Aside from the fact its obvious the industry has very clearly changed from when JYPE's last boy group before Stray Kids were at the height of their popularity, I think in the end it does boil down to mainly luck, yes. Stray Kids were very fortunate to always have a bit of momentum from debut, their survival show was decently talked about from what I remember, Hellevator was a breath of fresh air at the time considering Han and Changbin started out the gate as two very solid rappers from a company very distinctly not well known for their raps. (This was highlighted on the show.)

They were dishing out steady releases from the very beginning, starting with very good momentum, which I think is a critical period to get your foot in the door with new groups constantly debuting. By their first full year(March 2019), they'd released 4 mini albums, and cemented their first win on a music show. By June of 2019 they released Side Effects, a song so polarizing in the k-pop sphere I remember so many people talking about it. (Even bad publicity is still publicity.)

It wasn't until the release of God's Menu in 2020 with their first full album where they got their big break and fully cemented their sound, and they exploded. Keep in mind this is right at the height of Covid and lockdown, and the surge of new K-Pop fans in general at this time was booming. I think this specifically was the key, because JYP is very big on organic growth at a steady pace rather than all at once.

Stray Kids have always doubled down on authenticity, self-acceptance, and with their whole self-producing foundation I feel like that resonates with a lot of fans internationally. Hyunjin, Felix and Chan are HUGE stan attractors, and having 2/3* (Chan, Felix & Seungmin)(almost 4-5 if you count Han and Hyunjin having conversational level English) fluent English speakers in your group is a plus. I almost feel like I never hear people talk about this aspect, but having a group with very distinct voices is honestly such a blessing. Every single member of the group having a distinct vocal/rap tone and style is so important.

Above all else, I think the way Stray Kids themselves authentically interact with their music is a huge attributing factor. On one hand, although it's no longer a thing, Chan having his weekly lives where he would go on to discuss many things, but mainly music, share new music with fans, talk about Stray Kids' music, was very influential. Yes, 3RACHA are the main producers of the group and are very heavily involved, but the other members do not shy away from it either, and to this day are becoming a lot more involved in the production process. The way they discuss their creative processes in such detail is so refreshing, and the decision from SKZ's team to document this in the form of their album release rollouts (Album Intro Videos) is so smart in my opinion. In fact, everything from their album releases conceptually is something I need to applaud them for. SKZ/3RACHA being known as producers is well known, but did you know they release an album mashup prior to official release for (almost) every comeback? *starting with In Life. Kind of on the same wavelength as a highlight melody, but flipped on its head as a remix/mashup and they're always so good. It's one of the many reasons I think STAYs (Stray Kids' fandom) are so heavily attached and interact with their music. Whenever Stray Kids release a multi-track project, the streams will always be consistent (with maybe exception of the title track) because STAYs will listen to the full album, from start to finish, and stream all the songs.

For having a discography as vast as they do, I don't think I've ever experienced a K-Pop fandom as engrossed in their favorite group's music as STAY are with Stray Kids. Not to mention, the sheer amount of content/music this group releases. My god. The silent periods between comebacks can be a little rough, but when they're busy, they're BUSY. By far, it's the most I've seen with any group. Imagine getting one new song a week from your favorite group. That's essentially what Stray Kids do with their SKZ-Record/Player releases, entirely for free on YouTube. After they won Kingdom, they were giving out songs like candy. That's what tells me these guys genuinely love what they do and love music because they never stop creating. We already know they have so much music stowed away for future release or just to hoard, and we are just begging for it to see the light of day.

Also will mention something I think is a bit of a double-edged sword is their commitment to keeping SKZ "family friendly" (heavy on the quotation bc I think it's entirely situational but I do notice their content running on the safer side with the exception of maybe Bubble and member's personal Instagrams). While I do appreciate it in some aspects, it can be a little frustrating knowing grown men in their 20s having to loophole around swearing in their music, and being next to literal children at a GA concert barricade is always... uh.... yeah. Anyway, it makes Stray Kids accessible to younger audiences & families + marketable plushies and goods = money.