Article: Dispatch Ranks the Girl Groups of 2013 – 2NE1 at #5

As usual, the competition among the trending idol girl groups has been fiercely intense in the year of 2013.  They have been releasing albums left and right, filming CFs, doing individual events, and more to get their name out there. 

Media outlet Dispatch ranked the top girl groups of 2013 by giving them scores based on various factors such as music album sales, music scores (based on digital charts), YouTube views, music show wins, rankings on overseas iTunes charts, number of fan cafe members, and more.  Out of all the songs a girl group may have promoted during the year, the song with the best score was chosen as the standard for each category’s points.

Although the competition may have been fierce, Girls’ Generation unsurprisingly grabbed the number one spot with quite a lead, more than tripling the score of second place runner-ups SISTAR.  2NE1 ranked at #5.

2NE1 proved very popular overseas.  They released “Falling in Love” in July, which became number one on seven different countries’ iTunes charts: Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, and Hong Kong.  They got second place for YouTube points (134) with a total of 13 million views.  However, their scores within Korea were relatively low because “Falling in Love” was a digital single.  As they did not sell any physical albums, there were no points in that category.  Their points in the promotion category were also low as YG minimized the girls’ exposure, putting them in ninth place for nine pictorials and three CFs.  Regardless, they won second place for the number of fan cafe members (~ 78,000).

Check out the full list in the bar graph and charts below to see the full breakdown.

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