#CHOOM is the hashtag tied to BABYMONSTER’s third mini-album CHOOM, released by YG Entertainment on May 4, 2026. The release sold 387,871 copies on day one per Hanteo — a new group record, surpassing the 261,650 figure set by 2025’s WE GO UP — topped iTunes Top Albums charts in 15 regions, and put the title-track music video at No. 1 on YouTube’s global daily trending music video chart the day of release. The hashtag also fronts a YG-coordinated dance-content blitz across Shorts, Reels, and TikTok under #CHOOM and the variant #LETS_CHOOM.
Quick Facts
- Release date: May 4, 2026
- Title: CHOOM (Korean: 춤, “dance”)
- Format: Third mini-album by BABYMONSTER
- Label: YG Entertainment
- Day-one sales (Hanteo): 387,871 copies — a new group record
- Previous group record: 261,650 (WE GO UP, 2025)
- iTunes Top Albums No. 1s: 15 regions
- YouTube chart: No. 1 on global daily trending music video on release day
- Lead-up event: Three sold-out nights in Seoul ahead of release
Origin
CHOOM arrived inside a crowded May 2026 K-pop girl-group comeback window that also included NMIXX, ITZY, LE SSERAFIM, aespa, and I.O.I. The Korea Herald positioned the cluster as a “comeback showdown” in which each group brought a distinct concept; BABYMONSTER’s was confident, dance-forward, and aggressively youth-coded. The album title doubles as its thesis: choom literally means “dance” — the group’s case for itself this era is on the choreography.
YG seeded the rollout with three sold-out nights at a Seoul concert in April 2026 and a heavy social-content campaign in late April and the first days of May. The official hashtags #CHOOM and #LETS_CHOOM anchored the dance-content blitz.
Commercial Success
- First-day sales (Hanteo): 387,871 copies — a new BABYMONSTER record. The previous record (261,650, WE GO UP) was set in 2025.
- iTunes Top Albums: No. 1 in 15 regions.
- YouTube: The “Choom” music video topped the global daily trending music video chart on May 4.
- Concert demand: Three Seoul dates sold out before release.
These are not best-of-the-quarter numbers because every member of the May cluster pulled big openings; they are best-of-BABYMONSTER’s-own-history numbers, which is the metric the group’s coverage has emphasized.
Industry Impact
On YG’s recovery narrative. CHOOM extended a multi-year YG Entertainment turnaround story in which BABYMONSTER has been the clear flagship. KPopEcho’s coverage led with the group’s own declaration: “ain’t no up next” — framing the era as a transition from rookie-with-buzz to established A-tier act.
On the May 2026 comeback cluster. Inside a single month, BABYMONSTER, NMIXX, ITZY, LE SSERAFIM, aespa, and I.O.I all released — making CHOOM part of one of the most concentrated K-pop release windows of the year. Coverage treated the cluster as a stress-test of the contemporary fourth-generation girl-group economy; CHOOM’s opening numbers were one of the cluster’s two or three headline-driving stories.
On dance-first promotion. The #LETS_CHOOM Shorts/Reels/TikTok push leaned into choreography clips before lyric clips — a deliberate inversion of the older lyric-video-first rollout pattern. The early engagement data Soompi and AllKpop cited (top of YouTube’s daily trending chart on release day) suggested the choreography-first sequencing worked.
Variations & Related Tags
- #BABYMONSTER — the group’s umbrella tag
- #LETS_CHOOM — the explicit dance-content call-to-action variant
- #YGEntertainment — the label
- #KpopComeback — the recurring genre frame around release windows
Sources
- https://www.soompi.com/article/1838233wpp/babymonster-breaks-their-1st-day-sales-record-tops-itunes-charts-worldwide-with-choom
- https://www.allkpop.com/article/2026/05/babymonster-smashes-own-record-in-sales-with-choom
- https://www.allkpop.com/article/2026/05/babymonster-tops-global-youtube-chart-with-choom
- https://kpop.fandom.com/wiki/Choom_(BABYMONSTER)
- https://www.kpopecho.com/2026/05/aint-no-up-next-babymonster-declares.html
- https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10725010