Over the last couple of years, Korean pop culture has taken over the streets, making Chile one of the top 5 countries in South America for K-Pop listeners.
Years ago, belonging to a fan club was a reason for bullying in schools, especially in the South American region, up until recently, with the case of Fatima in 2025, a middle school girl and a fan of the boy group BTS who suffered bullying and was murdered in February of 2025 in Mexico.
Now, in 2026, the picture in South America is quite different. With the release of the movie K-Pop Demon Hunters in mid-2025, the world’s perspective on K-Pop has changed.
According to The Wall Street Journal, about 40% of people who listened to the K-Pop Demon Hunters soundtrack discovered K-Pop through it.
In Chile, K-Pop is prevalent; with recent visits by BTS and other groups, Korean Culture in the country is rising, as is the presence of Korean restaurants, K-Beauty shops, and K-Pop stores.
Based on a recent CADEM study, 83% of the population knows the genre, and groups like BTS, Blackpink, and Twice lead in popularity.
Barbára Calatroni, a small business owner on photocard— an invention by the Korean Industry that place different photos of idols in small card inside albums or other exclusive trading and selling, explains the phenomenon on K-pop, attributing his uniqueness to its commercial aspect, not only on that but also by reaching out to different audiences by different formats, such as vlogs, music and the known merch.
She also explains how unique and different it will be for the next generations; after the phenomenon of Gangnam Style in 2012, K-pop, which used to be experimental, has now become more globalized, reaching more audiences, especially with the release of the Netflix film K-Pop: Demon Hunters. Now the target audience isn’t young people or adults, but everyone.
A year after its release, the film has been the only one to spend 52 straight weeks in Netflix’s Global Top 10; it has also reached over 600 million views since then and continues to grow. The movie also won 2 Academy Awards earlier this year.
K-Pop continues to grow, targeting different audiences globally, but in Chile it has become stronger than ever, particularly with the group BTS’s recent 3-day shows on October 14th, 16th, and 17th. The three shows sold out the arena, with a capacity of nearly 50,000 attendees, and went viral after fans created a chant during the song “Hooligan”.
According to Calatroni, K-Pop culture will continue to grow and merge with Chile’s younger generations. Making now Chile not only a country of it’s own culture but receiving of other ones.
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