Is “Animal” the Song That Finally Turns KATSEYE Into a UK Chart Force?

Trade outlets don’t usually ask whether a song will work. They wait until it already has, then explain why. That’s what makes this week’s Official Charts feature on KATSEYE different — writer Carl David Smith published a piece probing whether “Animal” can become the six-member group’s first genuine UK crossover moment, days before the song even landed. Official Charts doesn’t hand out chart-trajectory pieces to acts still finding their footing. It hands them to acts whose trajectory is impossible to ignore.

And KATSEYE’s trajectory really is hard to ignore. “Animal” arrived July 24 via HYBE and Geffen Records, timed just ahead of the group’s third EP, “Wild,” due August 14. Every single the group has released has out-charted the last one in the UK: “Gnarly” broke the door open at No. 52 in May 2025, “Gabriela” followed at No. 38, “Internet Girl” crept to No. 24, and “Pinky Up” smashed through in April with a No. 14 debut — the group’s first UK Top 20 hit, buoyed by a viral five-member Coachella set performed during member Manon Bannerman’s hiatus.

That kind of steady climb is exactly what separates a group with a devoted niche fanbase from one on the verge of mainstream crossover. A one-off viral moment gets attention. Twelve weeks logged on the Official Singles Chart, as “Pinky Up” managed, means people keep coming back.

The timing behind “Animal” isn’t accidental either. KATSEYE’s documentary film, “KATSEYE: WILD HEARTS,” begins a limited UK cinema run on August 12, and the Wildworld Tour lands at London’s O2 on September 3 and Manchester’s Co-op Live on September 6 — evidence that the arena-level demand is already there, waiting on a single big enough to match it.

The music video, released via the group’s official account, leans harder into choreography than previous rollouts, all six members in matching black suits. For a group whose origin story — assembled from 120,000 global applicants through the Hybe-Geffen reality series that became the Netflix documentary “Popstar Academy: KATSEYE” — was always built around scale, a bigger, more disciplined visual statement tracks.

By the Numbers: KATSEYE’s UK Chart Climb

Whether “Animal” becomes that Top 10 breakthrough is still an open question. But the pattern behind it — steady growth, arena-scale demand, and now trade-press validation — is the kind labels build entire campaigns around.