K-pop groups have been listed on an index chart to verify their influence in the United States.

Le Sserafim. /Courtesy of Source Music

On the 17th, U.S. market research firm Luminate unveiled the 'Luminate Index'. Luminate is a market research company that supplies album sales data to the U.S. Billboard charts and established the 'Luminate Index' in October this year to measure artists' influence.

The 'Luminate Index' is composed of streaming 30%, social media 15%, artist awareness 25%, public appeal 15%, and participation score (live events and live streaming ticketing, brand participation, etc.) 15%.

In the top 250 of this year's third-quarter 'Luminate Index', pop star Taylor Swift ranked first. Adele came second, followed by Beyoncé in third.

A total of 8 K-pop groups were listed in this index. The highest-ranking group was Le Sserafim, placing 66th with 72 points. They were followed by Stray Kids in 84th (70 points), NewJeans in 97th (68 points), Tomorrow X Together in 106th (67 points), Itzy in 153rd (61 points), Twice in 177th (60 points), (G)I-DLE in 225th (56 points), and Blackpink's Lisa in 235th (55 points).

The listing of K-pop groups indicates their growing influence among U.S. music consumers. Although Luminate did not disclose specific scores for each category, it explained the characteristics of the K-pop fandom by comparing category scores of Tomorrow X Together (84 points), Miley Cyrus (82 points), and Olivia Rodrigo (82 points), when the index was limited to women aged 13 to 34 in the United States.

According to this, Tomorrow X Together showed low figures in awareness and streaming share but had overwhelmingly high fan participation. This highlighted a difference from pop stars who showed balanced indicators. Based on this, it was possible to analyze that K-pop groups, including Tomorrow X Together, have expanded their influence in the U.S. with the strength of high fan participation.