The Korean Wave, or Hallyu, generated $19 billion in exports last year, with music exports surging 84 percent from a year earlier, according to a report by the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The report released Monday, titled "Study on the Hallyu Ecosystem," estimated that the Korean Wave's economic impact grew in 2025 to reach $18.98 billion in exports, up 15.9 percent from 2024.
Among content exports, which grew 14.2 percent overall, games remained the largest category despite an 8 percent decrease, totaling $7.83 billion.
Music ranked second with a drastic growth of 84 percent to $3.1 billion. Broadcasting exports also climbed 29.7 percent to $1.6 billion.
The report attributed the massive hit "KPop Demon Hunters," and the expansion of AI-driven personalization services, which accelerated the growth of global fandoms. Such a trend boosted exports of consumer goods such as K-food and K-beauty as well as tourism.
The report surveyed 27,400 consumers aged 15 to 59 across 30 nations, with an equal gender distribution. All respondents were familiar with Korea, and had consumed at least one piece of Korean cultural content, including TV series, films, music, animations, games, books, beauty and fashion.
South Korea's average image rating rose slightly to 3.8 out of 5, up from 3.7 a year earlier. Respondents in Indonesia, India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt gave South Korea an average score of 4.0, while those in Japan (3.1), China (3.4), Taiwan (3.5) and Italy (3.5) gave comparatively lower ratings.
Females in their 10s, 20s and 30s accounted for the majority in consuming diverse K-content and spent more time consuming it. However, males in their 20s and 30s spent more every month, a pattern unchanged from the 2024 study. The report commented that the spending on beauty products was excluded from the analysis, while the spending on games was included.
mjcha@heraldcorp.com