MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. Stat Of the Week is supported by music data analytics firm Chartmetric.
HYBE’s superfan platform, Weverse, hit the milestone of 150 million cumulative global downloads in 2024.
That’s according to Weverse’s 2024 Global Fandom Trend Report, where the company revealed that the number of artist communities on the platform grew 30% YoY to 162 in 2024.
The report also reveals that the platform’s user base grew consistently across all continents, with an average growth rate of 19% last year.
Sixteen separate global artist teams joined Weverse during the year, with high-profile international stars like Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, Megan Thee Stallion, and Conan Gray driving double-digit user growth across North America, Europe, and Asia.
The app’s users come from 245 different countries and regions.
Currently, Weverse operates communities for artists including BTS, TOMORROW X TOGETHER, SEVENTEEN, ENHYPEN, LE SSERAFIM, NewJeans, CL, P1Harmony, Henry, imase, AKB48, thuy, MAX, nightly, Gracie Abrams, New Hope Club, and Alexander 23, among many others.
Weverse said artists shared about 206,000 posts, while fans created 370million posts in 2024.
Direct messaging became increasingly popular, with artists sending 698,000 messages and fans responding with 96.36 million messages. Notably, 55% of artists sent direct messages to fans at least every two days.
Weverse Live, the platform’s real-time video feature, streamed 5,787 broadcasts totaling 4,779 hours of content. The platform accumulated 11.25 million viewers with 426 million total views.
The most-watched livestream was Jung Kook of BTS’s December broadcast Missed You a Lot, which garnered 23 million real-time views.
“2024 was a transformative year for Weverse, as we expanded our artist communities, superfan engagement, and commerce activities on a global scale.”
Joon ChOi, Weverse
The platform also saw strong growth in merchandise sales. Weverse Shop sold 20.6 million items of ‘merch’ in 2024 (+13% YoY), which encompassed physical items such as albums and collectibles, plus digital items such as paid ‘memberships’ to artist fan clubs.
Physical merchandise sales grew 10% YoY, while digital merchandise experienced a 24% YoY surge. Artist memberships emerged as the top-selling digital products, with different memberships dominating in various regions.
“2024 was a transformative year for Weverse, as we expanded our artist communities, superfan engagement, and commerce activities on a global scale,” said JoonChoi, President of Weverse Company.
“Weverse remains committed to innovating its services to meet the evolving needs of artists and fans, solidifying its position as the center of global fandom culture.”
In terms of fan interactions, 4.88 million digital Fan Letters were sent in 2024, with JungKook receiving the highest number of letters, while LEEHAN of BOYNEXTDOOR responded to the most with likes.
SEVENTEEN emerged as the most active in posting, while ENHYPEN led in comment engagement.
HYBE CEO Jaesang Jason Lee in November 2024 said HYBE is not threatened by potential competition for Weverse, which counts Universal Music Group among its backers. Warner Music Group is working on its own superfan app, while Spotify is also working on a new subscription tier for superfans.
“There are a number of tech giants and point players both in Korea and overseas, cooperating and forging partnerships and launching diverse services [for superfans],” Lee said. “And my conclusion is that this type of tendency and trend is favorable for Weverse.”
Lee said that the content and product offerings on Weverse “are not really mature yet,” and the involvement of other major players in establishing a superfan market can help.
“Right now, Spotify and Amazon Music and other superfan business platforms are growing. And I believe that this is very positive because [it’s] contributing to expanding the superfan business model and market around the world.”
In the third quarter of 2024, HYBE’s “artist indirect-involvement” segment, which includes Weverse, reported a 31.8% YoY jump in revenue to KRW 205 billion ($142.7 million).
Weverse’s monthly active users rose slightly to 9.7 million in Q3 from 9.6 million in Q2. Weverse subscribers pay around USD $24 per year for benefits including exclusive content and announcements from their favorite artists.
In December 2024, Weverse launched a set of higher-priced membership tiers for users. The new offer, dubbed “digital membership” will reportedly upsell fans into new tiers with prices ranging from $2 to $4 per month, which will offer additional benefits such as offline access to music and ad-free video streaming.
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