The Top 5 Countries That Watched TWICE Videos on YouTube in 2018
With 2018 behind us, YouTube finally released their viewing stats for groups that surpasses 1 billion worldwide views in 2018.
Unsurprisingly, TWICE made the list – ranking third with 2.4 billion views (after BTS and Blackpink).
Though what is surprising is which countries contributed the most to the view count.
The top five counties that watched TWICE’s music videos in 2018 (in order) are:
- Japan – 601 M views
- South Korea – 311 M views
- Philippines – 187 M views
- Indonesia – 172 M views
- Taiwan – 145 M views
While it was expected that the members’ home countries (South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan) would place in the top 5, it’s surprising that most of TWICE’s views come from Japan and not South Korea. Especially since the group’s discography is heavily Korean skewed, with minimal original Japanese tracks released since the group began promoting in the country.
Though it is important to note that South Korea does their own YouTube like service with Naver (that no doubt influenced the country’s view count), the fact that Japan had such a wide gap in viewing numbers is impressive.
These stats show that Japan definitely loves TWICE, to point that the group’s view count even beats overall rank 1 winner BTS’ Japanese total view count by about 300 million views.
TWICE’s “personable, friendly, girl next door” image just seems to strike a chord with J-Pop fans to such a large degree that their popularity in the country compared to other K-pop groups is staggering.
I don’t think we’ve seen a K-Pop group dominate the Japanese market this successfully since the early days of the 2nd Generation’s foray in Japan (with KARA and Girls’ Generation leading the charge).
One notable country missing from the TWICE’s Top 5 viewing list is the United States, heavily considered to be the largest music market along with Japan and China.
Admittedly, the omission is not surprisingly, as TWICE hasn’t focused too much outside of Asia in terms of international expansion.
However, with a rumored 2019 US tour in the works, it’s possible that TWICE has their sights set on world domination now that Asia is firmly on their side.
