Melon Music Awards 2026 (MMA2026): Lineup, Tickets, Streaming

If you’re in Seoul in mid-November, keep both weekend evenings free for Gocheok. Melon Music Awards 2026 (MMA2026) is on Saturday, November 14 and Sunday, November 15 at Gocheok Sky Dome. It’s the 18th MMA, and the first one to run for two days.

Tickets are sold only on Melon Ticket, and the first sale is Monday, October 19 at 8 pm Korea time. That’s only a few days away, so feel free to jump to the ticket section first.

Dates and performers can change on the organizers’ side. Open the Melon Ticket notice once more right before you book.

Melon Music Awards 2026 dates and venue

Both days start at 6 pm, and the show is set at 180 minutes a day. Day one is called “Global Day” and day two “Music Day.”

Item	Details
Dates	Saturday, November 14 and Sunday, November 15, 2026
Start	18:00 both days, 180-minute show
Venue	Gocheok Sky Dome (430 Gyeongin-ro, Guro-gu, Seoul)
Age limit	7 and up
Tickets	Reserved seats, 65,000 won, sold only on Melon Ticket
Broadcasts	Melon and wavve (Korea), U-NEXT (Japan), TVBS (Taiwan), 1theK (global)

The red carpet start time and the presenters hadn’t been announced as of October 15.

MMA 2026 lineup: who performs on which day

As of October 14, 26 acts had been announced.

Date	Performers
Saturday, November 14 (Global Day)	NCT DREAM, ATEEZ, YENA, RIIZE, TWS, RESCENE, Hearts2Hearts, I.O.I, aespa, Dragon Pony, IDID, AEN, TUIDE, HANA
Sunday, November 15 (Music Day)	IVE, KiiiKiii, CORTIS, hrtz.wav, NCT 127, PLAVE, 82MAJOR, NCT WISH, ILLIT, ALPHA DRIVE ONE, LNGSHOT, AND2BLE

Check which day your bias is on before you book. Tickets are limited to two per person across both shows combined, so if you want to go both days, you’ll have to do some math.

MMA 2026 tickets: who can buy, and when

You need a paid Melon subscription to buy MMA tickets. The rule has been in place since 2025 as a way to stop resale.

Round	When (Korea time)	Who can buy
1st	Monday, October 19, 20:00 to 23:59	Melon GOLD members and above. Ground and stair seats
2nd	Thursday, October 22, from 20:00 until sold out	Members with a Melon subscription. Remaining seats and cancellations from the 1st round

Reserved seats are 65,000 won. The notice doesn’t list different prices by zone. Last year (MMA2025) every zone was 55,000 won, so this is 10,000 won more.

A paused subscription or some free-trial subscriptions won’t work. Wheelchair seats are taken by phone only (1899-0042), starting Friday, October 23 at 10 am.

Last year, picking up your ticket at the venue required the booking confirmation and the booker’s own physical ID. A copy or a photo of the ID wasn’t accepted. This year’s MMA notice doesn’t say anything about it yet, so it’s safest to prepare as if the same rules apply. If you’re a visitor, bring your passport.

Posts offering to buy, sell or hand over tickets get deleted from the Melon Ticket board. Buy only from the official seller.

Buying MMA tickets from abroad

This is the murkiest part. I couldn’t find a foreigner-only sale or an overseas booking route for this year. You can switch Melon Ticket’s pages to English, but the MMA notice itself is in Korean only.

In 2022 it was reported that foreigners without a paid Melon subscription couldn’t buy tickets. I also couldn’t confirm whether a foreign phone number can get through Melon’s identity verification and subscription payment. A fan post on Fanplus from last November warned that the second-round verification might not work with an overseas number and that foreign cards may or may not go through. That’s a fan’s note, not an official one.

A passport-verification company wrote in February 2026 that Melon Ticket was using passport checks for some other concerts that month, since overseas fans often can’t use phone verification. That’s the company’s own blog, not Melon, and it doesn’t mention MMA. The post also links to a separate English-language site called Melon Ticket Global, and I couldn’t check whether MMA2026 is listed there.

The practical move is to sign up, pay for a subscription and log in to Melon Ticket before October 19, so you’re not sorting out accounts at 8 pm on the night. If you’ve survived a ticketing war before, it’s the same drill.

MMA 2026 voting

TOP10 voting runs on Melon from October 15 to 29, and category voting from October 30 to November 13. According to news reports, paying members get three votes a day and free members get one, and identity verification is required.

Reportedly, 300 invitations will go to paying members who vote in this period, 20 people a day. I confirmed that from an article rather than a Melon notice, so double-check it on the voting screen.

The new Global TOP 10 award this year is decided 60% by the Global-K chart, which combines the Melon, Tencent Music and LINE Music charts, 20% by judging and 20% by fan voting. Overseas fans vote for this award on the Berriz fan platform.

How to watch MMA 2026 from home

If you can’t be there in person, you’ll be watching on a screen. Melon’s official English page lists the broadcasters as Melon and wavve in Korea, U-NEXT in Japan, TVBS in Taiwan and 1theK globally. Overseas viewers can also watch on the Melon or 1theK YouTube channels, though some countries are left out.

wavve reportedly streams the red carpet and the main show live on both days and posts replays afterward. Channels, times and subtitles for each country haven’t been detailed yet.

Last year, U-NEXT showed it in Japan without subtitles, and Germany had MagentaTV.

What past attendees said

The notices don’t tell you much about the night itself, so I looked for people who’ve been. I couldn’t find an English blog post or forum thread by someone who attended, so these come from Korean bloggers.

One Korean blogger who won tickets in an event last year went at 11 am, thinking seats were first come, first served, and found a line already about 400 meters long. They picked up their ticket around lunchtime and sat in a ground seat near a side stage. The show was long, so they ate before going in.

Another Korean blogger, invited as a Melon supporter the same year, saw a long entry line as soon as they got off at Guil Station. It was cloudy and chilly outside but warm inside the dome. They sat on the third level and mostly watched the stage on the big screens. After a five-hour show, they got home close to midnight.

A blogger who went in 2022 arrived at 4:15 pm for a 6 pm show. There were separate windows for people who booked, event winners and invited guests, and the line for people who booked was the longest. In a follow-up post they wrote that the ground area had plastic chairs rather than standing room, and that from row J in the stair seats it was hard to see faces with the naked eye.

Reality check

The show is 180 minutes a day this year, shorter than last year’s 300. Starting at 6 pm, it still won’t wrap up before 9. Eat before you go in.

The dome is warm inside, but the lines are outside. You may stand a while on a November evening waiting for your ticket, so bring a coat.

Two of the reviews said that from far-off seats you end up watching your favorite singer on the big screens most of the time. Decide on binoculars once you know your seat.

I haven’t found official bag rules or a list of banned items. I’ll update this when the official rules come out.

Getting to Gocheok Sky Dome

The closest station is Guil Station on Subway Line 1, Exit 2. Walk straight about 150 meters and you’re there in about 3 minutes. The operator’s English page says around 5 minutes, so budget five.

Guil Station gets crowded on show days. Seoul Facilities Corporation, which runs the dome, says to get off at Guro Station if you’re coming from Seoul, Suwon or Anyang, and at Gaebong Station if you’re coming from Incheon or Bucheon.

Station	Exit	Walking time
Guil (Line 1)	2	3 minutes
Gaebong (Line 1)	2	15 minutes
Guro (Line 1)	2	20 minutes
Sindorim (Lines 1 and 2)	Bus, three stops

Coming from abroad, the same English page says airport bus 6018 runs from Incheon International Airport to Sindorim Station, and several city buses go from there to the dome. I didn’t find an official page that lays out the whole trip from the airport to Guil Station by subway, so let a map app plan it.

Install NAVER Map or KakaoMap before you fly, since VisitKorea says Google Maps navigation doesn’t work in Korea. A T-money card covers the subway and buses.

If you’re in Korea in November anyway, the Busan Fireworks Festival on the 7th might fit into the same trip. I collect more posts like this under K-culture.

I update this post at the same address every year. When the red carpet time, presenters, broadcast times by country and entry rules come out, I’ll add them right away. Yes, I’ll be refreshing the Melon Ticket notice again.