“Just The8 fans streaming”— Internet reacts over allegations of SEVENTEEN member’s solo song chart manipulation by Chinese fans

On May 26, 2025, Korean netizens and fans of SEVENTEEN voiced concerns over alleged manipulation of Korea’s Melon music charts, pointing fingers at suspected Chinese users. The issue surfaced after a post on TheQoo.com highlighted SEVENTEEN’s latest full-length album HAPPY BURSTDAY, showcasing its 16-track list.

What drew immediate attention was the presence of a heart-like feature beside each song. Fans quickly noticed an imbalance in the number of likes across the tracks, most notably, member The8’s solo song SKYFALL had amassed significantly more likes than the group’s official title track.

Korean fans call out Chinese fans over chart manipulation (Image via TheQoo)

This raised suspicions and frustrations, especially because likes can be freely given without identity verification, unlike official streams, which require registered Melon accounts.

Melon Chart is one of South Korea's most influential and widely used digital music charts, operated by Melon, a major online music streaming service launched by SK Telecom and currently run by Kakao Entertainment. Many netizens expressed that this system by such a reputed platform unfairly skews public perception and doesn’t reflect genuine listening behavior.

Fans reacting to chart manipulation (Images via TheQoo)

Fans reacting to SVT's chart manipulation (Images via TheQoo)

SEVENTEEN celebrates 10th Anniversary with powerful comeback album HAPPY BURSTDAY

On May 26, 2025, SEVENTEEN marked their 10th debut anniversary with the release of their highly anticipated fifth full-length album, HAPPY BURSTDAY. Dropping on the same day was the official music video for the title track, Thunder, which immediately drew fans in with its energy.

The album showcases a 16-track lineup, with each member contributing their solo tracks.

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The full tracklist can be seen as follows:

HBD
THUNDER
Bad Influence (Prod. by Pharrell Williams)
SKYFALL (The8 Solo)
Fortunate Change (Joshua Solo)
99.9% (Wonwoo Solo)
Raindrops (Seungkwan Solo)
Damage (Hoshi Solo)
Shake It Off (Mingyu Solo)
Happy Virus (DK Solo)
Destiny (Woozi Solo)
Shining Star (Vernon Solo)
Trigger (DINO Solo)
Coincidence (Jeonghan Solo)
Jungle (S.COUPS Solo)
Gemini (JUN Solo)

The entire album is an amalgamation of group songs as well as solo songs from each member of the group.

Hence, fans were quick to show their support, and the numbers back them up. HAPPY BURSTDAY achieved the highest first-day sales of 2025 on the Hanteo Chart, with a staggering 2,134,982 copies sold, breaking the previous record held by RIIZE’s Odyssey (1,797,267 copies).

The Hanteo Chart is a real-time physical album sales chart in South Korea, and it plays a crucial role in the K-pop industry by tracking actual sales of albums from certified retailers, both offline and online. Hence, it turned out to be a big achievement for the group.

As CARATs around the world celebrate this milestone, anticipation is high to see what further records this era of SEVENTEEN will shatter.

About the author

Rujula is a pop culture journalist who covers K-pop at Sportskeeda. She graduated with a bachelors in English Literature from Mumbai University, following which, as a self-proclaimed K-pop fangirl, Rujula pursued her passion for the written word to report on all things Korean. Rujula has over 4 years experience in curating content for diverse companies like Disney (Star Sports), KpopWise, Icy Tales, Nettv4u, and Walking Wicket.

For her, referring to official sources and cross-verifying information are of utmost importance to maintain objectivity and credibility of the information she offers to her readers. She also takes into account social media posts from people experiencing an incident first-hand to add depth and perspective to her story.

While creatively presenting information about an artist’s particular look or campaign is Rujula’s forte, she believes her true strength lies in interviewing celebrities and idols. At Sportskeeda, Rujula has exclusively interviewed famous K-pop groups and idols such as ChoCo, Jae Chong, BLACKSWAN, DKZ, Lee Taevin, E:LFIN, Kim Seong-gyeong, and Hyun-woo.

Rujula’s favorite artists in the K-circle are BTS, Jackson Wang, ENHYPEN, and SEVENTEEN, and she admires them for their humility, genuineness, and generosity. When not busy tracking the latest developments in Korean entertainment, Rujula can be found playing cricket, a sport she has played professionally for over 10 years.

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Edited by Ahana Mukhopadhyay