KATSEYE Score Five UK Top 40 Singles in 2026: 'Hootie Frutti' Makes Chart History

KATSEYE have become the first girl group since Little Mix in 2021 to earn five UK Top 40 singles in a single calendar year, with 'Hootie Frutti' debuting at No. 16 on the Official Singles Chart for the week of September 5, 2026. The milestone arrives alongside their strongest UK albums performance to date: the 'WILD' EP debuted at No. 2 on the Official Albums Chart — a career peak for the group and their first UK top-five album entry.

'Internet Girl' opened the year at No. 24 in January, followed by 'PINKY UP' at No. 14 in April — their highest UK chart entry at the time. In June, the three-way collaboration 'ICONIC BY MISTAKE' with LE SSERAFIM and ILLIT reached No. 22. September added two more: 'Animal,' the Ed Sheeran co-written pre-release single, climbed to a career-high No. 12, before 'Hootie Frutti' debuted at No. 16 the same week, making five. The last girl group to match this count in a single UK year was Little Mix in 2021, with No Time For Tears, Heartbreak Anthem, Kiss My (Uh Oh), Love (Sweet Love), and No.

The pace of KATSEYE's UK accumulation in 2026 is notable because it has come without a traditional British promotional cycle — no dedicated UK TV appearances, no radio campaign built from the ground up. Five in one year is a commercial benchmark that most acts across all genres do not reach in their entire UK careers, and KATSEYE have done it in nine months.

The 'WILD' EP's No. 2 UK debut surpasses everything in KATSEYE's previous UK chart history. The EP opened to 170,000 equivalent album units in the US in its first week — a Billboard 200 No. 1 — and the UK result confirms simultaneous mainstream chart traction in a second major market. The two achievements together make WILD the most commercially validated K-pop-adjacent EP release of the year across both the US and UK markets.

'Animal' reaching No. 12 in its fourth chart week reflects streaming-driven catalogue acceleration rather than a first-week peak — the song climbed rather than debuted at its highest position, indicating organic discovery alongside coordinated fan activity. Alongside 'Hootie Frutti's No. 16 debut, KATSEYE placed two active singles from the same EP in the UK Top 20 simultaneously.

The UK chart results arrived the same week as KATSEYE's London shows at The O2 (September 3–4) and Manchester's Co-op Live (September 6) — a rare convergence of live presence and active chart performance in the same market, in the same week. The sold-out WILDWORLD TOUR's European leg is playing arenas where KATSEYE's commercial footprint is now measurably larger than at any prior tour date. 'Hootie Frutti' charting actively while the group performed in the UK is the kind of synchronicity that builds long-term market presence rather than a one-cycle spike.