ATEEZ

Boy band Ateez debuted in October 2018 with its first EP, "Treasure EP. 1: All To Zero," under KQ Entertainment.

It consists of eight members: Hongjoong, Seonghwa, Yunho, Yeosang, San, Mingi, Wooyoung and Jongho.

The group's name stands for "A TEEnager Z," meaning they are a group of teenagers who can do everything, from A to Z.

In 2020, the boy band ranked No. 5 on the list of the most-tweeted musicians in the United States — a feat considered especially impressive as they come from a small entertainment agency.

It ranked No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart with its 2022 EP "The World Ep. 1: Movement.”

Ateez's fandom is dubbed Atiny, a portmanteau of Ateez and Destiny.

Is Ateez popular in Korea?

"We do talk about if we are relatively lesser known to the public in Korea, and ponder what differences the foreign and Korean markets have that resulted in this phenomenon," Hongjoong said during Ateez's showcase for "The World Ep.1: Movement" in July 2022.

"But anything 'relative' isn't that important to us. We are already so grateful for our many Korean fans, and we don't plan to start doing anything differently. We're just going to keep producing the music that we want to."

The Korean general public has largely lost interest in boy bands around the 2021-22 mark, and only girl groups' songs rank high on domestic streaming charts.

However, foreign K-pop fandoms continue to discover and support boy bands, as seen in their high worldwide CD sales. As a result, many boy bands see large ticket and album sales aboard, while the Korean public remains mostly unaware of them.

This phenomenon has applied to numerous boy bands, and Ateez is one of the representative examples, along with male groups like Stray Kids.