Korean pop culture, ranked by the numbers · 한류 랭킹
써클차트 인증은 어떻게 이뤄지나
Circle Chart, run by the Korea Popmusic Industry Association, certifies albums, downloads and streams once their accumulated totals pass fixed thresholds: Platinum at 250,000 copies and Million at 1,000,000 for albums, Platinum at 100 million streams and Billion at 1 billion for songs.
Data as of
| No. | Type | Level | Threshold | Unit | What is counted | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Album | Platinum플래티넘 | 250,000 | copies | Accumulated sales of one album, in one medium, with one tracklist | 1 |
| 2 | Album | Million밀리언 | 1,000,000 | copies | Accumulated sales of one album, in one medium, with one tracklist | 1 |
| 3 | Download | Platinum플래티넘 | 2,500,000 | downloads | Accumulated downloads of a song | 1 |
| 4 | Download | Diamond다이아몬드 | 10,000,000 | downloads | Accumulated downloads of a song | 1 |
| 5 | Streaming | Platinum플래티넘 | 100,000,000 | streams | Accumulated on-demand streams of a song | 1 |
| 6 | Streaming | Billion빌리언 | 1,000,000,000 | streams | Accumulated on-demand streams of a song | 1 |
These are the criteria Circle Chart publishes on its certification page.1 The page states each threshold as an accumulated total, and its wording for the album and download levels is "누적 판매량" (accumulated sales) and for streaming "누적 사용량" (accumulated use). The page lists no level between or above these six.1
The Korea Popmusic Industry Association (한국대중음악산업협회), the organisation behind Circle Chart (써클차트), certifies works that appear on Circle Chart. For works released from January 1, 2018 onward, if their accumulated sales pass a set number, the association certifies them and announces it on Circle Chart. Nothing released before that date is eligible.1
Albums released in Korea qualify, whether domestic or foreign (the page says "domestic licensed albums"), and the count is the sales volume of a single album, in the same medium, with the same tracklist. An album is certified only once six weeks have passed since its release. Two thresholds apply: Platinum at 250,000 copies and Million at 1,000,000.1
For songs, online on-demand streaming and download music released from January 1, 2018 qualifies, and a song is eligible from its release date, with no waiting period. Downloads are certified at Platinum (2,500,000) and Diamond (10,000,000), and streams at Platinum (100,000,000) and Billion (1,000,000,000).1
Three categories are excluded from certification: overseas licensed albums, not-for-sale albums and free promotion music.1
Because an album's count is "the same medium with the same tracklist", a version with a different tracklist or medium is a different album for certification purposes on the page's wording. Circle's own half-year album chart also lists versions separately: in DabPop's first-half 2026 table, CORTIS's GREENGREEN appears twice.12
In that table, 11 of the 25 entries are above 1,000,000 copies (a count DabPop made from the table). But a certification measures one album's accumulated sales since release, after the six-week wait, while the table covers six months of one chart, so the two should not be read as the same thing.2