24 Lee Soo-man rookies, IVE, ILLIT and RIIZE on the same day and TXT closing the line: K-pop's fall rush calendar, from Oct. 12 into November
After a first half with 55 million albums sold, the Korean industry is stacking releases and debuts over the coming weeks.
Foto: SBS NewsK-pop is entering its most crowded stretch of the year. According to SBS, physical album sales in the first half of 2026 reached about 55 million copies on the Circle Chart — 11 million more than the same period in 2025 and on par with 2023, when the annual total topped 100 million. With the market running hot, the big agencies decided to release almost everything at once.
The race starts Monday (Oct. 12): NCT WISH, PLAVE, Sung Hanbin (ZEROBASEONE) and Xdinary Heroes return on the same day, while A2O Entertainment, founded by Lee Soo-man after leaving SM, holds the global debut show 'WELCOME TO SOULITE.' He is launching two groups at once: the 15-member boy group A2O SOUL and the 9-member girl group A2O LITE — their digital singles drop Tuesday (Oct. 13) at 6 p.m. Seoul time, with Yoo Young-jin on music and performance production. On Oct. 19 come SEVENTEEN's Jeonghan and Joshua plus NMIXX; on Oct. 23, BABYMONSTER.
The most contested date will be Oct. 26, when IVE, ILLIT and RIIZE release albums simultaneously; AND2BLE returns on the 27th. November has no breathing room either: TWS on Nov. 2, RESCENE on Nov. 3, ATEEZ on Nov. 13 and TOMORROW X TOGETHER on Nov. 16, plus a new ENHYPEN release with no date set yet.
