AHOF Holds the KTOPSTAR Rookie Lead
AHOF (에이호프) ranked No. 1 in KTOPSTAR’s 115th Best Male Rookie voting round. The voting period covered September 14-20, 2026. This is AHOF’s second consecutive week at the top of this ranking.
HORI7ON placed second in the same round. EVNNE came in third. Both groups trailed AHOF for the second straight week in the KTOPSTAR fan vote.
The Results Behind the Fan Vote
The KTOPSTAR ranking is a fan vote, not a sales or streaming chart. It measures how many fans return each week to vote for the same group. AHOF backed up that fan support with an actual trophy earlier this year.
On July 15, 2026, AHOF won first place on Show Champion with the title track RUN TO YOU. The win came one week after the EP’s release. It was not AHOF’s first music-show trophy. The group had already achieved a double crown on July 8 and July 9, 2025, winning on The Show and Show Champion just eight days after debut.
RUN TO YOU Finds Late Momentum in Japan
RUN TO YOU also performed well outside Korea, though the timing was different from a typical release-week spike. About one month after its release, the EP reached No. 1 on Oricon’s Daily Album Ranking. It also placed No. 5 on Billboard Japan’s Top Albums Sales chart.
For fans in the United States and Canada checking Billboard-linked charts, this Japan result is separate from any U.S. Billboard chart. No Billboard Hot 100 or Billboard 200 placement is confirmed for RUN TO YOU.
What Is on the RUN TO YOU EP?
RUN TO YOU is an EP released on July 8, 2026. According to Spotify, it contains five tracks:
- RUN TO YOU
- Sugar High
- JUST SAY YES
- You’re the Reason
- Our Story
Awards Confirm AHOF’s Rookie Momentum
AHOF also picked up two trophies at the 2026 K-World Dream Awards, held at KINTEX on August 27. The group received the Global Spotlight Award and the Best Fandom Award.
These awards are separate from the KTOPSTAR weekly vote and from the Japan chart results. Together, the three signals cover three different measurements: a repeated fan vote, a Korean music-show win, and chart data from Japan.
What Global Fans Should Watch Next
As of the sources reviewed for this article, no new tour dates have been announced for Southeast Asia, Latin America or North America. Fans in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have no confirmed local show or fan meeting date yet.
The same applies to Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Colombia, where streaming numbers for RUN TO YOU are not detailed in the sources above. No U.S. or Canadian tour stop has been confirmed either.
Editor’s Take
The KTOPSTAR ranking is a repeated fan vote, so a second week at No. 1 is the weakest of the three signals listed in this post. The Show Champion trophy and the Oricon Daily Album No. 1, which came about a month after release, are better outside checks on how far the EP has reached. Together they point to a rookie group building support in more than one market, though none of these results is a sales or streaming total.
Sources
- MK Sports · 2026-09-21
- Wikipicky · 2026-09-21
- Spotify · 2026-07-08
- Soompi · 2026-07-15
- The Chosun Daily · 2026-08-28
- Soompi · 2026-08-27
- SBS World News · 2025-07-10
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