As part of a year-end survey for Korean media outlet News1, 22 major K-Pop agency representatives were asked to vote for the best rookie girl groups of 2020. Here’s how directors, CEOs, and managers from Big Hit Entertainment, SM Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment and more ranked them.

3. Secret Number

Vine Entertainment‘s Secret Number ranked 3rd overall on the Best Female Rookie ranking with three votes.

The five-member group (Léa, Dita, Jinny, Soodam, and Denise) debuted on May 19, 2020 with their first single album, Who Dis?, which has sold around 2,100 copies (Hanteo) to date. The music video for title track “Who Dis?”, meanwhile, has accumulated 33 million views on YouTube.

The group released their second single album, Got That Boom, on November 4, 2020. So far, it’s racked up 3,500 sales (Hanteo), while the single has 13 million views on YouTube.

2. Weeekly

Play M Entertainment‘s Weeekly ranked 2nd overall on the Best Female Rookie ranking with four votes.

The seven-member group (Soojin, Jiyoon, Monday, Soeun, Jaehee, Jihan, and Zoa) debuted on June 30, 2020 with their first mini album, We Are, which has sold around 19,500 copies (Hanteo) to date. The title track, “Tag Me”, has 15 million views on YouTube so far.

On October 13, 2020, they release their second mini album, We Can, which has 20,500 sales (Hanteo) so far. Meanwhile, the music video for title track “Zig Zag” has 15 million views on YouTube to date.

1. STAYC & aespa

And first place was a tie between Highup Entertainment‘s STAYC and SM Entertainment‘s aespa! Both groups received seven votes each.

Six-member group STAYC (Sumin, Sieun, Isa, Seeun, Yoon, and J) debuted on November 12, 2020 with their first single album, Star to a Young Culture. To date, the album has sold around 21,000 copies (Hanteo). Upon release, it broke the 2020 rookie girl group first day debut sales record.

Their title track, “So Bad”, was the first rookie girl group song of 2020 to debut on the Bugs real-time top 20 and Genie real-time charts. The music video currently has over 14 million views total on YouTube.

Four-member group aespa (Karina, Giselle, Winter, and Ningning) debuted on November 17, 2020 with their first single, “Black Mamba”. The song quickly became the highest-charting rookie girl group track of 2020 on Melon, Bugs, and Genie’s daily charts.