HYBE recorded its highest quarterly revenue ever, buoyed by a strong world tour. Cumulative revenue through the third quarter approached 2 trillion won.
HYBE's consolidated revenue for the third quarter this year was 727.2 billion won, up 37.8% from the same period last year. It exceeded the previous quarterly record of 726.4 billion won reported for the fourth quarter of 2024.
Earlier, HYBE had also posted record-high quarterly revenue in the first and second quarters of 2025. Riding that growth, HYBE's cumulative revenue through the third quarter this year was about 1.93 trillion won.
Direct participation revenue in the third quarter was 477.4 billion won, accounting for about 66% of total revenue. Large-scale concerts, including BTS Jin's global solo tour and world tours by TOMORROW X TOGETHER and ENHYPEN, were loved by fans worldwide, and concert segment revenue grew more than threefold from the same period last year to 245 billion won. Album revenue decreased to 189.8 billion won from the same period last year due to relatively fewer artist comebacks.
Indirect participation revenue such as MD and licensing, content, and fan club sales was 249.8 billion won, up 22% from the same period last year. Among these, MD and licensing institutional sector revenue, which accounted for the largest share, was 168.3 billion won, up 70% from the same period last year. Strong MD sales were driven by tour MD and light sticks from artists' tour activities, and sales of intellectual property (IP)-based character merchandise.
HYBE's core growth strategy of multi home·multi genres is showing concrete results in the global market. Global girl group Cats Eye's "Gabriela" climbed to No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, setting a personal best, and "Gnarly" re-entered the chart, achieving a cumulative 11 weeks on the chart. Cats Eye is making new history with two nominations at the 68th Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Monthly listeners on Spotify surpassed 33 million, marking the best performance among artists based on the K-pop model to date. On the strength of this growth, Cats Eye plans to start its first global tour across 13 North American cities with 16 shows, and all shows are currently sold out. A four-member sister group under the same label as Cats Eye is finalizing its lineup through global auditions and plans to release the process next spring through a Japanese OTT platform.
Global superfan platform Weverse also performed well, turning profitable on a cumulative third-quarter basis. This was the result of introducing new business models such as digital memberships and advertising. On the 18th, Weverse plans to open the private chat service Weverse DM on China's largest music streaming platform QQ Music to expand user touchpoints. In addition, next year Weverse's performance is expected to improve significantly supported by BTS's resumption of activities, expanded e-commerce revenue from the growth of key artists, and growth in Weverse's own digital business unit.
HYBE recorded an operating loss of 42.2 billion won, or 5.8%, in the third quarter. One-time expenditures due to proactive investments to expand global artist IP and restructuring of the North American business led to a roughly 12 percentage-point decline in operating margin.
New investments to expand artist IP include the successful debut of the boy group CORTIS in Korea, signaling the emergence of the next generation of global stars. In South America, a five-member boy group Santos Bravos was selected through an audition program of the same name, and the band Musza debuted under S1ENTO Records, HYBE Latin America's label, after the Latin band audition Pase a la Fama. Finalist team Destino and Low Clika, which enjoyed high popularity during the program's broadcast, are also preparing to debut. Initial investments such as marketing and content production for these large-scale projects led to about a 6 percentage-point decline in operating margin this quarter.
Regarding this, HYBE Chief Financial Officer Lee Kyung-joon said, "Although profitability has declined in the short term as many teams debuted, in the mid to long term HYBE's growth structure will be strengthened through global fandom expansion and stabilization of revenue bases."
One-time expenditure from the North American business restructuring also contributed an additional roughly 6 percentage-point decline in operating margin. HYBE is shifting its business model in North America from management-centered to a label-centered, integrated IP business system to strengthen profitability and operational stability. From next year, the restructuring effects, together with BTS's resumption of activities, are expected to stabilize the profit-and-loss structure of the North American business.
HYBE CEO Lee Jae-sang said, "HYBE's core K-pop segment is still expected to maintain profitability at the 10%–15% level this year, so the company's fundamentals remain strong," and added, "As the factors weighing on profitability are expected to be mostly resolved starting in the fourth quarter, improvement in the revenue structure will accelerate from next year."
He continued, "From next year, with BTS's resumption of activities, accelerated growth of K-pop artists, expanded results from the multi home·multi genres strategy, and Weverse's stable profitability as core pillars, we will enter a full-fledged phase of profitability recovery."
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