Korean Wave yet to crest as global attention spreads to food, literature, Culture Ministry finds

An article about girl group Blackpink on the Argentinian outlet Exitoina [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
K-pop still dominates overseas coverage, but interest is widening into areas such as food, literature and film, based on analysis of foreign media and social media data from 30 countries, a new government report mapping global hallyu trends has found.
 
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Wednesday released the results of a big-data analysis of some 1.5 million pieces of foreign media coverage and social media content from October 2024 to September 2025.
 

Related Article

• A match made in Hallyu: Contemporary and classic combinations of Korean cuisine

• 2025 K-Content Expo China promotes Hallyu with eye on collaboration

• The real secret behind the global rise of Hallyu

• Major gov't-hosted Hallyu festival to kick off this week

• Hallyu expert publishes book 'Next Korean Wave' to present future vision

The ministry’s report reflects 5,608 stories from more than 460 major overseas outlets secured in cooperation with 35 Korean Cultural Centers in 30 countries and seven cultural promotion offices in seven countries, as well as about 1.49 million items related to Hallyu, or the Korean Wave, gathered from platforms including YouTube and X.
 
It examines coverage volumes by continent, country and content, shifts in key terms, sentiment analysis and a network map, which the ministry said helps quantify how Hallyu spreads.
 
In 2025, Hallyu-related foreign media coverage was most concentrated in Asia at 44 percent, followed by Europe at 20.8 percent and North America at 16.9 percent. K-pop accounted for the largest share of coverage in most regions, but K-literature ranked highest in Africa and K-film led in Oceania, which the report described as a sign that the popularity is diversifying beyond music into areas such as literature, film and dramas.
 

A screen capture of a government report detailing Hallyu trends in 2025 [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A screen capture of a government report detailing Hallyu trends in 2025 [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
By country, the United States generated the most coverage, followed by India, Argentina and Vietnam. Interest also varied by market, with K-literature relatively prominent in Japan, K-dramas in Vietnam and K-film in Brazil.
 
K-food stood out as a particularly strong global trend. Alongside widely recognized keywords such as kimchi, soju, ramyeon and bibimbap, newer related keywords such as “chef” and “Squid Game” (2021-) also rose, which the analysis linked to Korean dishes appearing on streaming platforms through food entertainment content such as Netflix’s “Culinary Class Wars” (2024-) and through scenes in the Netflix series “Squid Game” (2021-2025).
 
Looking at the performance of major content last year, the report pointed to Netflix’s animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” (2025), saying it drove a global boom across film and music as the theme song “Golden” (2025) topped the Billboard Hot 100.
 

A still from ″KPop Demon Hunters″ (2025) [YONHAP]

 
The report attributed the title’s popularity in part to how it blended Korean elements such as grim reapers and dokkaebi (Korean goblins) with everyday cultural touchstones including gimbap (seaweed rice rolls) and Korean instant noodles. The ripple effects extended into tourism and consumption, including higher foreign visitor traffic at the National Museum of Korea and a jump in reservations for K-culture experience products.
 
“Squid Game” maintained its global influence, with Season 3 ranking No. 1 in 93 countries after its release.
 
After author Han Kang won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2024, the share of foreign media coverage tied to K-literature rose by more than 30 percentage points from the previous quarter, with “The Vegetarian” (2007) and “Human Acts” (2014) receiving heightened attention.
 
“This report is the result of combining the ministry’s accumulated analytical capacity with its worldwide network of cultural centers,” said Lee Eun-bok, the director of overseas public relations policy at the ministry. “As Hallyu has become a key strategic asset that drives the national brand and industrial competitiveness beyond a simple content fad, we will use these findings to help design policy and support more tailored and advanced overseas promotion strategies.”

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]