Trot singer Lim Young-woong has held the No. 1 spot on the Idol Chart rating ranking for 289 consecutive weeks, a run that has now lasted 2,023 days.
According to a SportsSeoul report published on Naver on October 12, Lim first topped the chart in the fourth week of March 2021 and has not given up the top spot once through October 2026. That is more than five and a half years of weekly rankings without a single break.
The numbers behind the latest week are striking. In the October first-week rating ranking, Lim recorded 312,305 votes and 32,039 likes, both the highest of any artist, with an average rating of 4.99 out of 5.
What makes the record stand out is the chart’s name. Despite being called the Idol Chart, its longest-reigning No. 1 is not an idol group member but a singer who rose to stardom on trot.
The streak kept building quietly over the years: three weeks became five, and five New Years came and went, but the name at the top stayed Lim Young-woong. No official statement was available from his agency.
With the record still ongoing, the question now is simply how much longer the streak can continue.
