Popular Fourth-Gen’s “Payola” Achievement Brutally Mocked — Comparisons To BTS Emerge
Popular fourth-generation K-Pop group TREASURE is facing brutal mocking after their achievement was accused of “payola,” with comparisons to BTS.
TREASURE recently came back with the track “IF I.”
It was recently shared that the song had become the fastest video by a fourth-generation group to surpass 100,000,000 views in just under 12 days.
TREASURE's "IF I" became the fastest M/V by a 4th generation k-pop group to surpassed 100M views. 🥳
1. TREASURE "IF I" – 11 days 22 hours
2. I-DLE "Nxde" – 17 days 15 hours
3. aespa "Savage" – 17 days 19 hours
4. I-DLE – "QUEENCARD" – 18 days 6 hours pic.twitter.com/sD3V0VGJGY— lui ꣑ৎ (@kyutmkpttp) June 13, 2026
However, the achievement was mocked as netizens shared their belief that the views came from ads, something that YG Entertainment has been accused of before. Many hit back at the “payola,” saying it did nothing for TREASURE and even shared the huge difference in views versus likes shows the lack of genuineness of the popularity of the video.
Not a single yg group is organic im cryinggg😭 https://t.co/ylCV1yGCPn
— . (@sabrinatozakis) June 14, 2026
No shade to treasure cause i admit i like three of their songs but reaching 100m views in a short time, not even 1m likes and zero noise outside of teumes bubble just proves it’s all ads. https://t.co/LnyuUCElxr
— Izzy∞⁸ (@LizJJY) June 15, 2026
No offense, but yg gotta stop with the payola. I’ve never heard of this song, and for the sake of the groups make it less obvious https://t.co/uzSiwos6ut
— tali ೀ (@yunbabz) June 13, 2026
Ads working overtime, not even 500k likes and barely 10M streams on Youtube, I'm crying https://t.co/FaN83ebLWu
— mey (@whotfisepipen) June 13, 2026
I will never understand the need for kpop stans to brag about views that are very clearly bought with ads https://t.co/nEdOtVwObr
— fae ཐི༏ཋྀ saw skz!!! (semi-ia) (@hyunjinshairbnd) June 15, 2026
In particular, netizens noticed that the statistics didn’t seem right, especially when compared to BTS. Many shared that while TREASURE almost had as many views as BTS’s “Swim,” the difference in likes was huge, with some saying it proved that the group’s views were not genuine and through ads, as BTS’s ratio was more normal.
The likes difference is wild af😭💀 https://t.co/gsQJBsurnk pic.twitter.com/8EAqZSLyJQ
— 𝑨𝒓𝒊-𝒉𝒉𝒉⁷ (@yourglosssy) June 15, 2026
