HYBE has broken yet another record.
On 26 February (Monday), the Korean entertainment company, which houses the likes of BTS, SEVENTEEN, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ENHYPEN, and NewJeans, announced that it has surpassed its annual revenue of 2 trillion KRW in 2023. Its latest record-breaking milestone also marks HYBE as the first Korean company to achieve such a feat thanks to its explosive growth in album and concert businesses.
The stellar performances of HYBE's artists granted them their highest annual revenue and operating profit last year since it was established, racking in 2.17 trillion KRW and 295.8 billion, representing a year-over-year increase of 22.6% and 24.9%, respectively. The company's three-year compound annual growth rate stands at 31.7% for revenue and 24.7% for operating profit. It has also seen a growth of 20% in annual revenue since going public in 2020.
HYBE's roster collectively sold 43.6 million album units in 2023, twice the number of sales compared to the previous year. The solo albums of BTS members sold 8.7 million copies globally, while SEVENTEEN sold 16 million album units. TOMORROW X TOGETHER, ENHYPEN, and NewJeans sold 6.5 million, 3.88 million, and 4.26 million, respectively.
Streaming performances of Jungkook's 'Seven' featuring Latto and '3D' featuring Jack Harlow, alongside LE SSERAFIM's Overwatch 2 collaboration 'Perfect Night', New Jeans' 2022 single 'Ditto' and 2023 smash hit 'Super Shy', showed remarkable growth in the past year. The artists on the rosters of Big Machine Label Group and QC Music also saw a boost in streaming performance in North America, bringing in a staggering rise of 80% in streaming revenue or 300 billion KRW compared to 2022.
Aside from streaming, concert revenue soared by approximately 40% from 258.2 billion KRW in 2022 to 359.1 billion KRW in 2023, thanks to the successful world tours of BTS' SUGA and SEVENTEEN, as well as the first North American stadium and Japanese dome tours of TOMORROW X TOGETHER and ENHYPEN. In 2023, LE SSERAFIM also ran their first Asia tour, making stops in Seoul, Japan, and Hong Kong.
HYBE's global fandom platform Weverse reached over 10 million active users in 2023. The number of artist live streams, called Weverse Live, also saw an increase from 900 to over 1,400 throughout 2023.
For 2024, HYBE looks forward to expanding its artist rosts as they debut new K-pop acts, including BELIFT LAB's ILLIT, HYBE X Geffen Records' KATSEYE, and PLEDIS Entertainment's TWS (who debuted in January). HYBE America's SB Projects signed the likes of Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Ozuna and Atlantic Records' rapper Kaliii last year. This year, SB Projects expects another rise with the upcoming release of Ariana Grande's next studio album Eternal Sunshine this March.
In the gaming sector, HYBE IM plans to actively pursue its publishing business with the releases of Dragon Blaze 2: Knights of Veda and Dungeon Stalkers.
HYBE also disclosed plans for a cash dividend of 700 KRW per share, totalling 29.2 billion KRW.
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