The group CORTIS is on the verge of achieving its first "million seller."
CORTIS (Martin, James, Juhun, Sunghyun, Geonho)'s debut album "COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES" has surpassed cumulative sales of 960,000 copies on the Circle Chart's October monthly album chart. It is the highest album sales among rookies who debuted this year. Considering that the team has no members who came from audition programs or who had previously debuted, this is a very unusual achievement.
"COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES," released on Sept. 8, sold more than 420,000 copies in its first week alone on Circle Chart, ranking first in first-week sales (sales in the week following release) among rookies who debuted in 2025. In its second week after release, it achieved "half-million seller," and now it is on the brink of surpassing cumulative sales of 1 million copies.
Typically, album sales drop sharply after the first-week tracking period, but CORTIS was different. Two months after release, the album's cumulative sales far exceeded twice its first-week sales (420,000 copies), showing a steady sales curve. Even after official activities for the debut album ended, quantities comparable to the first week were additionally sold, showing continued influx of new fandom.
CORTIS's popularity was anticipated early on. As a "young creator crew" that jointly creates music, choreography and videos, they generated a fresh response with content they produced themselves. Strong vocal ability and overwhelming performance ignited word of mouth. On short-form platforms, their music such as "What You Want," "GO!" and "FaSHioN" played continuously, and especially "GO!" was recalled to music shows thanks to its popularity. In addition, every move—fashion, photography and video shooting methods, and self-produced content—directly became a hot topic. In October, they received love calls from the United States and Japan and expanded their activities. Through large-scale concerts and events, radio and broadcast appearances, they captured overseas fandom and quickly increased their stature.
All indicators point to them being "this year's best rookie." CORTIS's debut album surpassed 100 million cumulative streams in the shortest time among groups that debuted in 2025 on Spotify, the world's largest music streaming platform (as of Oct. 12). Their popularity in the United States rivals veteran boy groups. The album entered the U.S. Billboard main album chart, the "Billboard 200," at No. 15 (Sept. 27), marking the highest debut album ranking for a K-pop group excluding project teams. In addition, they stand out for overwhelming popularity such as having the most followers among 2025 rookies on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.
[Photo] Provided by BigHit Music.
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