EXO

SM Entertainment's EXO dominated the K-pop landscape from 2012 to 2020, selling over 20 million albums and winning the Daesang at every major Korean music award ceremony for seven consecutive years—a record unmatched by any other group on this list. Their innovative subunit strategy and Chinese-Korean dual debut pioneered K-pop's early globalisation model, achieving 3 million album sales in China alone by 2016. This success makes them faster than the average K-pop group in penetrating international markets, outpacing #4 TWICE's early Western expansion by nearly five years.