On May 21, it was reported that the Korean Creative Content Agency (KCCA), which is under the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, has confirmed that it has received an official complaint about BTS’s alleged Sajaegi (chart manipulation). The KCCA reportedly will be reaching out to HYBE to investigate the claims, though netizens have little faith in this actually being thoroughly checked, since the K-Pop group was proclaimed innocent in 2017 when they had been investigated for the same charge.
But it turns out, BTS isn’t the only group at HYBE Labels that people suspect of committing chart manipulation. In fact, for a couple of months now since they debuted, TWS has been scrutinized for their shocking leap on Korean music charts with “Plot Twist” despite being barely known, hardly discussed on social media, and getting low views on most of their content.
Some also think the number of albums they sold is also suspicious as a rookie group that, prior to debut, barely anyone knew about.
2024 Highest Debut Album 1st Day Sales by Rookie Groups
1. #TWS Sparkling Blue ㅡ 206,240 copies
2. #ILLIT SUPER REAL ME ㅡ 142,307 copies
3. #NCTWISH WISH ㅡ 92,789 copies
4. #UNIS WE UNIS ㅡ 9,836 copies 🆕️
5. #RESCENE Re:Scene ㅡ 6,513 copies
6. #ALL_H_OURS ALL OURS ㅡ…— KOREAN SALES (@koreansales_twt) March 27, 2024
🇰🇷 Best-selling Groups Debuted in 2024 on Circle Chart (until April 30, 2024)
1. #ILLIT — 592,357 copies
2. #TWS — 523,894 copies
3. #BABYMONSTER — 484,494 copies
4. #NCTWISH — 386,340 copies
5. #TIOT — 136,821 copies
6. #UNIS — 51,912 copies
7. #NOWADAYS — 44,216 copies
8.… pic.twitter.com/HqVT3FHJ1c— KOREAN SALES (@koreansales_twt) May 12, 2024
Not everyone believes the group has committed Sajaegi, though. Many think that “Plot Twist” just went viral enough on certain platforms that they were able to reach such high rankings on Korean music charts, and that the interest from the general public has been enough to have the rookie group succeed at so much, so quickly.
With their first comeback set for late June, though, people are once again looking into TWS and trying to look for evidence that the group didn’t achieve their results fairly. Two days ago, the group released a trailer for the comeback titled “Our Memories : Now”, which gives a preview of what seems to be a light, summery comeback.
The view counts over time are what netizens are looking at to give “proof” of the group committing chart manipulation. In the first 11 hours after release, the teaser had 80k views, which some think is quite low for a “Big Four” K-Pop group that has seen the results that TWS has.
In the first day after release, the views went up to 120k views, which many seem to think is still quite low.
At this time, two days since it came out, the teaser has around 166k views.
Apparently this is enough for a lot of people to be convinced that TWS is committing Sajaegi. On a forum post about the subject, many commenters shared their opinions with the majority leaning towards being suspicious.
Do you think this is evidence of chart manipulation?
Source: Pann Nate and Pann Choa
