A critic's census published in Sidae counts 10 of 45 groups debuting in South Korea between January and September 2026 as virtual, or 12 of 48 once solo idols are included. Pop culture critic Lim Hee-yoon reads 2026 as a turning point, driven by the success of PLAVE, which he says is pulling tens of billions of won in seed and Series A money towards new virtual-idol makers.
“What matters is not whether something is real or fake, but what kind of utility it provides them.”
Kim Hern-sik, culture critic, in a local broadcast interview · koreatimes.co.kr ↗
The Korea Times surveyed the newcomers in June. OWIS, a five-member girl group from All My Anecdotes, a label founded by Kiss of Life's creative director Lee Hae-in, debuted on 23 March with the EP "Museum". B:DAWN of Duri Entertainment followed on 6 May with the single "Beom", and Abyss Company's boy group MiiWAN had a debut album, "Middle.i", due in mid-June. Sidae adds SLIKT, the first act of the "ryft" AI artist project, which debuted in July with fans co-creating its story on a platform, and KIEPPI, made by SM Entertainment Japan and Studio Realive and launched in Japan.
PLAVE remains the yardstick. It debuted in March 2023 and became the first virtual act to pass a million first-week sales, with 1.03 million in February 2025 and 1.09 million for "PLBBUU". "DASH" reached No. 195 on the Billboard Global 200, and the group has sold out KSPO Dome and Gocheok Sky Dome. One label PR manager says fans of PLAVE do not feel they are dealing with a pre-produced character. Industry insiders credit real-time motion capture by human performers for setting it apart from ordinary virtual characters.
Newer groups face costly motion-capture technology and slow fan growth, and none has matched PLAVE yet, the Korea Times says. SM's Naevis (September 2024) and HYBE and Supertone's SYNDI8 (June 2024) drew attention but little lasting traction. The Korea Times cites a projection that the virtual idol market will grow from about $2bn in 2026 to $22.6bn by 2035, which helps explain why investors are paying attention.
Sidae notes that Korea's virtual singers go back to Adam in 1998, and that the earlier ones failed on poor graphics and low profitability. Lim recalls the 2025 prediction he made of a coming final war between human and virtual singers, in which the winner could well be virtual.