Most popular videos on SM Entertainment YouTube channel 2024

As of August 2024, the most popular video on SM Entertainment's YouTube channel (SM Town) was the official music video of boy group EXO's 2018 song "Love Shot", with around 616.8 million views. This was followed by their 2016 music videos for "Monster" and girl group Red Velvet's 2018 "Bad Boy" music video. 

EXO’s long-lived success

Having initially debuted in 2012 as two units with a total of 12 members, EXO now promotes as one united group with eight members. At one point the most successful act in the music industry, their promotions slowed down in 2019 due to military enlistment and side projects. With their music releases picking back up in 2021, they made a successful comeback to the domestic music market, releasing one of the best-selling albums in South Korea that year. 

SM’s ambitious NCT project

SM Entertainment debuted its first NCT subunit in 2016. The NCT project envisioned multiple subunits based in different countries without fixed membership, allowing artists to participate in various music projects across different subunits. New members and subunits have continuously debuted since then. There are currently four subunits: NCT U, NCT 127, NCT Dream, Chinese subunit WayV, NCT DoJaeJung, and Japanese subunit NCT Wish. The latter was announced as the final subunit to debut under the NCT brand. Several NCT members are also involved in projects outside of NCT. In recent years, NCT 127 and NCT Dream in particular have gained popularity, with both ranking high among best-selling male artists in South Korea. Since 2016, NCT’s collective album sales have reached around 34.8 million albums in South Korea.