Where the era lines fall, and which groups sit in each.
Fandom disagrees about the boundaries, and prose about any given group will happily cite a pre-debut project, a Japanese release and an official debut as three different years. So the game uses one rule, applied to every group: generation comes from official debut year, and a test fails the build if any row disagrees.
| Generation | Debut years | Groups | Idols |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Gen | 1992–2002 | 14 | 70 |
| 2nd Gen | 2003–2011 | 36 | 215 |
| 3rd Gen | 2012–2017 | 45 | 327 |
| 4th Gen | 2018–2022 | 34 | 232 |
| 5th Gen | 2023– | 30 | 209 |
Click-B, Jewelry, Sechs Kies, Shinhwa, Baby V.O.X, Diva, and 8 more.
Super Junior, After School, ZE:A, 9MUSES, Girls' Generation, Block B, and 30 more.
SEVENTEEN, WJSN, I.O.I, THE BOYZ, Wanna One, Golden Child, and 39 more.
IZ*ONE, LOONA, X1, TREASURE, CRAVITY, fromis_9, and 28 more.
tripleS, xikers, AHOF, ZEROBASEONE, ALPHA DRIVE ONE, Hearts2Hearts, and 24 more.
Chemistry rewards a lineup drawn from one era and penalises one spread across four or more — a 1st-gen leader and a 5th-gen maknae are not obviously going to gel. In free play you can also restrict the pool to the generations you actually know.
What are K-pop generations?
Loose eras grouped by debut year. This game uses one rule applied to every group: 1st gen through 2002, 2nd 2003-2011, 3rd 2012-2017, 4th 2018-2022, 5th from 2023.
Which generation is BTS?
3rd generation — they debuted in 2013. BLACKPINK, TWICE, EXO and SEVENTEEN are also 3rd gen.
Which generation is NewJeans?
4th generation, debuting in 2022, alongside IVE, LE SSERAFIM, aespa and ITZY.