Your Picks for the Best of 2025!

Here’s how readers voted throughout January!

Catch up on the official 17 Carat K-Pop “Best of 2025” lists here!

The Best K-Pop Music Videos: No. 50-26, No. 25-1, and Honorable Mentions

The Best Albums: No. 100-76, No. 75-51, No. 50-26, No. 25-1, and Honorable Mentions

The Best Songs: The Top 150 and Honorable Mentions

The Best Teasers and Trailers: The Top 20, ranked!

The Best of the Rest

• Part One: The best bonus tracks, collaborations, debuts, highlight medleys, T-pop and P-pop albums, and more!

• Part Two: The best soundtracks, covers, interludes, and more!

• Part Three: The top 100 remixes! Plus lists of new and notable live albums and compilation albums spanning K-pop, J-pop, C-pop, and beyond!

• Best End-of-Year Releases: A paywalled guide

And here’s how you all voted!

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Best Album Repackage

First Place: ATEEZ, GOLDEN HOUR : Part.3 ‘In Your Fantasy Edition’

Second Place: PURPLE KISS, OUR NOW

Third Place: TWICE, THIS IS FOR (DELUXE)

Fourth Place: CRAVITY, Dare to Crave: Epilogue

Fifth Place: Yves, Soft Error : X

33.3% voted for TXT’s The Star Chapter: TOGETHER, 25% voted for ATEEZ’s GOLDEN HOUR : Part.3 ‘In Your Fantasy Edition,’ 16.7% voted for SEVENTEEN’s HAPPY BURSTDAY, 16.7% voted for TWICE’s TEN: The Story Goes On, 8% voted for aespa’s SYNK : aeXIS LINE - 2025 Special Digital Single, and 0.30% voted for ONE PACT’s ONE FACT.

Best Subunit Music

First Place: BSS

Second Place: IRENE & SEULGI

Third Place: HxW

Fourth Place: CxM

Fifth Place: NCT DREAM

34% voted for ZEROBASEONE (“EXTRA” & “Long Way Back”), 34% voted for ALLDAY PROJECT (“WHERE YOU AT” &“HOT”), 18% voted for NCT DREAM (“Butterflies” & “Tempo”), and 14% voted for ALL(H)OURS (“GOOD JOB” & “La Vida Loca”).

Best Virtual Artist

First Place: PLAVE

Second Place: naevis

Third Place: ISEGYE IDOL

Fourth Place: SKINZ

Fifth Place: AEONIT

64% voted for PURPLE KISS, 12% voted for ATBO, 11% voted for VAV, 10% voted for OnlyOneOf, 1% voted for DreamNote, and 0.5% voted for TOZ.

Best Fan Song/Fan-Dedicated Song

First Place: TXT, “Song of the Stars”

Second Place: ITZY, “Promise”

Third Place: ATEEZ, “Choose”

Fourth Place: JUNHEE & Lee jiham & BK & KANG YUCHAN & WoW, “Tattoo (12:30)”

Fifth Place (Tie): Stray Kids, “Photobook” and TWICE, “ME+YOU”

57% voted for KATSEYE, 42% voted for GIRLSET, and 1% voted for dearALICE.

Best Collaborative Album

First Place: SMTOWN, 2025 SMTOWN : THE CULTURE, THE FUTURE

Second Place: DOHANSE & LAVEEN, NEIGHBOR ROCKSTAR

Third Place: AP Alchemy, AP Melodies

Fourth Place: Jvcki Wai & vangdale, MOLLAK

Fifth Place: Sik-K & Lil Moshpit, K-FLIP+

41.7% voted for HUNTR/X, 25% voted for HI-BOYZ, 25% voted for Saja Boys, and 8.3% voted for Star One.

Best K-Pop x J-Pop Collaboration

First Place: JAY from ENHYPEN & Ayumu Imazu & MAX, “LOVE INSANE” remix

Second Place: CHAEYOUNG & Gliiico, “AVOCADO”

Third Place: JEONGHAN from SEVENTEEN & Omoinotake, “Better Half”

Fourth Place: LiSA & Felix from Stray Kids, “ReawakeR”

Fifth Place: YENA & Hatsune Miku, “STAR!”

58% voted for i-dle, 19% voted for GIRLSET, 15% voted for ablume, 7.5% voted for NOWZ, and 0.5% voted for XD.

K-Pop Artist with the Best 2025 Japanese Release

First Place: Stray Kids, Hollow

Second Place: ENHYPEN, YOI

Third Place: ATEEZ, Ashes to Light

Fourth Place: BOYNEXTDOOR, BOYLIFE

Fifth Place: TXT, Starkissed

52% voted for CHAEYOUNG (for “SHADOW PUPPETS” / “My Guitar”), 33.3% voted for AB6IX (for “Beautiful”), 8.5% voted for BIBI (for “Winter”), 6% voted for DAESUNG (for “Umbrella”), and 0.2% voted for Han Yo Han (for “rain”).

Best Group Debut

First Place: CORTIS

Second Place (Tie): KickFlip and KiiiKiii

Third Place: ALLDAY PROJECT

Fourth Place: XLOV

Fifth Place: Hearts2Hearts

42% voted for ROSÉ (who released “Messy” and “On My Mind”), 31% voted for JENNIE (who released Ruby), 16% voted for JISOO (who released AMORTAGE and “EYES CLOSED”), and 11% voted for LISA (who released Alter Ego, “Born Again,” and “Priceless”).

Best Collaboration

First Place: CxM & Lay Bankz, “5, 4, 3 (Pretty woman)”

Second Place: JAY from ENHYPEN & MAX, “LOVE INSANE”

Third Place: ROSÉ & Alex Warren, “On My Mind”

Fourth Place: SEVENTEEN & PinkPantheress, “Illegal” remix

Fifth Place: EPEX & joan, “so nice”

50% voted for IU’s A flower bookmark, Pt. 3, 17% voted for i-dle’s We are i-dle, 15% voted for SMTOWN’s 2025 SMTOWN : THE CULTURE, THE FUTURE, 7% voted for SM Classics TOWN Orchestra’s Across The New World, 6% voted for SM Jazz Trio’s PINK NOTE, 4.6% voted for MONSTA X’s NOW PROJECT vol.1, 0.5% voted for Paul Kim’s Sincerely yours (10th Anniversary Edition), and 0.5% voted for Gavy NJ’s The Gavy NJ.

Best First-Time Major Solo Project

First Place: YEJI from ITZY

Second Place: BEOMGYU from TXT

Third Place: HAECHAN

Fourth Place: XngHan

Fifth Place (Tie): CHAEYOUNG and MINNIE

Most Common Responses to the Open-Ended Questions

Best Webtoon you read: She’s Into Me

Best K-pop concert you went to: TXT

Best K-drama you watched: When Life Gives You Tangerines

Please credit 17 Carat K-Pop if reposting any of the above lists and/or charts!