South Korea’s HYBE said on Wednesday (Aug. 6) that its second quarter revenue rose 10.2% year-over-year to 705.6 billion KRW ($516.7 million), while operating profit jumped nearly 30% of 65.9 billion KRW ($48.3 million) due to successful global tours and releases from several of its artists, including BTS members Jin and j-hope.
Concert and merchandise revenue rose by mid-double-digit percentages following tours by SEVENTEEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER and LE SSERAFIM in the first half of the year. J-hope’s 33-show tour, Hope On The Stage, sold nearly half a million tickets from February to June, followed by his headlining performance at Lollapalooza Germany. Jin’s 18-show run in nine cities marked his first tour as a solo artist.
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HYBE executives said that news of BTS members completing their mandatory military service in South Korea and regrouping drove monthly users of its super fan platform Weverse to an all-time high of 12 million users, showing that the boy band’s enduring success is still a main driver for HYBE’s business.
Revenue from recorded music sales, concerts, advertisements and appearances, which HYBE lumps together as “artist direct involvement revenue”, rose by 5.7% year-over-year to 447.9 billion KRW ($328 million). While revenue from recorded music fell by 8.4% to 228.6 billion KRW ($167.4 million) year-over-year due to lower vinyl sales, revenue from concerts was up 31% to 188.7 billion KRW ($138.2 million). Earnings from HYBE artists’ advertising and appearances rose by nearly 1% to 30.6 billion KRW ($22.4 million).
Major releases in the quarter included Jin’s EP Echo, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200; j-hope & GloRilla’s single “Killin’ It Girl,” which reached No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100; SEVENTEEN’s HAPPY BURSTDAY, which was among the highest selling albums in the first half of 2025 in Korea; ENHYPEN’s mini album DESIRE: UNLEASH, which reached No. 3 on the Billboard 200; and ILLIT‘s 3rd mini album bomb.
Revenue from segments artists aren’t directly involved with — including official merchandise, intellectual property licensing, content and fan club memberships — totaled 257.8 billion KRW ($188.8 million), with merchandise and licensing revenue jumping a whopping 40% to 152.9 billion KRW ($112 million). Fan club revenue rose 46% to a record-high 34.6 billion KRW ($25.3 million).
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Though it does not break out Weverse’s financials, HYBE executives said revenue for Weverse rose 41% in the second quarter compared to the first quarter. The platform averaged 10.9 million monthly active users (MAUs) in the quarter.
HYBE CEO Lee Jae-sang spent several minutes on a call discussing earnings to address the restructuring of its HYBE America operations. In July, the company named Isaac Lee, previously chairman of HYBE America and chairman of Latin America, as CEO of HYBE America, taking over from Scooter Braun, who transitioned to advisory and board director roles.
Lee said the reorg was more than a short-term change and grew out of a review of the North America division’s past four years.
“It is about shifting our business focus to label business,” CEO Lee said. “Given that earnings from management business tend to fluctuate depending on the level of activities by artists, we would like to strengthen the label business to generate stable earnings based on streaming, thereby improving profitability and business fundamentals.”
The move flattens management of HYBE’s America and Latin America operations, with the aim of connecting its operations in both places “to further strengthen and broaden [HYBE’s] global business.”