Year-End Review: K-Pop’s Dreamcatcher In 2020 By The Numbers

K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall

Despite a year like no other for those around the world, Dreamcatcher endured and grew by leaps and bounds in 2020.

As 2020 draws to a close, what we will likely remember is a year that began with hope and the prospect of a fresh start in a new decade, only to be turned into a year of uncertainty and difficulty like none other known in the modern era. Every industry was affected, and the K-Pop industry was no different. Those of us who found solace, even temporarily, in our favorite groups in K-Pop no doubt hoped that they wouldn’t fold under the pressure. And for the most part, they didn’t.

Dreamcatcher, despite having ended 2019 on a high note with the increased exposure from the release of well-received title song “Deja Vu” and a successful US tour, may have been at higher risk once the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic hit. With significant income from planned concert tours now removed, and an unknown idea of how their first full album would be received (containing a more hybrid sound, rather than pure rock/pop), Dreamcatcher’s sustained success wasn’t entirely assured.

Thankfully, as it turns out, Dreamcatcher fans had nothing to worry about, and they had plenty of reasons to sing out their achievements to anyone who wanted to hear them.

2020 has turned out to be a banner year for Dreamcatcher, with exponential growth on multiple levels and a clear establishment of their group squarely into the mid-tier of the industry’s K-Pop girl groups. In this special version of the weekly Dreamcatcher Recall, I’m going to take a look at some significant numbers from 2020 for the group, because like the old saying goes — numbers don’t lie.

(NOTE: Some numbers only as current as of this writing and may not take all of December 2020 into account).

165,125

The number of 2020 Dreamcatcher albums shipped/sold to stores, according to the most current Gaon chart information compiled by the girlgroupsales Twitter account for K-Pop female groups. Dreamcatcher’s two albums this year (1st Full Album “Dystopia: The Tree of Language” and mini-album “Dystopia: Lose Myself) were huge for the group, drawing in fans that hadn’t heard of Dreamcatcher before and allowing them to crack the Top 10 for Gaon girl group sales for the first time.

The reaction I kept seeing this year was “I’ve never heard of Dreamcatcher until now, but I’m definitely going to be following them” was a common one read in K-Pop communities and in comments sections. The Hanteo chart, a little more difficult to track due to its real-time nature, but one which tracks actual sales to customers, totals the number of albums sold at around 95,167, which isn’t really a number to sneeze at, either. When you consider that all of Dreamcatcher’s previous releases on the Gaon charts combined come short of the Gaon number Dreamcatcher delivered this year, that’s impressive.

55,526,438

The number of combined video views on YouTube for Dreamcatcher’s 2020 title tracks (“Scream” and “BOCA”). When you consider that even now, Dreamcatcher’s 2019 title tracks (“PIRI” and “Deja Vu”) combine for a bit over half that number (at around 35.6 million), that gives you an idea of just how much more popular Dreamcatcher has gotten. While ad purchases (like with any group) contribute to this number, a significant amount come from the fandom and content creators on YouTube signal-boosting the content to their subscribers. Dreamcatcher reaction videos, for example, especially to the latest title track “BOCA”, ballooned video views a ton. Speaking of “BOCA”, it is threatening to break 30 million video views on its own before 2020 is up, something probably unheard of back when the group debuted in 2017.

336

The combined number of vLives, Special Clips, Notes, Vlogs and official video appearances released by Dreamcatcher in 2020.

Dreamcatcher’s fandom is commonly thought of to be one of K-Pop’s most spoiled fandoms, and with good reason. There seems to always be something Dreamcatcher is doing, whether it is making funny self-made music videos like the one for “Break The Wall” above, or creating a brand new, emotionally charged series that interviews the members about their thoughts on the group, and I wouldn’t have been able to write every week about Dreamcatcher reliably if they weren’t busy with content for their fans.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYRX5OEft48[/embed]

857,000 / 448,703 / 566,000 / 289,875 / 310,900 / 22,379 / 141,865

The number of followers/subscribers/members for Dreamcatcher’s official YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, vLive, Twitter, Fancafe, and Weverse, respectively (approximated in some cases).

Not surprisingly, Dreamcatcher’s social media channels blew up a bit in 2020, with all the places that Dreamcatcher uses to engage with fans and communicate news seeing exponential growth. And while Dreamcatcher’s acknowledgment of these numbers weren’t readily apparent, there were times in which they incentivized meeting milestones they knew their growing fanbase could meet — such as providing the above special version video of 2020 title track “Scream” with the group dressed in outfits from almost all of Dreamcatcher’s previous comebacks, as a reward for exceeding 10 million views on the main MV.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlKyMoYUIKU[/embed]

91

On the variety front, Dreamcatcher appeared almost 100 times according to the variety list on the /r/dreamcatcher subreddit, and their rising popularity meant new opportunities combined with existing variety show partnerships to create more content that allowed us to get to know Dreamcatcher a bit better. We saw the girls do Truth or Dare (among other outdoor activities) in a socially-distanced and safe environment, try to escape a house through various idol fun games and activities, sing their title songs in multiple languages almost flawlessly and much, much more in 2020. If you wanted to see how truly chaotic and funny Dreamcatcher can be off-stage, this was the year to find out.

120

The number of song performances Dreamcatcher gave fans in 2020.

Whether it was a part of the comeback cycle, as a part of the two concert sets they gave us online, or in first-time or repeating event appearances like KCON:TACT Season 2 or Simply K-Pop’s Year-End special, Dreamcatcher did what they do best on-stage over and over again, providing variance to repeat performances of the same title song, remixes or medleys of previous title tracks, and individual or subunit stages that showcased the versatility of the group’s stage presence. K-Pop is about more than just the music — the visual presentation has to be impressive as well, and in this respect, Dreamcatcher always delivered.

(OT)7

All these 2020 achievements aside ignore one of the most significant numbers to come up in Dreamcatcher’s work this year — 7, the number of members in the group. Vocalist Handong’s delayed participation in a Chinese idol competition show and subsequent restriction from traveling back to Korea due to the pandemic meant she was largely absent from much of what Dreamcatcher did, though she most certainly kept herself busy with her first solo appearance in a Chinese boy group MV and Chinese-language solo single. Handong brought back with her more experience, confidence, and a significant following on social media channel Weibo, and making Dreamcatcher whole again, even if it was just for the last few months of the year, was one of relief for Dreamcatcher fans uncertain about how COVID would affect the reunion of all seven members.

With Dreamcatcher wrapping up a year of milestones, achievements (including capping off the year with the above long-awaited anime OP song contribution), growth, and a return to full strength, 2021 will hopefully be a continuation of what we’ve seen already. Only time will tell — but it’s clear that, at least as far as 2020’s numbers show, Dreamcatcher is here to stay for the foreseeable future. I do hope fans continue to support Dreamcatcher in the ways they choose to and feel are best — I know I will!

See you in 2021, fellow Insomnia!