Yunho, Seonghwa, San, Yeosang, Hongjoong, Wooyoung, Jongho and Mingi of ATEEZ attend the ‘2026 SBS Gayo Daejeon Summer’ Music Festival Blue Carpet at KINTEX Exhibition Center 2 in Goyang, South Korea on August 09, 2026 (Photo by HLL/Imazins via Getty Images)
ImaZins via Getty Images
The 10th edition of the K-World Dream Awards saw ATEEZ as the night’s most-decorated act, collecting four trophies at the ceremony held Thursday, August 27 at the Korea International Exhibition Center in Goyang, South Korea.
Riding a career high that includes their third No. 1 album in America and their viral single “BAD” becoming a hit both in their native Korea and the Global charts, the eight-member group won the Best Stage Award, an Artist Award and the fan-voted Group Popularity Award before sharing the Best Artist Award — one of the evening’s top honors — with girl group LE SSERAFIM.
Several K-pop acts finished just one trophy behind with three apiece.
Alongside the shared Best Artist win, LE SSERAFIM took the Best Visual Content Award and an Artist Award. BTS, who did not attend likely due to their ongoing ARIRANG World Tour, won a Best Album Award (an honor shared alongside BLACKPINK, Tomorrow X Together, ENHYPEN and NCT WISH) — plus an Artist Award and Artist of the Year, the top prize of the night. RIIZE took the Best Performance Award, the Journalist Pick Artist Award and an Artist Award. ILLIT rounded out this winners circle, also finishing with three, taking the Best Stage Award (shared with ATEEZ and P1Harmony), sharing Group Popularity with ATEEZ, and winning an Artist Award.
Quickly rising rookie girl group Hearts2Hearts also had a strong showing, winning the Global Music Award and an Artist Award. At the same time, member Carmen took one of two Solo Popularity Awards, bringing the team’s total to three awards for the night.
The boys dominated the new-artist recognitions as CORTIS, AND2BLE and ALPHA DRIVE ONE all took home the Super Rookie Award with all three also taking an Artist Award.
Other major honors include the Best Digital Music Award (which went to a six-artist field spanning AKMU, Hwasa, I.O.I, aespa, IVE and Yena), while the Best Band Artist Award went to QWER and Hi-Fi Un!corn, and then JAY B and EVAN (formerly known as Heeseung from ENHYPEN) took Best All-Rounder Musician, while SEEYA won the Listeners’ Choice Award.
Performances from the likes of ATEEZ, P1Harmony, LE SSERAFIM, EVAN, QWER, RIIZE, ILLIT, xikers, MEOVV, AHOF, RESCENE, Hearts2Hearts, XLOV, KiiiKiii, ALPHA DRIVE ONE and more rocked the Seoul ceremony. Korean TV personalities Jun Hyunmoo and Jang Doyeon returned as hosts for a fourth consecutive year.
With BTS earning three wins for the night, the group became the most-awarded artist in the show’s history, bringing their total to 13 awards and breaking their three-way tie with Stray Kids (whose total rose to 12 after last night) and TWICE (who have 10 wins). Among other top winners in K-World Dream Awards history, Tomorrow X Together and IVE’s total wins both grew to seven, while ATEEZ and LE SSERAFIM’s total wins grew to six, making both of them among some of the most-awarded acts in show history.
The K-World Dream Awards have gone by three names over the past 10 years. It launched in 2017 as the Soribada Best K-Music Awards. Soribada is the company name of Korea’s first peer-to-peer file-sharing service, originally launched in 2000 and historically one of the country’s largest music services. After holding no ceremony in 2021, the show was revived in 2022 as the K-Global Heart Dream Awards before adopting its current name in 2024. Winners are determined by a mix of Soribada’s internal streaming data, global online and mobile fan voting, and scores from a panel of critics, journalists and industry decision-makers.
See the full list of awards and winners below.
2026 K-World Dream Awards Winners List:
Global Next Leadership
Global Spotlight Award
Best Performance Award:
Best Band Artist Award
Trot Artist Award
Best Producer Award: Jung Hae Jang (YH Entertainment)
Best All-Rounder Musician Award
Best Fandom Award
Best Digital Music Award
- AKMU
- Hwasa
- I.O.I
- IVE
- aespa
- Yena
Best Album Award:
- BTS
- ENHYPEN
- NCT WISH
- TOMORROW X TOGETHER
- BLACKPINK
Best Stage Award
Listeners’ Choice Award: SEEYA
Solo Popularity Award
- Park Ji Hyeon
- Carmen of Hearts2Hearts
Group Popularity Award
Super Rookie Award
- CORTIS
- AND2BLE
- ALPHA DRIVE ONE
Best Visual Content Award
- KiiiKiii
- RESCENE
- LE SSERAFIM
Global Music Award
- &TEAM
- KickFlip
- Hearts2Hearts
Journalist Pick Artist Award
Artist Award:
- AND2BLE
- ALPHA DRIVE ONE
- CORTIS
- KiiiKiii
- Hearts2Hearts
- KickFlip
- ILLIT
- RIIZE
- &TEAM
- LE SSERAFIM
- P1Harmony
- ATEEZ
- Stray Kids
- BTS
Artist of the Year: BTS
Best Artist Award
The 2026 K-World Dream Awards took place on August 27, 2026, in Goyang, South Korea, in the Seoul Metropolitan area.
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