BTS wrapped up military service by mid-2025, paving the way for individual projects that padded their bank accounts through 2026. RM leads with around $50 million, thanks to producing credits, solo tracks like his recent releases, and smart investments in Seoul real estate worth millions.
Jin follows close at $45 million, bolstered by variety show appearances, his food brand ventures, and property holdings totaling $5 million in the city.
Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook each hover near $40 million, driven by solo albums such as V’s Layover, Jimin’s hits, and Jungkook’s global streaming records that raked in endorsement deals from luxury brands.
These figures stem from diversified income streams beyond group activities. Music sales alone from solo works added tens of millions, while Instagram partnerships for members like V generated seven-figure sums annually.
Finance reports peg average annual earnings per member at $10-15 million post-taxes during peak years, with 2026 seeing upticks from post-discharge buzz. Real estate plays a big role too, with the group’s combined properties exceeding $20 million, mostly luxury apartments in prime Seoul spots.
Jungkook’s $50 million estimate from celebrity trackers highlights his solo tour success and viral tracks, placing him among the top young stockholders in Korea via HYBE shares worth over 21 billion KRW each.
Stock holdings stand out as a key wealth builder. Back in 2020, HYBE’s founder gifted each member 68,385 shares, now valued at about $14.8-15.8 million per person based on current market prices.
Jimin, V, and Jungkook rank in Korea’s top 100 wealthiest shareholders under 30, tying for 28th place with those stakes.
This setup means their personal net worth ties directly to HYBE’s performance, which surged after discharges as investors bet on group returns. Adding up individual estimates lands the seven at roughly $285-350 million total, though some trackers push higher when factoring in unreported assets.
HYBE Backbone Powers Group Earnings
HYBE Corporation, BTS’s home base, forms the engine behind their collective financial muscle. The company’s Q3 2025 revenues hit a record $524.7 million , with concert sales jumping 231% year-over-year to $176.8 million, fueled by solo outings from Jin and others.
Analysts project BTS’s full 2026 comeback, set for March, to generate $800 million to $1.2 billion in first-year revenue from albums, tours, and merch, rivaling Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour gross. This includes $600 million direct from sales and licensing, plus indirect boosts like tourism.
BTS (Credit: NBC)
Members snag 25-30% of those profits after HYBE’s 60-70% cut and costs, translating to $7-12 million per person from touring alone. Historically, BTS drove 60-65% of HYBE’s revenue, with past tours like Love Yourself pulling $250 million over 62 shows at $3-5 million per night.
Even during enlistment, solo streams and fan events kept cash flowing, with 2025 nine-month revenues at $1.39 billion company-wide. CEO Score data confirms the stock gifts make BTS top individual holders, outpacing subsidiary execs and giving them skin in the game as HYBE eyes 10-15% profitability margins.
Fan platforms like Weverse amplify earnings, with expansions tied to BTS’s return promising e-commerce spikes. Economic studies from Hyundai Research peg BTS’s annual impact at $1.2 billion for Korea, including $350 million indirect from travel and retail during comeback events.
Seoul projects $180-220 million local lift from homecoming concerts alone, with hotel bookings at 97% and retail jumps of 25-35%. These layers show how group dynamics sustain personal wealth, even as solos shine.
Comeback Cash Wave Reshapes Stakes
March 2026 marks BTS’s full reunion, with new albums and world tours poised to shatter records and inflate net worth further. Projections from Billboard and Korean outlets forecast $1.4 billion in HYBE sales from late 2025 into 2026, centered on 65-show stadium runs.
Members’ shares could appreciate 18-25% post-announcement, per analyst upgrades, boosting each stake by millions. Streaming alone from fresh tracks might add $33 million, mirroring past hits like Proof’s 9 billion plays.
Challenges linger, like HYBE’s Q3 operating loss from global expansions, but executives promise stabilization by year-end as BTS ramps up. Past precedents, such as Dynamite’s 1.7 trillion KRW impact, underline their pull. Members’ contracts now include voting rights on shares, shifting power dynamics after prior limits ended.
This empowers them amid growth from acts like Seventeen and TXT, diluting BTS’s revenue share but securing long-term gains.
Global collabs with Ed Sheeran and Coldplay, plus Grammy nods, keep endorsements lucrative.
As HYBE projects full recovery, BTS’s total earnings trajectory points upward, blending group synergy with solo savvy for sustained dominance. Projections place combined member wealth climbing past $400 million by year-end, cementing their elite status.
Jun Ji-hyun, born Wang Ji-hyun in 1981, has spent more than two decades building a career that sits at the intersection of blockbuster cinema, hit dramas, and high-fashion campaigns.
Her breakout came with My Sassy Girl in 2001, a film that became one of Korea’s most successful comedies, and she later cemented her pan-Asian fame with The Thieves and Assassination on the big screen.
On television, she turned My Love from the Star and Legend of the Blue Sea into global streaming staples, then returned in Kingdom: Ashin of the North and Jirisan, proving she can still anchor prestige projects well into the streaming era.
That long run has translated into substantial financial gains. Multiple recent rich lists rank her as the richest Korean actress, with estimates clustering around 110 million dollars in personal net worth as of 2025.
These figures combine earnings from dramas and films with advertising contracts and asset portfolios, including a reported $ 28.5 million commercial building in Gangnam and earlier purchases, such as a multi-story property in Nonhyeon-dong.
Other trackers that convert her annual income into Indian rupees estimate more than 1.2 billion rupees per year, or roughly 14–16 million dollars, reinforcing the idea that she is not just wealthy, but operating on an elite, business-mogul level.
Her base drama income is hefty even before endorsements and investments. Reports from South China Morning Post and other outlets have noted that she historically earned between 84,000 and 120,000 dollars per episode for premium dramas, placing her at or near the top of Korea’s pay scale for women.
More recent regional entertainment coverage suggests her current rate, post-My Love from the Star and Legend of the Blue Sea, hovers in the 83,500 to about 100,000 dollar range per episode, depending on the production and platform.
“Highest Paid” In 2026: Title Under Pressure?
The question that drives fan debates is not whether Jun Ji-hyun is rich, but whether she is still the highest-paid K-drama actress in 2026.
On net worth, most rankings are clear: she remains number one among actresses, ahead of Lee Young-ae, Song Hye-kyo, Kim Tae-hee, and IU, whose fortunes are generally cited in the 50–90 million dollar range.
When lists of the richest Korean actresses are updated for 2025, her name still appears at the top with that 110 million dollar estimate, while her closest female competitors trail by tens of millions.
Per-episode salary, however, is slightly more complicated. Several 2024–2025 breakdowns of the highest-paid Korean actors and actresses place her in an upper band where she is said to earn between roughly 83,500 and about 100,000 dollars per episode for big-budget projects.
That range often places her as the top-paid woman, since other widely reported female rates, like Song Hye-kyo’s 2021 peak of roughly 148,000 dollars per episode, have not been consistently repeated at that level across recent shows.
Jun Ji-hyun (Credit: BBC)
At the same time, the male side of the industry has inflated rapidly, with Kim Soo-hyun reportedly commanding up to around 423,000 dollars per episode for One Ordinary Day and over 231,000 dollars per episode for Queen of Tears, numbers that dwarf even Jun Ji-hyun’s premium quotes.
Recent entertainment write-ups and news features that list “top 8” or “top 10” highest-paid Korean actors often highlight Kim Soo-hyun, Lee Jung-jae, Hyun Bin, and others as salary leaders, with Jun Ji-hyun mentioned as one of the very few women holding her own in the same chart.
Most of those pieces still frame her as either “one of the highest-paid” or “the highest-paid actress,” but they also acknowledge that younger stars and OTT-driven contracts have blurred the hierarchy, especially when some platforms experiment with one-off mega deals that can briefly push another actress above her for a single project.
So, for 2026, the most accurate reading is this: Jun Ji-hyun still appears to be the richest Korean actress by net worth, and she remains at or very near the top of female per-episode fees, but isolated deals may occasionally give another actress a temporary edge in salary for a specific show.
Luxury Deals, Buildings, And A Quiet “CEO” Era
If drama pay has competitors, her side income tells a different story. Jun Ji-hyun’s endorsement history is stacked with luxury and mass brands, ranging from Gucci and Alexander McQueen to big tech and beauty names, which have used her image for campaigns across Asia.
Past analyses of her career have noted that, at one point, she was reportedly taking in around 852,000 dollars per commercial, a figure that easily surpasses a full episode fee in a single shoot and highlights how valuable her name is to advertisers.
Even if current commercial rates are not disclosed, her continued bookings with global fashion houses suggest she still commands top-tier endorsement money.
Real estate may be the most underrated pillar of her wealth. South China Morning Post and Korean entertainment media have detailed several high-value acquisitions, including the Gangnam building purchased in 2017 for roughly 28.5 million dollars and previous buys in central Seoul that were worth millions on their own.
These properties generate rental income and capital gains, giving her financial security that does not depend on constant shooting schedules, and they help explain why her net worth estimates sit far above those of younger actresses who might earn similar per-episode rates but have had less time to invest.
While she has taken fewer drama roles in recent years compared with her peak, the projects she chooses are almost always premium: star writer collaborations, Netflix-linked series, or prestige historical pieces such as Kingdom: Ashin of the North.
That selective approach keeps her brand exclusive, which is crucial when endorsement income and property returns matter as much, or more, than whether she is technically number one in per-episode rankings any given year.
Looking at 2026, the pattern is clear. Jun Ji-hyun may no longer have an uncontested grip on “highest per-episode paycheck” in an industry where streaming platforms occasionally throw extraordinary sums at trending names, but she remains the benchmark for financial success among Korean actresses.
Between a net worth commonly pegged near 110 million dollars, enduring luxury deals, and a portfolio of prime Seoul real estate, her position at the top of the K-drama money conversation is still secure, even as younger stars chase her shadow.
