SM Entertainment’s online concert ‘SMTOWN 2022 : SMCU EXPRESS @KWANGYA’ amassed 51 million streams from 161 different regions.
The South Korean agency confirmed it set a new view record for a Korean online concert, compared to over 35 million-plus viewers from last year’s SMTOWN Live “Culture Humanity” event.
The free-livestreamed annual concert on New Year’s Day saw SM artists, such as including aespa, Red Velvet, SuperM, H.O.T.’s Kangta, WayV, EXO’s Kai, Super Junior, and TVXQ.
The K-Pop powerhouse’s new seven-member female unit, GOT the beat, also made their debut appearance. It consists of BoA, Girls’ Generation’s Hyoyeon and Taeyeon, Red Velvet’s Seulgi and Wendy, and aespa’s Karina and Winter.
The online concert also featured a DJ session by artists DJ HYO (Girls’ Generation’s Hyoyeon), Raiden, J.E.B, MINIMONSTER, Mar Vista, IMLAY, DJ GINJO, and Hitchhiker.
Just a day before the virtual event was slated to take place, SM Entertainment announced the launch of Beyond Live, an online-only streaming platform for concerts, operated under Beyond Live Corp and jointly created last year by South Korea’s largest web portal operator, Naver, in 2020.