Forbes Korea unveils 2025 Power Celebrity 40 ranking

Forbes Korea magazine unveiled its 2025 Power Celebrity 40 list, a Korean ranking equivalent to the Celebrity 100 list in the US. The Power Celebrity 40 list is based on a celebrity’s annual income (50 percent) while the other 50 percent is based on media, social media, broadcasting influence and voting (50 percent). Included this year were singers, actors, broadcasters, and sports celebrities, and 80 celebrities with a high number of searches on the Daum Kakao portal from April 2024 to March 2025 were evaluated.

After filtering out people with legal controversies, Forbes Korea applied various criteria, research methods, and statistical techniques to calculate a comprehensive score for five indicators: annual income, media, social media, broadcasting, and voting. Korean singer IU is the No. 1 on the 2025 Power Celebrity 40 list with Celebrity Index score of 56.



51 points, up 29 places from No. 30 last year. Forbes Korea reported that during the survey period, IU's total annual income, which includes digital music income, performance fees, drama appearance fees, and advertisement appearance fees, was estimated to be around 32 billion won (about $22.

3 million). The magazine said only members of BTS and not the group (due to their military service) were included in the survey. Only members of BLACKPINK, not the group, were included.

Compared to last year’s list, only 11 people kept their positions in the 2025 Power Celebrity 40 list. A total of 29 celebrities, or 72 percent, were new on the list. The top 10 in Forbes Korea's 2025 Power Celebrity 40: No.

1 -IU (Instagram) No. 2 - Son Heung-min (Instagram) No. 3 - Aespa (Instagram) No.

4 - Jun Hyun-moo (Instagram) No. 5 - Lim Young-woong (Instagram) No. 6 - Faker (Lee Sang-hyeok) (Instagram) No.

7 - Lee Jung-hoo (Instagram) No. 8 - Seventeen (Pledis Entertainment) No. 9 - Lee Kang-in (Instagram) No.

10 - Yoo Jae-suk (Instagram) Forbes Korea’s 2025 Power Celebrity 40 RANKING CELEBRITY CLASSIFICATION CELEBRITY INDEX 1 IU Singer (Actor) 56.61 (points) 2 Son Heung-min Sports 53.02 3 Aespa Singer 43.

84 4 Jun Hyun-moo Broadcaster 33.8 5 Lim Young-woong Singer 32.28 6 Faker (Lee Sang-hyeok) Sports 25.

08 7 Lee Jung-hoo Sports 24.88 8 Seventeen Singer 21.67 9 Lee Kang-in Sports 21.

44 10 Yoo Jae-suk Broadcaster 21.19 11 Jisoo (BLACKPINK) Singer 20.16 12 Cha Eun-woo Actor 19.

55 13 Lee Byung-hun Actor 17.87 14 Park Bo-gum Actor 16.49 15 Gong Yoo Actor 16.

05 16 Lee Chan-won Singer 15.64 17 Han Kang Author 14.78 18 Byeon Woo-seok Actor 14.

12 19 Lee Je-hoon Actor 12.43 20 Jennie Singer 12.36 21 IVE Singer 11.

73 22 Bibi Singer 11.52 23 Kim Ji-won Actor 10.96 24 Rosé (BLACKPINK) Singer 10.

61 25 Go Min-si Actor 10.4 26 Jin (BTS) Singer 10.12 27 Ma Dong-seok Actor 9.

97 28 Song Hye-kyo Actor 9.9 29 Jung Hae-in Actor 9.83 30 Kim Hye-yoon Actor 9.

81 31 Jang Minho Singer 9.53 32 Lisa (BLACKPINK) Singer 9.4 33 Park Seo-jin Singer 8.

81 34 Young Tak Singer 8.8 35 Park Seo-jun Actor 8.62 36 Kim Do-yeong Sports 8.

44 37 DAY6 Singer 8.29 38 Bae Suzy Singer (Actor) 7.54 39 An Se-young Sports 7.

38 40 Lee Se-young Actor 6.18 Forbes Korea’s 2024 Power Celebrity 40 1. BLACKPINK (girl group) 2.

Son Heung-min (football player) 3. NewJeans (girl group) 4. Kim Min-Jae (football player) 5.

Lim Young-woong (trot singer) 6. Lee Jung-hoo (baseball player) 7. BTS’ Jimin (singer) 8.

Lee Kang-in (football player) 9. BTS’ Jungkook (singer) 10. IVE (girl group) 11.

Cha Eun-woo (singer, actor) 12. Jang Minho (trot singer) 13. Lee Sang-min (TV personality) 14.

Dex (TV personality) 15. Ahn Eun-jin (actress) 16. Lee Chan-won (trot singer) 17.

Kim Ho-joong (trot singer) 18. Kian84 (TV personality) 20. 2PM’s Lee Jun-ho (K-pop idol, actor) 21.

Yoo Jae-seok (entertainer, comedian) 22. Son Tae-jin (singer) 23. Uhm Jung-hwa (actress) 24.

Le Sserafim (girl group) 25. Yoona (K-pop idol, actress) 26. Son Suk-ku (actor) 27.

Lee Seung-gi (singer, actor) 28. Namkoong Min (actor) 29. Young Tak (trot singer) 30.

IU (singer) 31. Park Eun-bin (actress) 32. Ryu Hyun-jin (baseball player) 33.

Lim Ji-yeon (actress) 34. Lee Se-young (actress) 35. Sung Si-kyung (singer) 36.

Go Youn-jung (actress) 37. Park Ji-hyun (actress) 38. Jung Dong-won (trot singer) 39.

Park Seo-jin (trot singer) 40. Shin Hye-sun (actress).