Iconic Hallyu Moments Turning 10 Years Old in 2026

We are in January 2026, preparing for BTS‘s group comeback in March and watching how K-Pop animated series triumph on Netflix. Hallyu (the Korean Wave) today is an unstoppable tsunami, but to understand this glorious present, we have to look in the rearview mirror exactly a decade back.

2016. If you’ve been in this world for a while, just reading that number will bring back memories. It was the year when dramas broke records, the queens of K-Pop debuted, and the “Hallyu sound” conquered the West.

To celebrate this tenth anniversary, we have compiled the 10 iconic moments of 2016 that built the foundations of what we love today. Get ready for a trip of pure nostalgia.

📅 January: The Farewell of “Reply 1988” and the Retro Fever 📺

The year started with tears and debates. Reply 1988 finished airing in January 2016, leaving us with full hearts.

The Milestone: The final episode reached a rating of 21.7%, a monstrous figure for cable television at that time.
Why it was important to Hallyu: Beyond the “Teams” war (Were you Team Taek or Team Jung-hwan?), this drama taught us the history of Korea, the importance of family, and gifted us a golden cast (Park Bo-gum, Hyeri, Ryu Jun-yeol) who are today superstars of the Hallyu we love.
🔍 Extra Fact: Its soundtrack (OST) was so iconic that songs like “Don’t Worry” by Lee Juck are still sung in noraebangs around the world 10 years later.

📅 February: The Boom of “Descendants of the Sun” ☀️

If January was nostalgia in the Hallyu world, February was action and romance. Descendants of the Sun premiered, and nothing was ever the same again.

The Milestone: It was the first drama in 4 years to surpass 30% in national ratings. It was exported to 32 countries almost immediately, expanding Hallyu to territories it hadn’t reached so massively before.
Why it was important to Hallyu: It marked the triumphant return of Song Joong-ki after his military service and consolidated Song Hye-kyo as the queen of Hallyu. Furthermore, it popularized the format of “pre-produced dramas” (filmed entirely before airing), elevating the cinematic quality of series.

Hallyu K-drama Descendants of the Sun — K-drama Descendants of the Sun, KBS

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📅 March: Man vs. AI (Baduk Conquers the World) ⚫⚪

You might ask, what does a board game match have to do with K-Pop? Much more than you think.

The Milestone: Legendary Go (Baduk) player Lee Sedol faced off against the artificial intelligence AlphaGo. Although he lost the series 4-1, his sole victory in the fourth game was called the “divine move” (0.007% probability).
Hallyu Connection: This event was watched by 200 million people. If you loved watching Park Bo-gum play in Reply 1988 or understood the silent tension of Song Hye-kyo playing in the park in The Glory (2022), all that cultural context exploded globally in this month of 2016. It was the moment when Korean tradition and futuristic technology collided.

📅 April: TWICE and the “Cheer Up” Virus 🍭

At that moment, you couldn’t walk through Seoul (or any K-pop convention) without hearing this song.

The Milestone: TWICE released “Cheer Up” and the “Sha sha sha” phenomenon was born (Sana’s iconic line). The video reached 100 million views in record time for that era.
Why it was important for Hallyu: They won “Song of the Year” at the Melon Music Awards. This track not only consolidated TWICE as the “Nation’s Girl Group,” but defined the “Color Pop” sound that would dominate the third generation of K-pop.

📅 May: The Birth of I.O.I and the “Produce” Era 🗳️

The program Produce 101 changed the rules of the game: fans now had the power to create their own K-pop group.

The Milestone: The debut of I.O.I with their anthem “Pick Me.”
Why it was important for Hallyu: It was the beginning of “project groups” and large-scale survival shows. The song was so influential it was even used in political campaigns in Korea. Without this moment, we wouldn’t have later had Wanna One, IZ*ONE, or the solo careers of Somi and Sejeong.

K-pop Hallyu Iconic cheer up Twice — Cheer Up, TWICE

📅 June: Hip-Hop Goes Mainstream with “Show Me the Money 5” 🎤

The summer of 2016 had a very specific sound: Rap.

The Milestone: The fifth season of this show is considered by many as the best in history. Rapper BewhY was crowned champion with tracks like “Day Day” and “Forever.”
Why it was important for Hallyu: It took Korean hip-hop out of the underground and put it at the top of the MelOn charts, competing head-to-head with idols. It was the season that made us fall in love with K-HipHop.

📅 July: Terror on the Train to Busan 🧟‍♂️

Korean cinema made a massive impact internationally.

The Milestone: Train to Busan was the first film of 2016 to surpass 10 million viewers.
Why it was important for Hallyu: It redefined the zombie genre (those fast zombies were actually scary!). Plus, it was the global launchpad for actors we love today: Gong Yoo (before Squid Game), Ma Dong-seok (before Marvel), and Choi Woo-shik (before Parasite). This movie is now a classic that every follower of Korean culture knows.

📅 August: “BLACKPINK in your area” 🖤💗

Without a doubt, the most explosive debut of the decade.

The Milestone: BLACKPINK debuted with Boombayah and Whistle, achieving their first music show win just 14 days later, a historic record at the time.
Why it was important for Hallyu: YG Entertainment introduced the world to Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa, and Rosé. Their refined and luxurious “Girl Crush” concept laid the groundwork so that today, in 2026, they are global icons of fashion and music (and with Rosé nominated for the Grammys!).

Train to busan halluy movie — Train to Busan

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📅 October: BTS Takes Flight with “WINGS” 🦋

If you ask when BTS went from being “a popular group” to “legends,” many will point to this month.

The Milestone: Release of the album WINGS and the single “Blood Sweat & Tears.”
Why it was important for Hallyu: It was a paradigm shift. Musically, they introduced Moombahton Trap; visually, they went from rebellious youth to artistic temptation. They won their first Daesang (Grand Prize) as “Artist of the Year” at the MAMA, breaking the hegemony of the big agencies (Big 3) and paving the way for their world domination.
🔍 Extra Fact: It was the album that introduced solos for each member, allowing us to know their individual identities and how strong they are as soloists too.

📅 December: The Winter of Goblin ❄️🗡️

To end the year on a high note, Guardian: The Lonely and Great God (Goblin) arrived.

The Milestone: Written by Kim Eun-sook (the same writer of Descendants of the Sun), it became a cultural phenomenon.
Why it was important for Hallyu: The chemistry (“Bromance”) between Gong Yoo and Lee Dong-wook is legendary. The drama not only made us cry our eyes out but turned places like Jumunjin Beach and Quebec City into mandatory pilgrimage destinations for K-drama fans.

As you can see, 2016 was a year that left us treasures we enjoy to this day, which have become classics on our screens or in many of the groups whose fandoms we are part of. The Hallyu or Korean Wave effect is not a coincidence; it is a consequence of music, series, movies, and stories made in Korea that conquered our hearts.

🧐 FAQs: Curiosities and Secrets of Hallyu in 2016

Here we tell you those juicy details you might not have known (or already forgot) about the events that marked Hallyu in the last decade.

1. Is it true that the ending of “Reply 1988” crossed over into real life? Yes! Although in the drama Deok-sun (Hyeri) ends up with Taek (Park Bo-gum), in real life the plot twist that “Team Jung-hwan” fans dreamed of happened. Hyeri and actor Ryu Jun-yeol confirmed their relationship shortly after the drama, becoming one of Korea’s most beloved couples for years (although sadly, they separated in late 2023, their real love story was iconic).

2. Did you know “Descendants of the Sun” wasn’t originally going to have soldiers? Originally, the winning script from a contest in 2011 was solely about emergency doctors. When famous screenwriter Kim Eun-sook joined the project, she suggested adding the military plot and the romance with a special forces soldier to increase dramatic tension. Without that decision, Captain Yoo Si-jin would never have existed, and perhaps we wouldn’t have had this resounding Hallyu success!

3. What consequence did Lee Sedol’s defeat against AI have? The impact was so profound that when legendary Go player Lee Sedol retired professionally years later, he cited Artificial Intelligence as the main reason. He said: “Even if I become the number one, there is an entity that cannot be defeated.” His victory in the fourth game of 2016 remains the only time a human has beaten AlphaGo in an official tournament.

4. Why does TWICE’s “Sha Sha Sha” phrase sound like that? The original phrase in the lyrics of Cheer Up is “Shy Shy Shy.” However, Sana, being Japanese, had difficulty pronouncing the sound quickly in English/Korean, and it came out as an adorable “Sha Sha Sha.” The producers loved it so much they kept it, and it accidentally became the “killing part” of the song and a Hallyu anthem.

5. What promise did the members of I.O.I make when they disbanded? Since I.O.I was a temporary group (lasting less than a year), upon saying goodbye at their final concert in January 2017, the members made a famous “5-Year Promise,” swearing they would reunite in some form to celebrate with fans. Although they have had small reunions and public video calls, fans are still waiting for the full official reunion in this 2026.

6. What was the real relationship between the finalists of “Show Me the Money 5”? It was a movie-like finale. Champion BewhY and runner-up C Jamm weren’t unknown rivals: they were best friends from high school and members of the same crew ($exy Street). Basically, the season ended up being a competition between two childhood friends who dreamed of being rappers together.

7. Why were the zombies in “Train to Busan” so scary? They weren’t ordinary extras. The director hired a team of professional breakdancers to play the infected. The “bone-breaking” movements and unnatural contortions were choreographed to look physically disturbing and different from Hollywood’s slow zombies.

8. What name was BLACKPINK going to have before debuting? The group was in training for years and went through many lineup changes (originally planned to be 9 members). One of the strongest tentative names before deciding on BLACKPINK was “Pink Punk.” It was even rumored that “Baby Monster” (the name of their current sister group) was also an option considered 10 years ago!

9. What book sold out in bookstores because of BTS? The concept of the album WINGS was heavily inspired by Hermann Hesse’s coming-of-age novel “Demian.” After the release of BTS’s short films where RM read passages from the book, sales of “Demian” skyrocketed in Korea and various parts of the world, becoming an instant bestseller thanks to ARMY.

10. Is it true that Gong Yoo rejected the role of “Goblin”? Yes, and not just once. Writer Kim Eun-sook (Korea’s most famous screenwriter) tried to recruit Gong Yoo for her dramas for 5 years, but he always rejected her because he was afraid to return to acting in TV series. Finally, for Goblin, they had a meeting lasting several hours where she convinced him, and the rest is history.