Jimin's new single and EXO's 10-year-old holiday song made strides in the last week of 2023 on Circle Chart's Global K-pop chart.

The chart for the week of Dec. 24 saw BTS Jimin's first single, "Closer Than This," on No. 3 of the chart, 16 places higher than the previous week.

"Closer Than This," released 10 days after Jimin started his mandatory military service on Dec. 12, is his solo track dedicated to the fans of BTS and Jimin.

The song tells ARMY they "Don't have to worry now" and that BTS will "never let you go" even when all the members are waving a temporary goodbye to the fans to complete their mandatory military service.

One not-so-recently released track ranked high on the chart was "The First Snow" from EXO's 2013 winter special album "Miracle in December."

While it's no surprise to see seasonal songs come back to music charts every year, "The First SNow" enjoyed its all-time high popularity in 2023, topping many charts in December.

The song landed No. 1 on Melon's Top 100 real-time chart on Dec. 19 and No. 1 on the daily chart on Dec. 20, making it the first K-pop boy band track to top the chart in 2023. It even topped the weekly chart on Christmas Day.

The unexpected popularity of the song was partially thanks to "The First Snow" challenge. The challenge, featuring the song's chorus and fan-made dance moves, went viral among K-pop fans and idols on TikTok and other short-form video platforms.

The very top of the Global K-pop chart, however, remained unchanged, as Jung Look's "Standing Next to You" (2023) kept its first place and Le Sserafim's "Perfect Night" (2023) kept its second for the last week of 2023.

The list was followed by the explicit version of Jung Kook's single "Seven" (2023) on fourth, aespa's "Drama" (2023) on fifth, Jung Kook's "3D (feat. Jack Harlow)" (2023) on sixth, NewJeans' "Super Shy" (2023) on seventh, Jung Kook's clean version of "Seven" on eighth, Jimin's "Like Crazy" (2023) on ninth and NewJeans' "Ditto" (2022) on 10th place.

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]