HYBE seemed to be doing just fine in Q3 without its flagship act, BTS. But the K-pop giant expects to do even better when the group returns next year.
The company published its Q3 earnings on Monday (November 10), posting record quarterly revenue of KRW 727.2 billion in Q3 2025, which converts to USD $524.7 million at the average exchange for the quarter. That performance was driven by concert sales that grew 231% YoY to 245 billion won ($176.8m) thanks to global tours by Jin, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, and ENHYPEN.
Despite the revenue growth, HYBE swung to an operating loss of 42.2 billion won ($30.4 million), compared to an operating profit of 54.2 billion won ($37 million) in Q3 last year, due to the company’s investment in global expansion efforts and restructuring of its North American operations.
CEO Jason Jaesang Lee sought to reassure investors during the company’s earnings call this week, explaining that HYBE “fully understand[s] the concerns and disappointment our shareholders have about this quarter’s performance”. He added: “It is mainly due to the impact of short-term cost increase associated with the investment for sustainable growth of the company and restructuring of overseas business.”
HYBE executives made clear, however, that BTS’s return will be a pivotal moment for the company’s financial trajectory.
CFO Kyung-Jun Lee stated that the company expects “significant improvement” in the earnings generated by superfan platform Weverse in 2026, citing the “resumption of BTS activities” as one of the key reasons behind that forecast.
He also noted that “starting from next year, we expect P&L of [HYBE’s] North American business to become stable on the back of the effect of business restructuring and the resumption of BTS activities.”
The K-Pop superstars plan to release a new album and embark on a world tour in spring 2026, marking the end of a hiatus that began in 2022.
Beyond HYBE’s expectations around BTS’s comeback, here are a few other things the company’s leadership team highlighted on the Q3 2025 earnings call…
1. KATSEYE’s Grammy nominations are evidence that the expansion of HYBE’s K-Pop production system into the US market has been a success.
KATSEYE’s Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards represent a breakthrough moment for HYBE’s global production strategy.
“It is extraordinary that KATSEYE was nominated considering the fact that this group debuted just a little more than a year ago,” CEO Lee told analysts. “This result suggests that the group has built a strong global fandom and achieved commercial success in a short span of time.”
HYBE’s CEO positioned the Grammy recognition as validation of HYBE’s globalization approach: “It’s a symbolic example that shows that HYBE’s global production system is competitive in the Western market as well. In other words, K-pop’s production model and creative processes has been successfully applied in the US music market, resulting in gaining the recognition at the prestigious Grammy awards.”
KATSEYE’s single Gabriela “reached their highest ranking by going up to the 37th place on Billboard Hot 100,” while Gnarly “reentered the chart being charted for a total of 11 weeks,” with both songs demonstrating “upward ranking trend more than four months after release, demonstrating their public appeal in the mainstream market.”
The group will embark on their first global tour next week, performing 16 shows in 13 cities across North America, with all concerts already sold out.
2. Concert revenues more than tripled year-over-year to $176.8m
HYBE’s concert business delivered extraordinary growth in Q3 2025, with revenues reaching KRW 245 billion, more than triple the prior year’s figure, according to CFO Kyung-Jun Lee.
BTS member Jin held 20 fan concerts in 10 cities from June to November, attracting more than 330,000 fans. “During his tour in Europe, he recorded the largest concert profit as a Korean solo artist entering the Billboard Top Tours Chart and demonstrating his global ticket power,” CEO Lee reported.
SEVENTEEN kicked off their global tour New_ in September, while TOMORROW X TOGETHER made headlines when “all members renewed their contracts” earlier this year, announcing the news on the opening night in Korea of their world tour.
ENHYPEN, meanwhile, concluded their Walk the Line Tour after 32 shows in 18 cities, selling approximately 676,000 tickets. “With sold-out shows in 14 cities, ENHYPEN held a concert at a Japanese stadium in the shortest period of time after debut among foreign artists, further strengthening their influence in the global market,” Lee stated.
LE SSERAFIM sold out shows in seven cities during their first North American tour, including Newark, Chicago and Seattle.
The concert revenue surge helped offset a decline in recorded music sales, which fell 11.5% YoY to KRW 189.8 billion ($137m) due to a lighter album release schedule in the quarter, “as we had fewer comebacks this quarter,” according to CFO Lee.
3. HYBE’s Latin America expansion is demonstrating the scalability of K-pop production methods
HYBE’s Latin America operations achieved two major artist launches in 2025, demonstrating the company’s ability to apply K-pop production systems to new markets.
The Pase a La Fama audition program concluded with three finalist teams signing exclusive deals with S1ENTO Records, a label under HYBE Latin America, led by Myrna Pérez.
Winner Musza is “working on their music based on hybrid sound that combines traditional Mexican music, R&B and pop elements,” HYBE’s leadership team said on the call.
In October, HYBE Latin America debuted Santos Bravos, a five-member boy group created through its own audition project. “The members received a structured training for six months based on the K-pop production system,” CEO Lee explained.
The group demonstrated strong pre-debut traction, attracting “more than 100 million cumulative views of social media content and 100,000 Weverse subscribers” before their official debut. “All 10,000 tickets for their debut concert were sold out in just two hours, demonstrating high expectations in the local market,” said Lee.
He emphasized the strategic significance: “With the successful debut of Santos Bravos, HYBE has confirmed that our planning and production capability centered on K-pop can be effectively applied to the Latin region. Driven by this experience, we aim to generate new growth drivers in the local music ecosystem.”
Daddy Yankee, who signed a management deal with HYBE Latin America in 2025, also “made a successful return in the global music market with his new regular album, Lamento En Baile.”
Looking ahead to 2026, CFO Lee indicated that “we don’t have any additional new IP debut plan next year, but we will focus on stabilizing the operations of the IPs that we debuted this year.”Music Business Worldwide
