Ahop reclaims KTOPSTAR Best Rookie crown in cycle 114
Ahop reclaimed KTOPSTAR's Best Rookie (Male) top spot for Sept 7–13, bouncing back after dropping to second the week before.
Back on top after one week away
Ahop (아홉) reclaimed first place in the 114th cycle of KTOPSTAR's Best Rookie (Male) category, covering September 7–13. They'd lost the top spot the previous week and came right back.
Horaizeon (호라이즌) placed second. Tours (투어스) took third.
Mini album 3 still moving charts
The surge started with RUN TO YOU, Ahop's third mini album from July. One week after release, the group scored a music broadcast win. A month later, the album was still charting: first on the Oricon Daily Album Ranking in Japan and fifth on the Billboard Japan Top Album Sales chart.
Those placements matter because KTOPSTAR's rookie rankings run on fandom votes. Sustained chart presence across markets signals an active, organized fanbase. That's exactly what showed up at the 2026 K World Dream Awards. Ahop took home the K World Dream Global Spotlight Award and the Best Fandom Award.
(Two awards in one night, plus a Japanese chart double, a month after release—the fandom is not slowing down.)
Ahop's return to the KTOPSTAR top spot this week sits alongside a broadcast win, dual Japanese chart placements, and two major awards. All within roughly two months of a single release.
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