KPop Demon Hunters is the first soundtrack to top the Billboard 200 since Encanto’s nine-week reign in 2022.
As if K-pop’s real-life competition wasn’t fierce enough, a new challenger has emerged—and this time, it’s from the world of animation. Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters may tell the fantastical tale of girl group HUNTR/X harnessing the power of music to keep demons sealed underground, but its soundtrack has become a very real global phenomenon.
What began as a fictional narrative has transformed into record-breaking music, with songs from the film not just charting, but dominating, and proving that even imagined idols can shake up the industry’s fiercest battles.
The animated Netflix film where HUNTR/X (Rumi, Mira, Zoey) sing to weave the magical honmoon barrier, which keeps demons sealed below the earth, is showing artists how it’s done, done, done. And just like how the honmoon holds the demons at bay, the movie’s songs have been holding down the real-life music charts, pushing down even megastars like BTS and Sabrina Carpenter beneath their infectious beats and soul-stirring lyrics.
Slaying the charts
On September 14, the soundtrack to Netflix’s animated film KPop Demon Hunters officially climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, rising from No. 2 after spending seven nonconsecutive weeks in the runner-up spot. According to a Billboard report yesterday, September 14, the set earned 128,000 equivalent album units in the US in the week ending September 11 (up 7%), marking its strongest week yet. The surge followed the album’s deluxe reissue with additional tracks and the wide release of its CD on September 5.
“KPop Demon Hunters is the Billboard 200’s first No. 1 soundtrack in three-and-a-half years, since another animated film, Encanto, saw its companion album spend nine nonconsecutive weeks on top (January 15-March 19, 2022).
This chart-topping moment comes after the Kpop DH soundtrack made history on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the first ever to land four songs in the top 10 at once since the film’s June release. Leading the charge is Golden by HUNTR/X—the trio voiced by Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami in the film—which secured its place as a No. 1 hit, the first song by any Kpop girl group to take the spot. Now in its fourth week at the top, Golden bests even Sabrina Carpenter, who occupied No. 3 and 4 with Manchild and Tears.
Three other tracks from the movie—Your Idol, Soda Pop and How It’s Done—also entered the top 10 recently, a stellar feat for any movie soundtrack.
Your Idol, sung by the demon boy band Saja Boys, also dethroned BTS’s Dynamite from being the most streamed song ever by a K-pop boy group on Spotify US. Globally, the soundtrack has logged billions of streams across Spotify and Apple Music, with Golden still holding the #1 global spot on both platforms as of September 12. In the Philippines, specifically, Golden is still reigning over the Top 10 of Apple Music and Spotify country charts.
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A love letter to Korean excellence
Director Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans have talked about being stunned and deeply moved by how the movie and its soundtrack have exploded. “It’s all still very surreal.” Kang told RepresentASIAN Project, “Seeing the movie have this kind of tremendous impact and Korean culture being spread globally, it makes me feel really proud.” Appelhans echoed that “surreal” feeling as the songs began charting alongside acts like BTS and BLACKPINK.
Despite the soundtrack’s massive commercial success being a surprise to many, it probably shouldn’t be. At the core of the OST’s power is Ejae—the singing voice of Rumi, co-writer of songs like Golden, Your Idol, and How It’s Done—whose background is steeped in K-pop.
Ejae has regularly written for groups like Aespa, Twice, Le Sserafim and Red Velvet, and is also a former K-pop trainee herself. In a heartfelt Instagram post, she writes, “My dream ever since I gave up being a kpop idol and chose to be a songwriter was to write a top Hot 100 song in the US…and getting #1 felt impossible. Thank you to everyone who made that possible.”
The wait for HUNTR/X and Saja Boys’ comeback begins
The honmoon may have sealed the demons out for now, but it could never seal the fans’ hunger for more. Fortunately, Netflix and Sony aren’t leaving that craving unanswered.
The studios are reportedly in early talks for a sequel, teasing that HUNTR/X’s story is far from over. Early reports hint that the sequel may open into the curious backstories of Mira and Zoey. But while the plot details remain under wraps, there’s no question that expectations for its soundtrack—not just its story—are sky-high.
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