Baby Shark to get a sibling next year, 12 years after debut

Baby Shark, one of South Korea's most iconic characters, is set to welcome a younger sibling next year — 12 years after the franchise first debuted.

Kim Min-seok, chief executive of The Pinkfong Company, said in a recent interview at the company's office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, that the "Baby Shark Family" had maintained the same lineup of mother, father, grandmother and grandfather for more than a decade. "We plan to unveil a younger sibling and new friend characters for Baby Shark in the first half of next year, and expand the universe and storylines around them," he said.

The franchise's distinctive cast has been central to its appeal. For more than 10 years, five family members — the cute Baby Shark, the lovely Mommy Shark, the strong Daddy Shark, the caring Grandma Shark and the cool Grandpa Shark — have anchored the world of the beloved children's song.

The 2021 animated series "Baby Shark's Big Show!" had already introduced a colorful circle of friends beyond the family: William the pilot fish, Chucks the shy seahorse, Bola the sports-loving octopus, Goldie the vain goldfish and Hank the youngest of the group, a whale. The sibling and friend characters The Pinkfong Company plans to reveal in the first half of next year will be entirely new additions, separate from those existing characters — marking the first expansion of the core family lineup in more than a decade.

Baby Shark began as a YouTube nursery rhyme in 2015 and has since grown into a global intellectual property available in 25 languages across 244 countries. Buoyed by its success, The Pinkfong Company's combined YouTube channels have accumulated 240 billion views — equivalent to every person on Earth watching 30 times — with total watch time reaching 12.2 billion hours. The flagship video "Baby Shark Dance," with its infectious "doo doo doo" refrain, has captivated children around the world.

A "Baby Shark Challenge" that swept Indonesia and other parts of Southeast Asia in 2017 later spread to English-speaking markets including the United States and the United Kingdom, turning the song into a global phenomenon.

In the early days of the craze, company executives donned character costumes and appeared at major shopping malls and on local television programs across Southeast Asia, helping ignite the viral spread. "Baby Shark Dance" was certified by Guinness World Records in November 2020 as the most-viewed video on YouTube, and in January 2022 it became the first video in YouTube history to surpass 10 billion views on a single upload, earning a second Guinness record. As of July 2026, the video has accumulated 17.09 billion views and still holds the all-time No. 1 spot on YouTube.

The song's chart performance has been equally strong. It debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 32 in 2019 and remained on the chart for 20 weeks, while in the United Kingdom it peaked at No. 6 on the Official Singles Chart and charted for 39 consecutive weeks from September 2018. In May 2026, it surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify, earning a spot in the Billions Club, and now draws about 23 million monthly listeners. Kim attributed the song's enduring popularity to its participatory nature. "The competitive edge of Baby Shark is that its catchy hook song, paired with simple dance moves, gets children not just watching but singing along and dancing," he said.

Meanwhile, the boy who appeared in the original Baby Shark video recently made his debut under the stage name BabySharkBoy, delighting longtime fans. He released a digital single, "Wave," on Wednesday. Kim said the development illustrated the franchise's potential to grow with its audience. "BabySharkBoy was a case that showed the possibility of expanding the IP across generations. Rather than limiting Baby Shark to a kids' IP, we let the age range and universe expand naturally as fans grew up," he said.