Big Hit Music's new boy group CORTIS sparks debate as their debut falls short of expectations

Big Hit Music’s latest boy group CORTIS has officially entered the K-pop scene, but their debut is already stirring mixed reactions among fans and netizens.

On Spotify Counter, CORTIS’s debut track "What You Want" recorded 133,647 streams upon release, ranking as the fourth biggest boy group debut song on the platform. Topping the list was ZEROBASEONE’s "In Bloom," followed by RIIZE’s "Get A Guitar" and AHOF’s "Rendezvous."

Despite a solid debut, the group's performance is being closely compared to other boy groups. Many netizens pointed out that CORTIS seems to struggle to gain widespread attraction despite debuting under Big Hit Music, the label behind BTS.

In the popular online forum, Instiz, these online users pointed out that CORTIS lacks the popularity boost that usually comes from being part of a major entertainment company. 

They commented:

"These guys really flopped."

"If they had promoted 'Go' instead, it might've been better. They haven't even released the full album yet... Big Hit's strategy is so confusing."

"For real."

"The song itself is good though."

"They'll probably do well eventually. TXT didn't blow up with their first album either."

"TXT's first album was huge..."

"TXT had the ‘BTS little brother’ boost, so interest was high from the start."

"TXT was successful from the beginning."

"It's only been two days since they debuted..."

"Only the title track is released. The full album drops on September 8."

"Don’t worry, they’ll be fine. People saying they failed are just wishing for it. They won’t flop."

"I didn’t expect the fandom’s support to be this weak."

"Usually, Big Hit fans support new groups more, but for CORTIS, the response feels lukewarm. Their styling isn’t great, promotions are lacking, and even the team name feels like a small company rookie group."

"The promotion strategy is so messy. They pre-released an intro track without making it available on streaming, then dropped the title track, but the album and earlier song aren’t out until later… too confusing."

"TXT got plenty of attention when they debuted. Are you saying that wasn’t support?"

"Never heard of Big Hit fans not supporting rookies before, lol."

"Come on, without BTS fans’ attention, TXT wouldn’t have been as big as they were at debut."

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