The TikToks showing why so many are obsessed with KPop Demon Hunters

Posted on 19th August 2025

Animated Netflix film KPop Demon Hunters is the viral pop culture hit of the summer – with its songs like Golden and Soda Pop inspiring lots of TikTok trends and getting cinemas rushing to put on singalong screenings.

It's on course to become the most-watched English-language Netflix movie of all time – and the catchy "Up, up, up" chorus of Golden propelled it to the top of the UK singles chart and across the world.

Yet for a film that’s breaking every record going, for every person who’s become completely obsessed by KPop Demon Hunters, there are just as many who’ve never heard of it or are puzzled by the appeal of it.

You can get an idea of what’s been driving the obsession – and all the different kinds of audiences wowed by it way beyond fans of K-Pop and animated movies – by looking at some of the TikToks and explainers in this Shooglebox.

Some of its huge popularity is down to parents and their adult friends being drawn in by their kids watching the movie on repeat and not being able to resist lip-syncing and dancing along to songs like Golden – which has been used as a sound in more than half a million TikToks.

This TikTok from content creator Chris Mann saying "Kids movies these days have some straight bangerzzzz" has had more than eight million views.

The comments show how relatable it is to so many adults:

• "Omg this is so me 🤣🤣🤣 I love the songs 🔥 Alexa, play K Pop demon hunters 🤣"

• "You know it’s bad when the kids aren’t even home and I turn it on to clean"

• "I have ZERO shame in admitting I watched this without my kids 😂 but the dance parties we have are awesome now with this on 😂"

• "Oh..right…we’re supposed to watch it WITH our kids. Got it"

• "I think we made it number one on Netflix not the kids"

• "I loooooove Kpop demon hunters!!!!! I loooove the songs and cried at the end!!!! My Jinuuuuuuu 😭😭😭😭😭😭"

Other TikToks show families bouncing up and down watching it together, wives catching their husbands jamming out to Golden – like in this video of a "KPop Demon Husband" – and unlikely fans like this fitness coach revealing it's his guilty pleasure song at the gym.

Golden and the demon-hunting girl group HUNTR/X

KPop Demon Hunters follows fictional girl group HUNTR/X – pop idols by day, demon slayers by night – and their rivalry with boy band the Saja Boys, who are secretly demons sent to weaken the Honmoon, a magical barrier that separates the human and demon worlds.

Golden is the girl group's signature song and in the film their leader Rumi – who's hiding marks that reveal her own secret demon heritage – starts to lose her voice and can't hit the high notes that many TikTokers are attempting to copy in their own videos.

Singer Michael DiMuccio has gone viral hitting those high notes with his cover of Golden which has had more than 60m views and 10 million likes.

Others include Adam Ezegelian, of American band AMH, showing his tongue-in-cheek trick for hitting the high notes by ripping plasters off his arms – and people posting compilation videos ranking their favourite covers.

And Golden is proving a banger with clubbers – like this crowd in Belgium going wild when the DJ played it and said the screams caught him off guard.

Soda Pop and the Saja Boys

The signature song of the Saja Boys – who have surpassed real-life boy band BTS as the highest-charting male K-pop group on Spotify – is Soda Pop, which has inspired a TikTok trend of its own with 700,000 videos by fans and well-known content creators copying the group's dance moves.

Here's an example from content creator Angelo Marasigan (16m followers) who says "This song and dance is stuck in my head":

As well as a way to see how people are having fun responding to the movie, TikTok can help you understand and analyse it through popular culture commentators like Troy Zaher, who posts in-depth video essays about movies on TikTok and has been decoding all the songs from KPop Demon Hunters. In this one he looks at the Saja Boys' hit song Soda Pop and how it's a clever metaphor for obsession and the way it applies to K-Pop and TikTok obsessions.

Appealing to and beyond the K-Pop community

When KPop Demon Hunters was released in June it won praise from K-Pop fans saying in Reddit threads like this one they were surprised how well it tapped into and represented their community: "This movie is the perfect demonstration of how to make a good product that actually represents a community instead of just being bait to attract fans."

Throughout the summer the movie quickly won legions of fans beyond the K-Pop community as viral word of mouth spread and the songs hit the charts.

But the fragmentation of popular culture in the TikTok and Netflix era is reflected in the way KPop Demon Hunter fans can't understand why all their friends don't know about and share their obsession – and vice versa.

This video from a British TikToker – and the comments on it finding it relatable – sums up how it feels to be "a woman obsessed" and desperate to convince your friends why they need to discover KPop Demon Hunters.

Singalong cinema screenings

Vue in the UK is among cinemas worldwide who've quickly responded to and organised singalong screenings this weekend (August 23 and 24).

The massive unexpected success of the movie has come during a disappointing summer for Hollywood animation films in cinemas, with Disney Pixar's Elio having the worst-ever box office opening in the studio's history.