HYBE Is Closing in on 4 Trillion Won a Year, With BTS Doing the Heavy Lifting

HYBE flipped a 42.2 billion won operating loss from last year's third quarter into a 188.5 billion won profit, and BTS's ARIRANG world tour is the obvious engine. The company announced the preliminary figures on the 3rd, and the profit beat the 166 billion won market forecast compiled by Yonhap Infomax by 13.6%.

Revenue hit 1.5257 trillion won, up 109.8% from a year earlier. Net profit came in at 11.3 billion won, also back in the black.

Both revenue and operating profit are quarterly records. The previous high came in the second quarter, when ARIRANG kicked off: 1.45 trillion won in revenue and 170.9 billion won in operating profit. HYBE broke its own record one quarter later. Cumulative revenue through Q3 reached 3.674 trillion won, which puts it within reach of 4 trillion won in annual sales, a first for a Korean music agency.

Where the money came from

Concerts did the heavy work. Performance revenue was 726.8 billion won, a quarterly record. HYBE pointed to BTS's Europe and US shows, which drew about 70,000 fans per date, along with ENHYPEN's tour of the Americas. LE SSERAFIM, &TEAM, BOYNEXTDOOR, TWS, ILLIT, KATSEYE and CORTIS also toured in the quarter.

Merchandise and licensing brought in 334.6 billion won. HYBE says BTS's second North American leg fixed a long-running weakness: merch sales that spike early in a tour and fade. On that leg, 1 million fans visited merchandise sites across 12 cities in 45 days, and 2 million items sold. Albums and music contributed 282.8 billion won.

HYBE described the results as proof that it has evolved beyond a K-pop company into a global entertainment platform. That is the company grading itself, of course, but the numbers on live revenue and merch are hard to wave away.

What HYBE says comes after ARIRANG

BTS will keep touring through the first half of next year, HYBE said, while working on music and other projects. CEO Lee Jae-sang said the company is discussing post-tour plans with the members in several formats. Additional concert dates will be announced, and group and solo activities are being prepared for after the tour. He gave no dates or details.

Lee also leaned on HYBE's "multi home, multi genre" strategy, saying it had paid off "explosively." With the quarter's records tied so closely to one group's tour, though, it's fair to ask how much of that diversification is being tested yet.