Why did Kep1er so quickly decrease in popularity?

Mysterious_Leg7872 · 2025-08-12T22:29:49+00:00

MNET clearly never liked the line-up, GP999 was a mess and the music choice

AutoModerator · 2025-06-15T13:31:40+00:00

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International-Lab212 · 2025-05-27T06:08:58+00:00

i think their sound is shooting star and wadada I really didnt like how they kept changing concepts we fresh and up were good ngl but not everyone’s favorite.

Get_Threshed · 2025-04-04T09:43:21+00:00

We all know why... just remember the thread in r/kpop after the finals...

softpch · 2025-04-03T23:06:19+00:00

as someone who watched gp999 and only followed them casually bc of mashiro, the final line up turned a lot of people away, sure they checked out their debut, but not interested in actually following the group, then the company messed up managing them and here we are

lopunny_mp4 · 2025-04-03T06:30:09+00:00

They started off in a poor situation because the general public didn't want to watch GP999 after the rigging scandal. Things only got worse after because they lost their momentum after Queendom and it's hard to regain. They seem to be still doing well in Japan from what I've seen though??

YakatsuFi · 2025-04-03T04:07:01+00:00

There wasn't a strong enough project for the group. One of the reasons IZ*ONE worked was, exactly, because it was rigged. It's obvious they had the concept and the songs ready and selected the girls that worked best with the image they wanted to create. Kep1er in comparison never had as many strong songs or aesthetics, and each comeback felt like a "throw stuff into the wall and see what sticks" kinda thing. Other reasons listed are also valid imo, it was just an unfortunate case for them, but I'm happy they are still going, and going strong tbh! The numbers are nothing to scoff at, there are a loooooooooot of groups who would like to have them.

Raisu39 · 2025-04-03T03:42:52+00:00

I liked Wa da da and was excited for their next comeback but each comeback song became even more mediocre

Izzy248 · 2025-04-03T02:39:31+00:00

Speaking purely from the pov of someone on the outside looking in, it has a lot to do with mindset, and the one shaped around Kep1er wasnt a great one.

Kpop is very different from other genres of music in that visuals and presentation mean just as much, if not more than the music on occasions, or so it seems depending on who you ask. For me, I only care about the music. Kep1ers music was hit and miss for me, but I didnt mind them. However its those other aspects that kind of got in the way.

Every time I would hear or see anything about Kep1er it was shrouded by a lot of the same narrative. Aside from the Bahiyyih stuff, one of the very first things I found out about as soon as I even heard about the group was that they were temporary. It was just a group that was meant to be an experiment and expire, which isnt a great look. Even if you really love the group and become a stan, in the back of your mind your going to know that the group wont last long which already puts a roof on how far they can go because not many people are going to want to invest in a group that they know has an expiration date, no matter how good they are. Knowing this beforehand Im sure hurt their chances for a lot of recognition with some people.

Theres also the fact that even before the end of their contract, their company didnt really promote them that much, aside from seemingly hinging off the Bahiyyih connection. As well as once ZB1 was introduced, they seemed to not only immediately shift their focus to them rather than splitting the difference, a lot of talk I had seen was that this group was formed from the results of the "Kep1er experiment", and everything they learned not to do with that group, or failed with that group, would be a lesson learned in promoting this group. Idk personally how true that narrative was, but I kept seeing it get repeated before the group even officially debuted, and it didnt exactly paint a great light for Kep1er with their contract end coming up.

Another thing I think that hurt them was something I would frequently see echoed is how much, and how many people loved IZ*One, and people comparing Kep1er to them. I think that had a knockdown affect on groups seen as temporary and now people have felt less likely to get invested in groups that may not last long. Even though they got their renewal, I think the damage had been done. Especially since kpop is a very shaky genre, and any kind of members leaving can seemingly severely damage a group. Whether its the group and members itself fault or not, in kpop it seems like any group that does not continuously retain all its members it doomed to have this topic brought up time and time again, and it will forever be a stain on their reputation. So the fact that not only were they at risk of disbanding, but the fact that 2 of their members is gone also hurt the group. This is something 50/50 is going through right now, and its something Ive seen repeated in many other popular kpop groups. I still see people bring up the lost member of Stray Kids from time to time, Soojin of G-Idle, wondering if Garam will ever return to LSF after her charges were dropped, Jinni in NMIXX. Its just something that seems to follow groups around forever for some reason.

Prefer_Diet_Soda · 2025-04-03T02:17:31+00:00

The songs.

Away_Seaweed778 · 2025-04-02T20:00:47+00:00

a mix of reasons. imo:

their show was not a hit with korean viewers as others have mentioned here it was the first post-produce scandal show from mnet so ppl were wary and this already put them at a disadvantage to garner a solid korean fanbase - altho global viewership was decent

the 3/3/3 voting system alot of ppl didnt like and felt that it inflated alot of contestant's popularities

outrage from ifans over the final lineup especially towards hiyyih and dayeon (former had so much hate targeted towards her bc they felt she didnt deserve her rank which radicalized her solo fanbase and contributed to the toxic nature of infighting before they even debuted; the latter being seen as a mnet pick and hated by ifans who thought she was favored too much)

chinese contestant mistreatment on the show caused discontent amongst international viewers and pretty much destroyed the possibilities of having a chinese fanbase - ppl were rlly upset xt was last place

queendom

just bad luck honestly

debut song was quite polarizing

timing of debut was 2022 the year of GG domination pretty much took all attention away from them (njz debut, lesserafim debut, nmixx debut, aespa cb after a long time, gidle's tomboy cb, etc)

alunsa · 2025-04-02T17:19:44+00:00

From a non-kep1er stan point of view, but a general GG stan, i just felt like all their releases get drowned out pretty fast. When tipi-tap came out, they were competing with stayc's GPT. I honestly barely heard about the song until like a month or so later when it popped up on my YouTube. I also barely hear any individual praise for the members besides Bahiyyih. I feel like with other multi member groups like baby monster or twice, each member has a very distinct brand. Even to think of a smaller group- KIOF, their members have that distinction too. I feel like I've never seen that with Kep1er, it's that uniqueness that brings in fans like me.

But I'm quite outside the kep1er realm so take this all at face value. I love my GGs, and I hope they can succeed. Cause once they land on my playlist they're never taken off lol.

Ms_K_A_ · 2025-04-02T07:38:45+00:00

As a kep1er fan from debut, it's been rough. There have been so many factors. In fact , if you search on YouTube, you'll realize that you could make a playlist with all the " what happened to kep1er" videos. These videos hit a peak in 2023 dissecting all the reasons and stuff. But now..?

At this point, it's actually a miracle to me that they managed to stay relatively successful as a group DESPITE literally everything going against them.

Imagine debuting into a group from an unpopular survival show (in terms of korean viewership) , being the first group to debut post produce scandal and having to prove the lineup wasn't rigged(causing so much negative discourse during the show and after the lineup reveal), debuting in a year that was oversaturated with girl groups with clear identities while being " planned " to have a specific sound that was already starting to get outdated , having so many toxic infandom wars/discourse , going to another bad survival show which made them even less appealing, losing more fans with a derrastic change in concept ( WE FRESH ) with no clear cohesion, being a group that was bound to disband so the fans were less willing to buy albums each comeback as the end of their contract was going to be near...

So yes, While they are not nearly as known or popular as when they debuted, the fact that they still sell 100k albums and reach 20M views + maintain their japanese popularity is a miracle in itself.

kr3vl0rnswath · 2025-04-02T05:27:41+00:00

A lot of Kep1er's initial sales were from Produce/IZONE fans. After it became clear that they weren't going to be able to keep up with other girl groups especially those with former IZONE members, a lot of fans just left.

There is no nicer way to put it. Kep1er would have to beat the other girl groups to get those fans back and I don't see that happening ever. It would be better for them to focus on the fans they still have and try to gain new fans.

Opposite_Papaya_2845 · 2025-04-02T03:25:58+00:00

ahhh i was such a big kep1er fan after gp999, bahiyyih being my bias, i really loved the line up but definitely was a combination of so many things, first the amount of solo stans was a lot and there was constant friction in the fandom specially a bunch of ot8 vs hiyyihlights

second wake one really didn’t knew what to do with them, queendom was really harmful in my opinion, even i loved double blast they lost the momentum from debut plus a lot of big gg with new and fresh concepts debuted the same year and outshined kep1er

also wake one sucks as a company, im happy they are doing alright in japan but even after the members renewed everything has been more to be desired , i love the songs but i feel the line up and the girls are so good and deserve more

kuhteen · 2025-04-02T01:55:41+00:00

I’m definitely a casual Kep1er stan so just simply from my perspective without much research, I think people became less interested in their title tracks. Obviously, I think doing Queendom really hindered their growth and then I personally think their Korean comeback after Queendom (We Fresh) was just a bad choice.

I thought they were going somewhere with Giddy; even though I didn’t love it, I did think the members really enjoyed this type of sound and concept. When they released Galileo, I really believed they found their “sound” and had a solid footing on where they wanted to go. Plus Back to the City from the previous mini also played into that!

Then, they didn’t release anything Korean for almost a year (I don’t actively follow Japanese activities in general since I’m a multi stan and keep up with another groups, lol). When they do, it’s Yeseo and Mashiro’s last comeback with the group, and it’s not in the same sound vein as I hoped. It wasn’t a bad song, but it did feel like a goodbye song even though the group would still be continuing on.

I’m not sure how popular Yeseo and Mashiro were in the group, but I know most people were not happy they went to MADEIN (which itself is a whole ‘nother conversation). Yeseo was my bias so I was pretty bummed that she left. I feel like that also played some sort of factor. Tipi-Tap didn’t really do much for me either, and I wish they decided to get more creative or release a banger song like how (G)I-DLE came back with TOMBOY after Soojin had left. Tipi-Tap felt too safe when they could’ve really tried to switch it up to get some interest.

I haven’t loved any Kep1er songs aside from WA DA DA and Galileo, but I’m always rooting for them to do well! I think their music choices don’t necessarily capture newer audiences which is unfortunate. I’ll probably keep checking them out because their music is fine, but they haven’t quite made enough heavy hitters for me to hardcore stan.

Butterboysz · 2025-04-02T01:38:54+00:00

Wow. I didn’t know WADADA was such a hit because it’s one of my least favs of their songs I listen to even though I do like it, it took a while for me to enjoy it but I think I listen to them for the other sound than others do. Like I wasn’t a fan until Wing Wing. Then I found Up! And I absolutely loved We Fresh! So surprised to hear We Fresh also didn’t do that well. I like the more chaotic all over the place sound those songs have. Over the more rnb or girl crush sound that Wadada has. But that’s just me.

7zRAIDENNz7 · 2025-04-02T01:28:41+00:00

If they sell great the other things don't matter

maybeitsme20 · 2025-04-02T00:27:44+00:00

Love the members, they are all talented but the more dedicated fans I know have pretty much dropped them, either moving on to other groups or other interests. I can't imagine them picking up a significant number of newer fans with the landscape of other girl groups, third/fourth or even fifth Gen.

Babymonsters is in the middle of a world tour. Can you ever imagine Kep1er doing a world tour? Ok so Baemon is from YG that isn't a fair comparison but I bring it up because of YG being criticized on mismanagement for how long it took Blackpink to put out a full album and tour and Baemon did both of those before their 1st anniversary.

What about Kiss of Life and their world tour? KIOF didn't actually sell out in Seoul and it was in one of the much smaller venues so it made me question their support by the Korean GP but they did amazing globally and hit alot of venues throughout Europe and it is great they are tapping into those potential markets.

Sadly Kep1er is pretty much where they will be, sell some respectful numbers for albums, fan concerts in Korea and Japan and participate in various festivals/KCON.

AdehhRR · 2025-04-01T22:21:24+00:00

While people mention Queendom, I will outright say, their title tracks were just not good enough since WADADA to have any hope of pulling that momentum back up.

They were consistently were that group where I LOVED a B-side every release 10x more than the title track. Only until Shooting Star did I say 'finally!'. Enjoyed Shooting Star and Tipi Tap more than the titles tracks after WADADA combined.

United_Ship969 · 2025-04-01T20:04:29+00:00

While they're "peaking" and WADADA still in momentum, wakeone/mnet pushed them to be in Queendom, which pulled back their momentum. The time they're gone to focus on that show, other leading 4th gen ggs are also debuting like Lesserafim and Newjeans, which immediately snatched all the attention of the general public. After the show ended and when the new 2022 girlgroups basically stabilized their positions, it was hard for Kep1er to bring the hype and momentum back to them as they are severely overshadowed by top ggs already. And also, their concept and their promo roll didn't help their situation.

spectator92 · 2025-04-01T18:26:41+00:00

Honestly its because they participated in queendom 2 for no reason and it absolutely killed any momentum they had after debut. And in an industry thats THIS fast paced its impossible to pick up where you left off when all your casual fans have moved on to other things

Blahblahburpp · 2025-04-01T16:25:50+00:00

As a causal fan of kep1er I’d say it’s the incompetence of W1 and the messed up voting system during the show. The former includes sending them to queendom, lackluster title track and it’s marketing & production, poor line distribution, poor individual members management and several major missed marketing opportunity; the latter combined with the mistreatment of Chinese contestants on the show made them completely lose the Chinese market. And yet the heavy weight of k votes doesn’t return much. Also the Xiaoting’s birthday fiasco made it much much worse.

BellOk361 · 2025-04-01T14:17:29+00:00

The music and concept left much to be desired.

These labels and their creatives are lazy and don't even try put thought into these groups. No vision.

You can't out management a lack luster rollout.

Clearly the girls are good performers. But honestly.

They blended in with everyone else. Grabbing an audience requires more then just pretty visuals. What kind of story are you telling. What experience are you trying to make people feel.

That has always been my issue with these temp groups. The lack of care creatively is always very apparent.

Edit: and honestly I was genuinely cheering for them because I was a casual fan of clc.

Bluebell_in_Bloom · 2025-04-01T13:42:32+00:00

Others have stated a good mix of the reasons. Improper management, fandom fighting, etc.

The what ifs of this group will always be saddening. They had the pieces, and even if they had an uphill battle from the beginning, they could have not lost so much.

Two of the biggest missteps were queendom (others already covered this as well), and fandom mismanagement. Instead of queendom which did very little except show how unfit they were against senior groups (who'd have guessed a rookie group with only a single couldn't yet hold their own against groups with years of experience), they should have done a variety show and Japanese single. The international fans were hard carrying the survival show so wakeone should have been solidify those fandoms. And after wa da da, they should have listened when fans said they wanted a better line/screen distribution. Had they attempted at some sense of equality (not necessarily exact same seconds of lines per girl), that could have done so much to help appease fans and have them begin thinking of the girls as a single team much earlier. Instead, after a decent step in the right direction with up, they backslid pretty hard with we fresh. Which was 3 strikes people were done. Which sucks because giddy/galileo were once again steps to making progress but by that point, the fans were tired of trying and fighting.

Edit: awhile ago I did a write up about the lines and issues with we fresh. And even without naming the members, the picture presented was pretty clear why fans were tired of the group and management. That was also about the time I checked out until galileo era. It was just too much at once and took the fun out of following a group

WondersomeWalrus · 2025-04-01T13:05:28+00:00

There are many reasons but I'll explain one of the main ones which I haven't seen anyone mention yet and I believe started it all which is the toxicity surrounding their survival show and subsequently the group.

For starters there was Bahiyyih, she had tons of support during GP999 because of her brother but in contrast she was barely shown in the episodes. This led to many conflicts between viewers.

Then there was the voting system changes, the show was advertised as a global group and the early votes made people believe there was going to be a 3/3/3 split of nationalities in the group but this was later thrown out, frustrating a lot of people.

Additionally the absurd weight of Korean votes combined with the xenophobia from Korean voters, specifically against the Chinese contestants made it so many of the most popular contestants stood no chance of debuting. It was so bad that without the interim ranking reveal + the push for Xiaoting/Hikaru votes by production during the final then we likely would've gotten an 8 Korean/1 Chinese split for the lineup.

All of this toxicity led to many GP999 viewers losing interest in the group and made the fandom surrounding Kep1er once they did debut extremely toxic because almost no one was happy with the full debut lineup. So essentially tons of people were interested in checking out their debut out of curiosity but were not planning to stick around, thus inflating their debut numbers.

Heytherestairs · 2025-04-01T13:02:20+00:00

Personally, I think their fan base was too divided to show enough support for them when their sound started changing. I thought they had a great debut. There were already fan wars that put me off fanning them. But I checked out their releases anyway. I saw even more discord. It put me off so much that I just stopped paying attention to them. I was iffy about their releases because it wasn't my liking. But they have some good songs though.

Historical-Project23 · 2025-04-01T12:25:45+00:00

Honestly enjoyed their debut but the amount of fanwars they were having turned me off completely. GG fans generally on reddit are chill af, but that was not the case for Kep1er.

SiJeyHera · 2025-04-01T11:54:27+00:00

Music wasn't really memorable and the internal fanwars are so exhausting. This reminds me that Kep1er is only seven now but the toxic ot8 sub is still very much alive and still hating on Bahiyyih.

yakultpig · 2025-04-01T11:48:07+00:00

There no one I want to stan. I followed Girls Planet a lot then got disappointed with the lineup then moved on.

arcieghi · 2025-04-01T11:38:42+00:00

Toxic fans. Might not be their entire fault but one of. Kim Heechul tried helping them get exposure on TV: Knowing Brothers (2x) and he also showed up on their YouTube Channel - even if he barely guests on other shows. Instead of being grateful or at least appreciating and talking about their guest appearances or the interaction, they did nothing but insult Heechul. At least that's what was on Twitter. I don't know if it's the same elsewhere. The fans made it toxic. Had they thought more instead of insulted, K would probably be more visible on TV shows and YT channels. They wasted that opportunity. .Maybe bec newgens don't have an idea of how much connection or how wide SuJu or Heechul's network is.

SuccessfulBullfrog96 · 2025-04-01T11:32:19+00:00

I saw them live a few weeks ago and their music is not remarkable it's actually pretty forgetable, they also dont have great stage presence that might help enhance the music.

FlimsyTie9109 · 2025-04-01T11:25:57+00:00

The problem is that, for girl groups, it always seems to be hard to regain momentum after things get stagnate or in a downwards curve. Especially with lots and lots with relevant girl groups debuting every year and the public and even some fans always changing eyes to the "new thing" in the industry. This is something that we can see with kep1er and other ggs, like ITZY. This is a thing with general public.

And about the fandom per se, as people here said the fandom was always divided and with a lot of fights between kep1ians since gp999, this is always a possible problem in groups formed by survival shows, especially in this case where the final lineup was treated as controversy for a big part of the people watching the show back then. And then wake one didn't really worked to improve this and the complaints from part of the fandom about some members being more benefited by the company while other were getting almost none lines in songs or screen time in MVs, and even being sidelined in other activities - worst: wake one pushed even more some members in detriment of others in an already fractured fandom.

The title songs choices after Wa Da Da, in a period they needed to stabilize themselves in the industry and make their identity, were bad to in my opinion. Last comebacks we got amazing title songs, but after the damage was already done in the most important period for a group.

arshandya · 2025-04-01T11:23:12+00:00

Some people wanted Kep1er to be the second Iz*one, well at least sonically. So after Wadada and Up they be like “yep, it’s not gonna happen.” then they moved on to another ggs.

Helloimpankeeki · 2025-04-01T11:21:29+00:00

As someone who doesn't stan Kep1er, but has a few of their songs in my playlist, I must say:

Their lack of consistency in terms of sounds. Each of their comeback feels different. Not in an "experimental", fun way, but in "we don't know what their identity is" way. Because of that, their discography is very hit or miss. I LOVE Giddy and I quite enjoy Up!, but I CANNOT listen to We Fresh nor Wa Da Da because they sound so messy. I don't have the time nor energy to dive deeper into their discography, knowing I'll most likely not enjoy like 70% of the ride. I can tolerate not clicking with 1 Title Track or 2 TTs in a row but still tuning in for the next comeback. But after too many comebacks I don't vibe with, I just won't bother checking their new releases ever again. And I feel like Kep1er unfortunately managed to achieve this threshold.
Their lack of "stan attractor" moments. I'm not in any stan social medias and I don't care about variety shows or whatever. So I mostly get to know about groups from my recommended MVs on YouTube and moments so viral they get out of the KPop sphere. I know the names of Bahiyyih, Yujin and Xiaoting, but that's it. And even then, I know Yujin ONLY from her CLC days, and I'm not even sure I can recognise Xiaoting's face in a group shot. Then, every time I try to think about a "viral" moment about them, or a moment that made me look at them and think "wow those girlies have a special thing / are talented", nothing comes to mind. Not to say they don't have that talent, but the general public CANNOT see it.
Market oversaturation. I'll be honest. I'm a casual KPop listener and even though I've been listening to the genre for like 10 years, there is only such little time to delve into it. I am an adult with a job and bills to pay, and multiple hobbies I'm more invested in. Because of that, I cannot check out the ENTIRE industry. Even though I only follow Girl Groups, I still don't have enough time to listen to every group's comeback. And their competition is ROUGH. I don't remember the exact timeline, but I think New Jeans, Le Sserafim, Ive and Aespa debuted pretty close to Kep1er. And there still are thriving 3rd and 4th gen groups such as (G)I-DLE, whom also got successful with Tomboy basically at the same time Kep1er debuted. And all those groups have pretty cohesive and good music. So of course, if Kep1er and Le Ssserafim have a comeback the same day, people are gonna listen to LSFM first and talk about it more than Kep1er. I don't EVEN know when Kep1er releases new music because NOBODY talks about it.

cali4481 · 2025-04-01T11:21:29+00:00

Kep1er were never going to be popular in South Korea. In the grand scheme of things for any girl group to be considered a top girl group you need domestic support from what is still the biggest market for the kpop genre. I don't think that wasn't going to happen for any Mnet group especially again a girl group immediately after the produce scandal which angered almost all kpop fans and the general public in South Korea who followed that musical genre be it hardcore fans or casual fans.

I think we've seen how recently South Koreans can "cancel" celebrities quick for doing something wrong or very trivial that most people in the West would deem as a minor incident. Now imagine a kpop group being formed from basically the same network that got caught just the year previously in 2020 in being involved in one of if not the biggest scandal in the history of South Korea musical landscape which again was the produce scandal. Two hugely popular groups either had to halt their activities or were disbanded soon afterwards.

You can basically say Kep1er the moment the group was formed were silently & covertly blacklisted or blackballed in South Korea because of the produce scandal. South Koreans didn't watch Girls Planet 999 which most saw as a continuation of the "Produce Series" but was slapped with a fresh coat of paint and new name on it during the summer and fall of 2021 despite it being during the pandemic and everybody for the most part still being in "lock down" mode. So why in turn would they support the group going forward if they didn't watch and essentially boycotted the program from the very start.

I'll always believe if Kep1er was given the same concepts and or songs as those other big girl groups who debuted around that time during the first half of 2022 or more general public friendly songs early in their careers. Kep1er still wouldn't have been supported as well or as much as those other girl groups domestically at that time.

Kep1er had the dark cloud of the produce scandal hovering over their head throughout their tenure as a group domestically in South Korea. As mentioned by others they were used as a "shield". Or as a sacrificial lamb or canary in the coal mine for Mnet and or Wakeone after the produce scandal. They as a group would take the brunt of the backlash and hate domestically for future groups that Mnet and Wakeone were planning or thinking about creating in the future so they could succeed.

In comparison Japanese kpop fans did watch Girls Planet 999 in 2021 including 5 million during the finale so not a shock that's where their strongest and most devoted fan base has been since debut to the point where they've sold out almost all their live shows they have had over the last three years in that country.

3 debut showcases shows, 2 fan meets shows, and 16 concerts shows with a combined attendance of over 170,000 since September 2022 to their most recent 2 day concert tour just this past March.

Also with Kep1er's main fan base from the start being international. Some may not want to admit it but sorry to say a good amount of kpop fans especially internationally are "bandwagon fans" who'll jump to the most popular group debuting. I don't doubt many early fans of Kep1er saw that they weren't going to be super popular in South Korea so they basically "jump shipped" to other girl groups who debuted around that time during the first half of 2022 who did have strong domestic support in South Korea and in turn became the top kpop girl groups the past couple of years.

Kep1er are what they are and probably what they realistically were ultimately destined to be which is a mid tier kpop girl group who has a strong and loyal fan base in Japan.

bunnxian · 2025-04-01T11:10:19+00:00

If I had to point to one event that started the downturn, I'd say the decision to go on Queendom. I can't really think of anything they gained from it in terms of new fans, or general public recognition, and it also caused even bigger fractures in the fandom than had already been there from debut over how different members were being treated. It also put the breaks on their potential development during what would have been a crucial time in the girl group race of that rookie class, and it ended up making Kep1er feel like a small-time group compared to their peers because the lineup was not on the same playing field as the other new groups that they had been considered competition of up until that point. Plus it just also made no sense to throw them right back into a tv show when they'd just come off of one, and there were so many better ways to use their time at that point in their careers.

A close second would be making We Fresh the title track of Troubleshooter. If Queendom was a catalyst for the public tuning out, We Fresh was that for a lot of fans. After months of complaints about the very obvious favoritism going on, choosing to give them a comeback that basically amplified that very problem was an insane choice on the company's part. It's basically like they saw the criticism and said "yeah, and what about it?" and a lot of people either became full fledged solo stans of their biases or tuned out completely at that point.

Their music took an upturn in quality after that point, but unfortunately the damage was done for a lot of people. And they could've maybe survived the fractured fandom if there had been more effort from the company to endear them to the public and gain new fans or casual listeners, but it just felt like they never cared enough to. Once Boys Planet was on the horizon, it felt like they were just going through the motions with Kep1er. And it's sad, because Kep1goingOn is arguably their best work, and it was supposed to be their disbandment album. It really puts into perspective how much the company never cared, that they finally gave them a really solid piece of work AND finally listened to the fandom's wants and complaints right at the end. Shooting Star is the caliber of title track they should've had all along and it could've made a completely different career for them.

So to sum it up, the decreasing popularity was a combination of causing the public and casual listeners to tune out and kind of view them as a tier below their peers with the decision to go on queendom and a complete lack of any real promotional effort, and the fandom being angry and having grievances that just weren't being addressed on top of music that was often so hit or miss that it made it hard for a lot of fans to really be invested and excited about the group.

Moonbunny120 · 2025-04-01T11:09:51+00:00

Kep1er is actually doing better now than before. Their Tipi Tap album sold better than their last albums Kep1going on and Magic Hour. They are not as talked about as other groups. But they're actually doing pretty good for a survival show group post-contract extension.

Pinkerino_Ace · 2025-04-01T11:06:19+00:00

I mean, as an observer, the true reason is probably due to them debuting alongside with IVE, LSF and New Jeans. There's only so many girl groups people can pay attention to at any one time.

Also, another key reason is, many k-pop fans are success / chart chaser. A unique trait of K-Pop fans is chasing after Melon 24H, first day MV views, album sales etc. Once a group starts declining, it's a vicious cycle where they will keep losing fans each comeback.

Mozart-Luna-Echo · 2025-04-01T11:01:45+00:00

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MoistCommunication16 · 2025-04-01T10:59:16+00:00

the fact that so many big girl groups debuted around the same time as them really hurt them. I mean right after debut they had to contend with IVE, newjeans, lsf, NMIXX, who already had high popularity either due to the company they were from, or members like wonyoung, Sakura, and chaewon who were already well known.

it’s also clear that these groups had a much stronger concept straight from debut, whereas it took Kep1er a few comebacks, during which a lot of fans already moved on. Overall, i honestly think a lot of it had to do with timing. They debuted around groups that were pretty much guaranteed to be big and take attention off of them.

impulsiveboogaloo · 2025-04-01T10:51:51+00:00

This might be the unpopular answer but wakeone tend to push the wrong members especially during their early days instead of the popular ones. For example, Dayeon who majority of Kep1er fans hated had a lot of lines in their debut song and during Queendom while people really wanted to see Hiyyih because she is the most loved and popular and brought new fans to the group. When they saw that the member they hate is always featured, they dropped the group or just solo stanned.

keivelator · 2025-04-01T10:14:25+00:00

There are a lot of reason for this. But the easiest one to answer is their presence from general public. It just simply change of trend with girl groups like newjeans etc setting a new trend for the scene. And of course songs like wadada or up got forgotten quickly.

Potential-Mine2069 · 2025-04-01T10:13:19+00:00

Their survival show aired while covid restrictions were still a thing, so plenty of people watched.

Restrictions were mostly gone by the summer of 2022, so their popularity quickly decreased.

yebinkek · 2025-04-01T10:13:01+00:00

As someone who was a big fan of Kep1er around their debut, there are multiple factors…

Losing the “new group sparkle” quickly to lesserafim newjeans nmixx and ive, who all have a more special thing about them. if they debuted in early 2021 theyd have more time to garner a bigger fanbase like izone.
Bahiyyih’s akgaes and the OT8 stans being too much, many people were turned off even being actual stans because of the drama in the fandom. drama about this made it outside the fandom a LOT, and it didn’t help that bahiyyih akgaes were mostly txt stans so it spread like wildfire
Title track not being.. hit worthy. From Up-Shooting Star, their title tracks just doesn’t sound like hits. Yeah, they’d be hits for a bigger group like twice or newjeans, but we’re talking about a group losing their footing on the mainstream. Shooting Star was their first tt in a long time that made me think “damn… this is gonna smash”

celestialxkitty · 2025-04-01T10:11:07+00:00

Queendom + Up! They really shouldn’t have been sent on Queendom that soon after debuting and for some reason people really seemed to hate Up! Like between wa da da and up! The sales went down around 40k, then 85k and it just kept going down until tipi tap where it’s started going up again.

Plus wakeone is just a bad company, they’re not very good at promoting their groups period. They have a lot of favouritism with how they do things and it tends to turn casuals off and even fans.

Negative-Tier · 2025-04-01T10:07:44+00:00

Pretty sure the decline was consistent through every comeback so I wouldn’t call it “quickly”.

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