SHINee’s Onew and ZICO have taken their first music show trophy for “Tic Tac Toe,” claiming the top spot on the October 17 broadcast of MBC’s Show! Music Core.
The final nominees for the day were i-dle Soyeon’s “퇴사할게여” (I’ll Quit), IU’s “이 별로부터” (From This Star), and the Onew-ZICO collaboration. According to Top Star News’ coverage of the broadcast, “Tic Tac Toe” finished with 7,054 points — 5,000 from digital and album sales, 1,054 from pre-show voting, and 1,000 from live voting. Soyeon placed second with 5,304 points, while IU’s new single took third with 3,374.
Notably, the duo won without appearing on the broadcast, a testament to how strongly the track has performed on digital charts alone.
“Tic Tac Toe” was pre-released on October 7 at 6 p.m. KST as the second title track from Onew’s first single album, ‘착각’ (Chakgak). The R&B hip-hop song playfully compares the subtle push and pull of the Korean “some” stage — the ambiguous period before a relationship becomes official — to a game. Both artists co-wrote and co-composed the track, pairing Onew’s smooth vocals with ZICO’s sharp, trendy rap flow for a contrast the artists’ agencies have highlighted as the song’s signature.
The win caps a strong first week for the single. It hit No. 1 on Bugs’ real-time chart on release day and entered Melon’s HOT100, then went on to top both the Digital and Download charts on Circle’s week 41 chart covering October 4 to 10, logging a circle index of 17,514,216. A TikTok and Instagram Reels dance challenge built around the chorus groove has also spread quickly, drawing participation from ZICO, SHINee’s Minho, ZEROBASEONE’s Seok Matthew, BOYNEXTDOOR’s Sungho and Woonhak, and ALPHA DRIVE ONE’s Sanghyun, among others.
“Tic Tac Toe” is the second of three title tracks Onew is unveiling ahead of his first single album. The first, “Mind Games” with YUJU, was pre-released earlier, and the full album arrives on October 20 at 6 p.m. KST. The project is Onew’s first release since his fifth mini album ‘TOUGH LOVE’ in March, and his first since joining Griffin Entertainment.
With the trophy in hand just ten days after release, the collaboration is shaping up as one of the standout solo moments of Onew’s year. Whether “Tic Tac Toe” can extend the run onto the coming week’s charts will be worth watching.
