TWS's YouTube Music monthly listeners surged about 491% month over month to reach 78.5 million (as of Jan. 8). That number ranks among the top not only for fifth-generation boy bands but for K-pop artists overall.
YouTube Music monthly listeners refers to the number of global users who watched content or listened to music by TWS (Shin Yu, Dohun, Youngjae, Hanjin, Jihoon, Gyeongmin) over the past 28 days. TWS's listener count, which was about 13.29 million during November of last year while promoting mini album 4 "play hard," increased by more than about 65 million in just over a month.
This growth accelerated as the mini album 4 title track "OVERDRIVE"'s "angtal challenge" sparked a year-end craze. The challenge was repeatedly spotlighted at major domestic and international awards shows and drew high public interest. Stars including singers, actors and variety entertainers, as well as the general public, continued to participate, making it a nationwide meme (internet content).
In fact, "OVERDRIVE" steadily climbed the TikTok music chart "top 50," reached No. 1 and has held the top spot for a week, and it landed at No. 5 on Korea YouTube's "daily shorts popular songs" (Jan. 6), showing enduring popularity into the new year. The number of posts containing the song exceeded 580,000 as of today (the 9th).
The heat that started on short-form platforms also led to a reverse run on music charts. "OVERDRIVE" reentered Melon's daily chart at No. 99 (Dec. 6, 2025) and recently climbed to No. 39 (Jan. 6, 2026). It is performing well on domestic major music sites such as GENIE MUSIC, FLO and Bugs, and it reached No. 2 on China's largest music site QQ Music's "weekly Korea chart" (tracking period Dec. 25–31, 2025), proving its global expansion.
With this, TWS has solidified its status as a bona fide "challenge hit maker." Following "first meetings don't go as planned" and "if I'm S then be my N," they achieved successive successes culminating with "OVERDRIVE," proving the ripple effect of their challenges. With strong mass appeal each time and leading short-form trends, attention is focused on what work they will produce next to create a new impact.
TWS will perform a powerful set tomorrow (the 10th) at the 40th Golden Disc Awards with Upbit at Taipei Dome in Taiwan.
[Photo] Provided by PLEDIS Entertainment Co.
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