What Is 5th Gen K-Pop? The New Class, Actually Explained

5th gen K-pop started in 2023: Korean outlets such as Money Today count groups debuting from 2023 onward as the fifth generation, and BOYNEXTDOOR, ZEROBASEONE and RIIZE are the 2023 debuts they lead with.

Ask five K-pop fans when the fifth generation started and you will get five answers and at least one argument. What nobody disputes is that a new class has arrived: between January 2025 and mid-2026, the major agencies and half the industry's mid-tiers all launched new groups, and per KProfiles' running debut tracker, the 2025–2026 cohort alone counts more than forty acts. Fifth gen k-pop is not a rumor anymore — it is a crowd.

Where the generation line actually falls

Generations in K-pop are fan constructs, not official designations — but the Korean press has settled on 2023 as the start, which puts ILLIT (debuted March 25, 2024 under HYBE's Belift Lab with "Magnetic") inside the generation and makes the 2025 class its second wave rather than its opening. The cleaner way to think about it: 4th gen was defined by global-from-day-one strategy — the 5th gen assumes that and builds on top. Japan debuts inside the first two years, pre-debut content machines, and group structures that would have been unthinkable a decade ago are the new baseline, not the innovation.

The 5th gen K-pop start date: 2023's first wave

The three groups the Korean press names as the start debuted within fourteen weeks of each other in 2023. My Daily grouped them in December 2024 as the "so-called 5th generation boy groups" that launched together that year; Money Today's April 2025 roundup uses the same 2023 line and adds later debuts such as NCT WISH, TWS and KickFlip.

ZEROBASEONE is the link to the present. It was formed on Mnet's Boys Planet, which aired from February 2 to April 20, 2023, and debuted with nine members; it has five now. Four of the members who left, Zhang Hao, Ricky, Kim Gyu-vin and Han Yu-jin, debuted again on May 26, 2026 as And2ble, per the Korea Times. A generation whose first wave has already spun off a new rookie group is not new anymore, and that is the best argument that the 2023 start date holds: it is far enough back to have a history.

The 2025 class: one debut per market niche

Look at the big-agency 2025 debuts side by side and the strategy map draws itself. JYP opened the year with KickFlip on January 20 — seven members. SM answered on February 24 with Hearts2Hearts, eight members and the classic SM polish. Starship went weird — in the best way — with KiiiKiii on March 24, five members and an anti-idol marketing streak. The ALLDAY PROJECT, debuted June 23, revived the co-ed group format with five members including Tarzzan and Annie. And BigHit's CORTIS arrived August 18 — James, Juhoon, Martin, Soenghyeon and Keonho — carrying the heaviest expectations in the class, because a BigHit boy group debut is never just a debut. Our CORTIS profile and idols index track the individual members, and the leader's résumé started before the group did: Martin's pre-debut credits for ILLIT, TXT and LE SSERAFIM, dated.

What is actually different this time

Three patterns separate this class from their seniors. First, speed to Japan: Hearts2Hearts hit their Japan debut in August 2026, per Kpop Official's schedule, under 18 months from launch — a timeline that took earlier generations three or four years. Second, format experimentation: a mainstream co-ed group (ALLDAY PROJECT) and a 15-member girl group (SAVVVY, debuted February 2026) both happened within twelve months, which suggests agencies are stress-testing the boundaries of what a "group" is. Third, the sheer debut volume — KProfiles logs over twenty new groups in the first four months of 2026 alone — means the class will be culled hard; there is not enough fandom attention to feed everyone. For how the newest names are doing on the charts right now, see our October comeback calendar and the weekly chart on our homepage.

Quick answers

When did 5th gen K-pop start?

In 2023, by the Korean press's count. Generations are fan and media labels, not official designations.

Which 2023 groups count as 5th gen?

By the 2023 line, every group that debuted that year. The three My Daily grouped together are BOYNEXTDOOR (May 30), ZEROBASEONE (July 10) and RIIZE (September 4).

Is ILLIT 5th gen?

By the 2023 line, yes: ILLIT debuted on March 25, 2024.

Which 2025 groups count as 5th gen?

All of the big-agency 2025 debuts above: KickFlip, Hearts2Hearts, KiiiKiii, ALLDAY PROJECT and CORTIS. Hearts2Hearts' fans are S2U, KiiiKiii's are TiiiKiii and CORTIS's are COER; the rest of the class is in our K-pop fandom names list.

Mina's Take

My position, and plenty of fans will disagree: generation labels are marketing archaeology — nobody inside the industry plans a "generation," they plan quarters. But the label is still useful as a lens, and what it shows this time is consolidation wearing the costume of variety: forty-plus debuts, yet the attention economy has already picked its five or six winners, and most of them have a major agency behind them. The detail most coverage misses is the co-ed experiment — if ALLDAY PROJECT stays commercially viable, it quietly breaks a 15-year industry rule. My prediction with a window: by the end of 2027, at least one more big-four agency launches a co-ed or mixed-format project. If the format stays a one-off, the rule held and I called it wrong.

What to watch next

• The 2026 debut class tracker — the year is only half done and the list keeps growing.
• Hearts2Hearts' Japan numbers in August — the class's first real cross-market test; context in our group guide.
• Which rookie group matches your taste — the idol quiz is a lower-stakes way to pick a lane.