17 Ways K-Pop Became More Global Than Ever in 2025

SOURCE:Billboard|BY:Jeff Benjamin

From chart history set by ROSÉ, Stray Kids and HUNTR/X to moments of visibility for Brazil, India and the LGBTQ+ community, K-pop was truly expansive this year.

12/30/2025

Rosé photographed on November 10, 2025 at Milk Studios in Los Angeles.

Schiaparelli dress and cardigan, Tiffany & Co. jewelry. Joelle Grace Taylor

Long touted as a badge of honor in both fan wars and press releases, the concept of going “global” has been an arguably unrealized goal for much of the K-pop industry prior to 2025. Yet the past 12 months have proven to be the scene’s most expansive year yet, reaching new heights and mainstream milestones.

For observers both in and outside of the K-pop orbit, that expansion was recognized as a seismic creative shift. In an apt year-end review for The New York Times, pop critic Jon Caramanica wrote that “K-pop is an influence, a starting point, but perhaps not a destination.” He noted how projects like ROSÉ and Bruno Mars‘ record-breaking “APT.” exemplified crossover collaborations as “an indicator of widening acceptance and also increased tolerance for musical risk,” while K-adjacent projects like KPop Demon Hunters and KATSEYE signal that the genre has reached a stage where it “needs new oxygen to thrive.”

And the data shows those risks have breathed some life-affirming excitement into K-pop with effects that can be felt for years to come: a K-pop-based animated blockbuster movie and soundtrack placed multiple tracks across the Billboard Hot 100 and Global 200 for weeks while competing in major awards races; new partnerships and deals saw veteran and newcomer acts earning new chart feats; tours earned unprecedented grosses across the world; and new localized K-pop ecosystems formed in markets far from Seoul.

Indeed, 2025 wasn’t about K-pop “arriving.” It was about K-pop scaling in a way that the rest of the world can’t help but take notice. The model proved it could be exported, localized, iterated, and — perhaps most crucially — felt on both a commercial and creative level.

Go through more than a dozen moments that show how 2025 truly became a global sensation this year.

All-Around Success for KPop Demon Hunters

International Stars Jump on K-Pop Collabs Again (And Again!)

Image Credit: Anna Lee

While international collaborations are essentially a hallmark of the K-pop scene today, several major artists really proved they were here for the scene with their second, and sometimes third, team-ups.

After Coldplay and Chris Martin recorded collaborations with BTS and aespa, the British band not only featured TWICE as special guests for their series of Seoul concerts at Goyang Stadium this spring, but dropped a new “TWICE Version” of their single “WE PRAY”

Following a 2016 collaboration with Eric Nam, Timbaland returned to K-pop via a collaboration with SEVENTEEN’s Hoshi on his solo track “Damage” off the group’s HAPPY BURSTDAY album

Pharrell Williams released new singles with BTS’ j-hope (“LV Bag” alongside Don Toliver and SPEEDY), BamBam of GOT7 (producing with “Angel in Disguise” off the star’s first Thai album), as well as SEVENTEEN (crafting “Bad Influence” from HAPPY BURSTDAY)

Following his collaborations and remixes for artists like BTS and IVE, David Guetta whipped out his “REM/X” for KPop Demon Hunters’ “Golden” that earned a Grammy nomination for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical

Almost seven years after BLACKPINK connected with Dua Lipa for “Kiss and Make Up” off the latter’s debut album, Dua returned the favor by appearing on JENNIE’s debut solo LP with the Hot 100 hit “Handlebars”

MAX has multiple records with BTS, and released a single with LE SSERAFIM’s Huh Yunjin, and this year extended his love to ENHYPEN by enlisting Jay for “LOVE INSANE”

After Lay Bankz hopped on “Broke My Heart” off the first solo EP from PENTAGON’s KINO, the viral rapper also landed on another K-pop act’s single featuring on “5, 4, 3 (Pretty Woman),” the debut single from SEVENTEEN’s CxM unit with S.Coups and Mingyu

PinkPantheress previously popped up on remixes alongside LE SSERAFIM and Stray Kids’ Hyunjin, but this year made a cameo on Yves’ Soft Error album (featuring on the track “Soap”) and returned the favor by inviting Yves and SEVENTEEN onto remixes for the Fancy Some More? mixtape

For over a decade, Diplo has been diving into K-pop with collabs for BIGBANG, CL and G-Dragon, and this year wound up back in the studio with JENNIE to help helm “like JENNIE,” as well as her group in co-producing BLACKPINK’s comeback single “JUMP”

While JVKE collabed with BTS’ Jimin and co-wrote a song for ENHYPEN, the “Golden Hour” singer doubled up his HYBE partners by bringing TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s Taehyun and Kim Chaewon of LE SSERAFIM for “butterflies”