K-Wave exports hit $19.97B in 2025, music up 84% on Netflix 'K-pop Demon Hunters' boost

Korean Wave-driven exports reached $19.975 billion last year, up 15.9% year-on-year. The 2025 Korean Wave Ecosystem Research report, published July 7 by the Korean International Cultural Exchange Foundation, broke down where the money came from.

Music exports surged 84%, credited to the success of Netflix's K-pop Demon Hunters. Tourism exports rose 37.8%. Cultural content accounted for $10.188 billion of the total. Consumer goods and tourism made up the remaining $8.788 billion.

Domestically, the numbers were just as heavy. Production-induced effects reached 48.28 trillion won. Employment-induced effects came to 242,370 people.

Over a decade, the picture gets starker. Korean Wave exports grew 2.68x in the past 10 years versus 1.36x for overall goods and services—exactly double the baseline rate. The number of countries where Korean Wave content hit mainstream popularity expanded to 13, now including Western and Middle Eastern markets.

But the report flagged real problems. Key Southeast Asian markets—Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam—all showed declining indicators. Japan presented a different kind of warning: 23.8% of consumers who rated their favorability toward Korea as neutral or lower still maintained or increased their consumption of Korean content. The report calls this "consumption without favorability." (That's a structural dependency risk, not a win.)

Foundation president Park Chang-sik said the research "analyzed risk signals underlying the Korean Wave's growth as a national strategic asset" and pledged to deepen economic ripple effect analysis and local market research to build a practical policy foundation.