Netizens Debate Over Whether HYBE Labels Will Disband fromis_9 Or Not

Prior to fromis_9‘s latest comeback, Unlock My World (released on June 5), the K-Pop girl group had fans worried about their possible disbandment due to their year-long hiatus and the departure of Gyuri, one of their more popular members. Being under HYBE Labels, which now has the two powerhouse girl groups LE SSERAFIM and NewJeans, the smaller but still beloved fromis_9 seemed to be at risk of becoming no longer profitable enough to stay with the label.

Thankfully, however, the girls did make a comeback rather than disband, and fans were hopeful that it would be successful enough to keep them going. But while it certainly didn’t perform poorly, now netizens once again aren’t sure if the comeback did well enough to keep fromis_9 from disbandment.

The title track from Unlock My World, “#menow”, did earn one music show award, and it has currently made around 117,000 sales. While there’s one day it would have been impressive for a girl group to surpass the 100k album sales mark, it’s strange that some people now might think that’s considered a “flop” compared to others.

It’s true, though, that the album has actually made fewer sales than their previous one, From Our Memento Box, which has sold around 138,000 units. While some people think this is a sign that they’re starting to go down in popularity, others think this might just be a temporary dip due to the long hiatus and the departure of Gyuri.

Then again, another worry that people have regarding fromis_9’s future is the inevitable debut of a new girl group under HYBE Labels. With the announcement of the survival show R U NEXT?, produced by ENHYPEN‘s label BELIFT Labs, such a girl group might be making its debut rather soon, too.

The topic of fromis_9’s future became the subject of a post on an online forum, where the original author claims that even though they were “pushed a lot” for their latest promotions, their album sales didn’t do as well as they should have. They also bring up the success of LE SSERAFIM and NewJeans, as well as the upcoming girl group under BELIFT Labs, as more reason why fromis_9 might end up getting disbanded. And in the comments of the post, several people agreed with their sentiments.