Year-End List Recap: The Best Overall K-Pop Comebacks of 2022
There are still two more countdowns to come (Top 40 pop songs and Top Dramas), but now that the K-pop-specific lists are complete it’s time to add up the categories and find out which comebacks ranked strongest overall. From a pure numbers standpoint, I guess this is the most important list I’ll publish!
Just like last year, I took five categories and gave them a weighted rank. First place gets ten points, second place gets nine, tenth place gets one and anything below that counts as one point each. The only outlier was the albums list, which I split into two categories (mini and full). I gave first place in each category ten points, and went down the list from there. For the purpose of this countdown, I lumped all of OnlyOneOf’s Underground Idol releases as one “comeback.”
Here are the countdowns I included as part of this aggregate:
Top 50 Songs
Top 10 Albums
Top 10 Music Videos
Top 10 Choreography
Top 40 B-Sides
7 (tie). TO1 – Why Not?
Title track(s): 3 points
Album: 0 points
Music Video: 0 points
Choreography: 8 points
B-Sides: 0 points
TOTAL: 11
7 (tie). Nature – Nature World: Code W
Title track(s): 1 point
Album: 0 points
Music Video: 0 points
Choreography: 10 points
B-Sides: 0 point
TOTAL: 11
7 (tie). Brave Girls – Thank You
Title track(s): 1 point
Album: 8 points
Music Video: 0 points
Choreography: 0 points
B-Sides: 2 point
TOTAL: 11
6 (tie). OnlyOneOf – Underground Idol
Title track(s): 2 points
Album: 0 points
Music Video: 10 points
Choreography: 0 points
B-Sides: 0 point
TOTAL: 12
6 (tie). CRAVITY – New Wave
Title track(s): 1 point
Album: 9 points
Music Video: 0 points
Choreography: 0 points
B-Sides: 2 points
TOTAL: 12
5. CSR – Sequence 7272
Title track(s): 1 point
Album: 7 points
Music Video: 0 points
Choreography: 0 points
B-Sides: 6 points
TOTAL: 13
4 (tie). PSY – PSY 9th
Title track(s): 1 point
Album: 9 points
Music Video: 0 points
Choreography: 7 points
B-Sides: 1 point
TOTAL: 18
4 (tie). IVE – After Like
Title track(s): 8 points
Album: 0 points
Music Video: 0 points
Choreography: 9 points
B-Sides: 1 point
TOTAL: 18
3. Girls’ Generation – Forever 1
Title track(s): 9 points
Album: 10 points
Music Video: 0 points
Choreography: 0 points
B-Sides: 5 points
TOTAL: 24
2. DRIPPIN – Villain: The End
Title track(s): 4 points
Album: 8 points
Music Video: 6 points
Choreography: 5 points
B-Sides: 9 points
TOTAL: 32
1. Golden Child – Aura
Title track(s): 10 points
Album: 10 points
Music Video: 0 points
Choreography: 0 points
B-Sides: 17 points
TOTAL: 37
