JYP Entertainment revenue falls 15.1% in the gap between Stray Kids tours

JYP Entertainment, the K-pop label behind Stray Kids and TWICE, reported second quarter revenue of about $122 million, down 15.1% year on year, Music Business Worldwide reported on August 12. Net profit fell 40.3% to about $14.5 million and operating profit dropped 41.4% to about $20.7 million, figures the Seoul-listed company published the same day.

JYP attributed the decline to a "high base (Stray Kids' large-scale concerts/MD) despite music growth," pointing to the same quarter of 2025, when Stray Kids' dominATE world tour was still on the road and had driven revenue up more than 100% year on year with net profit up 2,734.4%. That tour wrapped up in October 2025 with a finale at Incheon Asiad Main Stadium, and the group's next tour did not open until July 2026, after the quarter had closed.

Concert revenue fell 35.7% year on year to about $26.6 million, and merchandise revenue fell 34.5% to about $29.3 million, both down on the absence of a large-scale tour. Revenue from appearances fell 28.0% to about $4.7 million on fewer fan concerts, though JYP said the line still reflected Stray Kids fan meetings and festival headline slots.

The label's recorded music business moved the other way. Physical album revenue rose 36.7% to about $24.7 million, with catalog sales of Stray Kids albums climbing from 120,000 units in the second quarter of 2025 to 420,000 units in the same quarter this year, helped by five new title releases versus three a year earlier. Streaming revenue rose 71.6% to about $13.1 million. Gross margin still fell 3.1 percentage points to 38.7%, and operating margin fell 7.6 points to 16.9%, which JYP put down to "limited leverage and increased SG&A-commission fee."

Elsewhere in JYP's roster, Stray Kids still headlined New York's Governors Ball on June 6, becoming the first K-pop group to top that festival's bill, while labelmates TWICE wrapped an 81-show world tour in July that included three nights at Tokyo's Japan National Stadium on April 25, 26 and 28, drawing around 240,000 fans and making TWICE the first act from outside Japan to headline a solo concert at the venue.

JYP's two biggest rivals both grew revenue in the same quarter. HYBE reported revenue up 105.5% to a record $967 million, with operating profit up 159.3% to $114 million and net profit up 610.1% to $73 million, driven by BTS' ARIRANG world tour, which lifted concert revenue 243.3%; even so, HYBE's operating margin of 11.8% trailed JYP's 16.9%. SM Entertainment reported revenue up 15.4% to $233 million and operating profit up 11.0% to $35.3 million, though net income fell 5.6% to $19.5 million on valuation losses and higher taxes.

Across the first half of 2026, JYP generated revenue of about $246 million, operating profit of about $42.9 million and net profit of about $35.7 million. The label is separately working with HYBE, SM Entertainment and YG Entertainment on a joint K-pop festival provisionally named Fanomenon, planned for Seoul and Los Angeles.