aespa's Spotify Achievement For Recent Comeback "Dirty Work" Sparks Suspicion

aespa‘s Spotify stats for their new song have sparked suspicion.

Gulx0OiXAAAD0D0 — Members of aespa | *@aespa_official/X*

aespa recently released their track “Dirty Work.”

A popular chart account shared that the track debuted at number 63 on the “Global Spotify Chart” with 1,836,980 streams.

“Dirty Work” by aespa debuts at #63 on the Global Spotify Chart (1,836,980 streams). pic.twitter.com/ubjBRg7wjJ

— Kpop Charts (@kchartsmaster) June 28, 2025

When the post was shared, netizens shared suspicion and speculation, believing that the streams weren’t organic and that many of the plays seemed to be coming from Thailand.

Thai bots good job https://t.co/S6nHKOwI17 pic.twitter.com/MSaJa72qAL

— k_lysis (@k_lysis) June 28, 2025

It’s being reported that aespa’s ‘Dirty Work’ has surpassed 1.8 million streams on the Spotify Global Chart, with 625,837 of those coming from Thailand alone, nearly 35% of the total.

Are SM’s Thai streaming farms back in business? 👀 https://t.co/tpntmFGBh6

— َ (@Iuckystarrr) June 28, 2025

all this payola for 1.8M debut 😭😭 https://t.co/VWHRZSFePi pic.twitter.com/EoTBurxibm

— ‘ (@cvntville) June 28, 2025

those thai bots worked harder than everyone else combined 💀 https://t.co/5b90TJXJQb pic.twitter.com/K9n4Hh8Nzy

— miguel (@euhaerin) June 28, 2025

Many fans defended the group, saying that despite the bad promo from SM Entertainment, aespa was thriving and showing their dominance in K-Pop.

wow aespa, with a terrible playlist from your sh!tty company and no payola, you can still chart this high 🥳 https://t.co/1RpRCjwvIh

— 🩷 (@wbmj01) June 28, 2025

bare minimum playlisting, delayed comeback, hate train on twitter, everybody and their mamas on they ass, and they still got the highest debut by a kpop group this year https://t.co/sLeQG1Io8R

— 🕷️ (@sooyafilms) June 28, 2025