Summary of this article
EJAE tops US K-pop streaming rankings with 2.1 billion streams.
Huntr/x and Stray Kids follow in Luminate’s 2025 US chart.
KPop Demon Hunters soundtrack dominates K-pop streaming in America.
EJAE has emerged as the most-streamed K-pop artist in the United States in 2025, according to new figures released by the American entertainment analytics firm Luminate. The Korean American singer-songwriter recorded around 2.1 billion on-demand streams across audio and video platforms last year, placing her ahead of every other K-pop act in the US market.
On-demand streaming measures how many times listeners actively select and play a track or video, offering a clear indication of audience engagement. EJAE’s numbers reflect a major surge in popularity driven partly by music connected to the Netflix animated film KPop Demon Hunters, where she performed several songs for the soundtrack.
Soundtrack success drives streaming numbers
The film’s fictional girl group Huntr/x, whose songs were partly performed by EJAE, ranked second in the US K-pop streaming list with approximately 1.8 billion streams. In third place was Stray Kids, the globally popular boy band that accumulated about 1.2 billion streams in the country.
Another fictional act linked to the film, the Saja Boys, also appeared in the rankings, placing fifth with roughly 921 million streams. Meanwhile, K-pop powerhouse BTS secured the tenth position with 892 million streams as the group prepares for a widely anticipated full-group comeback.
KPop Demon Hunters leave a global impact
According to Luminate, the dominance of artists associated with K-pop Demon Hunters reveals how widely the film’s music resonated with audiences. Eight of the ten most-streamed K-pop acts in the United States were connected in some way to the movie’s original soundtrack.
The company noted that the phenomenon highlights how the K-pop industry has evolved over the past decade. Even though the film was produced in the United States and outside the traditional Korean entertainment system, both the movie and its soundtrack achieved exceptional global streaming results.
