Method v2.0
How charts work
We count how many different people listened — not how many times a song was played — and keep big countries from taking over.
People, not repeat plays
A song moves up when more different people listen to it.
- 30 seconds. A play counts after 30 seconds of real listening (skipped time doesn't count).
- Once a day. The same listener counts once per song per 24 hours, up to 50 songs a day. Artists count as one listener too.
- Three days a week. In a weekly chart one listener can add at most 3 days to one song, so a few loyal fans can't carry it alone.
Fair across countries
Each country's listeners are weighted by the square root of that country's active listeners (the Penrose method). A country with 4 times more listeners gets 2 times the influence, not 4.
- Your home country. Each listener belongs to one country per chart period — the country they listen from most — so switching locations doesn't help.
- Small countries together. Countries with only a few listeners are counted together as one region, so a handful of plays can't dominate.
Who counts how much
Everyone can listen without an account. Accounts with a verified email count fully.
- Verified members 1.0. Unverified members and guests count 0.5. New accounts (first 24 hours) and unknown locations count half again.
- Playlist adds 2.0. When a member adds a song to a playlist it counts 2.0, once per member per song, ever.
- Likes don't count. Anyone can like a song without logging in, so likes are shown but never used for ranking.
Five kinds of charts
One method, different song groups.
- Global Top 100. All songs, all countries, balanced by the method above.
- Country Top 100. What listeners in one country play. Opens once that country has enough listeners.
- Language Top 100. Songs by their main lyric language, chosen by the artist. Report a wrong language from the song menu.
- Genre Top 100. Each genre page shows its own chart, with new entries on top.
- Rising 50. Songs we first saw in the last 28 days, so new music always has a place.
When charts update
There is no real-time chart. Fast charts invite manipulation; slow charts get stuck.
- Weekly = Friday to Thursday. Weekly charts (the main charts) count Friday 00:00 to Thursday 24:00 UTC and become final every Friday at 00:30 UTC (09:30 KST).
- Daily. Daily charts count one UTC day and update every day at 00:30 UTC.
- Long runs step down. In weekly Global, country and genre charts, a song leaves the chart after 20 weeks if below No. 50, after 26 weeks below No. 25, after 52 weeks below No. 10, and after 78 weeks below No. 5.
Reading the movement
Next to each rank we compare with the previous period of the same chart (last week, or the previous day).
- ▲ ▼ – Moved up, moved down, or stayed. Songs that are no longer public are skipped, so the numbers match what you see.
- NEW First time in this chart.
- RE Was in this chart before, left, and came back.
Protecting the charts
AI music is a common target for fake streams, so we check every chart.
- A minimum. A song needs a minimum number of different listeners to enter. We don't publish the number, so it can't be gamed.
- Unusual patterns are held. Plays coming from very few networks, many brand-new accounts, listeners who play nothing else, or a sudden surge from one unrelated country put a song on hold until we review it.
- Open numbers. Every chart song shows how many people and how many countries listened that period. Who listened is never shown.
- Your privacy. We store only a two-letter country code and a scrambled network code for each play, never your IP address or location.
Changes
Method version 2.0, 2026-10-28. When the method changes, the version and date here change too.
See the charts