TWICE’s Historic Arena Shows Are a Turning Point for K-Pop in Australia

TWICE’s record-breaking This Is For tour is more than a milestone for one of K-pop’s defining girl groups – it’s the clearest sign yet that Asia Pop has moved from the margins to the center of Australia’s live music industry.

With more than 50,000 tickets sold across Sydney and Melbourne, and a 360-degree stage setup some arenas say is the biggest they’ve ever hosted, the run shows how far the genre has come in a market that, a decade ago, might have seen only a handful of Asia-based acts tour each year.

“K-pop and Asia Pop as a whole have always had fans in Australia and New Zealand, but they were definitely more of a niche genre,” Wenona Lok, lead promoter for Asia Pop at Live Nation Australasia, tells Billboard.

Live Nation’s data shows a roughly 600% increase in Asia Pop tours and a 275% rise in the number of touring artists between 2015 and 2024, growth Lok says has only accelerated through 2025 as both the volume and production scale of shows continue to climb.

Last year, the company’s Future South study named 2024 Asia Pop’s “biggest year yet” in Australia – a benchmark she says has already been surpassed.

TWICE sit at the center of that shift. Their current Oceania run has officially broken the record for the best-selling K-pop tour in the region, following their Ready To Be world tour, which drew 1.5 million fans across 51 shows in 27 cities. In Australia, they’re using the same 360-degree stage seen in Asia, North America and Europe, turning every seat into a vantage point and wrapping fans around the performance.

“We were told it was the biggest production to date in any of these venues,” Lok says. “We knew we had to bring the full production they’re taking everywhere to Australia as well, because these fans are expecting to see that level of performance.”

Driving that expectation is a fandom that looks and behaves differently from traditional rock and pop audiences. Live Nation research shows that 98% of Asia Pop fans in Australia and New Zealand listen to music in languages other than English, and around 60% actually prefer non-English songs, even if English is still the primary language at home.

Many are first-time concertgoers, turning to online communities for advice on presales, outfit planning and travel logistics, then flooding social media with fancams and post-show reactions.

That engagement creates both opportunity and pressure. Brands are circling, but Lok says authenticity is everything. While 93% of surveyed fans say they feel more positively toward brands that support Asian artists, shallow partnerships get called out quickly.

“These fans can spot inauthentic engagement immediately. They really can,” she says. “It’s not about slapping a logo on a screen. It’s about contributing to the full emotional arc of a tour.” That might mean funding fan meetups, helping create special merch or supporting content that documents the show for fans who couldn’t attend.

While K-pop still drives headlines, the Asia Pop movement in Australia is wider than one genre. In recent years, Live Nation has booked Mandopop stars like Mayday, Chinese hip-hop acts and Korean indie artists.

“We’re one of the few, really the only, promoters actively looking beyond just K-pop and C-pop to bring these subgenres here,” Lok says. “And it’s paying off. The audience is actively seeking it out.”

As crossovers between digital platforms and live music increase, properties like K-Pop Demon Hunters — which started with animated idols and a viral soundtrack — are now driving real-world demand. Lok recently spoke at SXSW Sydney on virtual stars, and says the rules are the same.

“At the end of the day, it always comes down to the music,” she says. “If they have good songs and a real fanbase, there’s always space for them.”