 sold-out shows. In Paris more than 10,000 people petitioned for another date. In June 2019, 8 months after debut, “WAVE” took their first music-show win. In 2020 they came 5th in the world on Twitter US’s official count of most-tweeted-about musicians (behind BTS, Kanye, Beyoncé and Drake), and yet the Korean headline read “ATEEZ are huge overseas — so why don’t Koreans know them?” Their second world tour that February lost 16 of its 18 planned shows to COVID.
From Kingdom to Coachella
3rd place in “Kingdom: Legendary War” in 2021. “Symphony No.9”, their first-round stage with a 38-piece orchestra, took first place with both the expert panel and the contestants, branding them as a group you watch for the stage — and the domestic fandom started growing from there. In December 2023, “THE WORLD EP.FIN : WILL” gave them their first Billboard 200 No.1 (152,000 units) — a first for a group from a small agency. Then in April 2024 they became the first K-pop boy group on Coachella’s Sahara stage, filling about 50 minutes entirely live.
ATEEZ come home in glory, and home welcomes them
“GOLDEN HOUR : Part.5” and the Brazilian funk title track “BAD” dropped on June 26. The next day: No.1 on iTunes Top Albums in 31 countries, and 10M MV views in a single day (57.92M as of 8/20). San’s killing part in the chorus caught the short-form algorithm, the challenge spread, and the result was their first entry into the Melon TOP100 since debut (7/6, No.81), climbing without a single drop to a peak of No.8. No.1 on Hanteo’s July monthly World Chart (17,387.62 pts), 3rd on the album chart. Now they are loved fiercely in their home country too.
ATEEZ, in their own words
On February 5, 2026, at the press conference for the release of “GOLDEN HOUR : Part.4”, Hanteo asked them directly. Four months before “BAD” blew up, here is what each of the eight said.
Did the members share any goals with each other at the start of this year?
Hongjoong“Last year we aimed for a lot of different things, and even though we achieved them, we still had this thirst to show you more songs and more variety. In 2026 I hope we can show not just songs but a lot of new stages too. Our goal this year is to show ATINY plenty of the new songs and the different stages they have been looking forward to.”
This is your first album after renewing your contracts — how did it feel preparing it?
Yunho“The renewal did not feel heavy to us. ATINY waited for us for so long that all we could think about was showing them many stages and many sides of us. I think every moment we spend promoting from here on is a golden hour. We prepared it wanting to keep performing and to keep showing that we are growing.”
Jongho“Just like the album name Golden Hour, we prepared this album hoping that ATEEZ’s 2026 will shine. Adrenaline is not the only good one — the other tracks are great too, so please listen to the whole album.”
What was on your mind 7 years ago?
Yeosang“7 years ago my mindset was passion — pure passion. I hope that passion of ours reaches ATINY again through this Adrenaline promotion.”
Of everything ATEEZ have achieved, what are the members proudest of?
San“The more albums we release, the more I can physically feel that ATINY are growing in number, and because of ATINY’s love I am certain we can keep performing. That is why I could walk in here today with my shoulders up.”
Mingi“If I had to name the biggest source of pride, confidence and ambition from these 7–8 years of promoting, I would say the members’ energy. I have never once thought about stopping, and we have always tried to move forward. All eight of us are bound together by the same thinking.”
Seonghwa“I always say this to ATINY too, but I do not think our hearts have changed much between the beginning and now. That desperate feeling and that passion are still there, so I am proud of the members and we have nothing to be ashamed of in front of ATINY. Military service is a given, and each of us will go when the time comes, but now that we have renewed our contracts we are also picturing the future.”
Promoting globally, what do Korean lyrics mean to the members?
Wooyoung“We are K-pop artists, and we get so many chances to perform around the world, meet fans and introduce Korea, so being able to share Hangul means a lot. And when ATINY overseas sing along to the Korean lyrics with accurate pronunciation, it makes me proud.”
On the recordAll eight answered separately, and the same words keep coming back: passion, energy, every moment. Four months after they said this, their first week hit 1,929,597 copies — a new personal best.
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