2026 TMA winners are now confirmed after the final awards were announced in Busan on September 19. Four different acts took the ceremony’s four grand-prize categories: ATEEZ won Icon of the Year, NMIXX won Sound of the Year, RIIZE won Muse of the Year, and CORTIS won Record of the Year.
The four grand prizes are the clearest place to start, but they do not tell the whole story. CORTIS finished the night with three awards, several acts collected two trophies, BTS won multiple FANNSTAR categories, and Artist of the Year was shared by 11 acts rather than given to a single winner.
There is also one important naming detail to clear up. ATEEZ’s grand prize was Icon of the Year, not Artist of the Year. ATEEZ did also receive Artist of the Year, but that was a separate multi-winner category. The same distinction matters when reading the final results because TMA uses several “of the Year” titles that do not all carry the same role.
2026 TMA Winners: The Four Grand Prizes
| Grand-prize category | Winner | What the category emphasizes |
|---|---|---|
| Icon of the Year | ATEEZ | Digital performance, physical albums and trend impact |
| Sound of the Year | NMIXX | Primarily digital performance, plus judges’ score |
| Muse of the Year | RIIZE | Digital performance, performance score and trend impact |
| Record of the Year | CORTIS | Primarily physical album performance, plus judges’ score |
The four awards are not simply four different names for the same calculation. TMA’s official judging criteria give each category a different balance. Icon of the Year is weighted 60% toward digital performance, 20% toward physical albums and 20% toward trend-related performance. Muse of the Year uses 60% digital, 20% performance and 20% trend-related performance. Sound of the Year is weighted 80% toward digital results and 20% toward judges, while Record of the Year flips the emphasis toward albums with 80% physical performance and 20% judges.
That makes the final results easier to read. ATEEZ, NMIXX, RIIZE and CORTIS were not simply handed four differently named versions of the same award. Each group topped a category built around a different mix of performance data and judging criteria.
Why ATEEZ’s Result Needs a Small Clarification
During a live awards show, it is easy for “Artist of the Year” and the main grand-prize categories to blur together, especially when winners are announced in stages. The final TMA announcements make the structure clear.
ATEEZ won Icon of the Year and Artist of the Year. The first is one of the four top prizes. The second was shared by 11 acts: ATEEZ, TREASURE, NMIXX, RIIZE, ILLIT, RESCENE, KiiiKiii, ALLDAY PROJECT, CORTIS, ALPHA DRIVE ONE and Yena.
This is worth spelling out because a simple winners list can make it look as if ATEEZ alone won Artist of the Year. That is not what happened. ATEEZ’s unique grand-prize win was Icon of the Year, while Artist of the Year recognized a much wider group of performers.
The Complete 2026 TMA Ceremony Winners
| Category | Winner(s) |
|---|---|
| Icon of the Year | ATEEZ |
| Sound of the Year | NMIXX |
| Muse of the Year | RIIZE |
| Record of the Year | CORTIS |
| World Best Performer | TREASURE |
| Artist of the Year | ATEEZ, TREASURE, NMIXX, RIIZE, ILLIT, RESCENE, KiiiKiii, ALLDAY PROJECT, CORTIS, ALPHA DRIVE ONE, Yena |
| World Best Wave | EVAN |
| Global Hot Trend | tripleS, CLOSE YOUR EYES |
| Next Leader | CORTIS, ALPHA DRIVE ONE |
| Hottest | xikers, IDID |
| TMA Popularity Award | Lim Young Woong |
| Today’s Choice | RESCENE |
| Special Jury Award | Lim Young Woong |
| FANNSTAR CHOICE — Group | BTS |
| FANNSTAR CHOICE — Solo | Lee Chan Won |
| Best Music — Spring | BTS |
| Best Music — Summer | BTS |
| Best Music — Autumn | PLAVE |
| Best Music — Winter | Lee Chan Won |
| Global Hot Star Award | PLAVE |
| FANNSTAR MYSTAR — Male | Jin |
| FANNSTAR MYSTAR — Female | Sullyoon |
The list above reflects the awards announced around the September 19 ceremony. One FANNSTAR category sits outside that completed ceremony list: TMA Best Stage. According to the official judging page, voting for that performance-based award is scheduled to run from September 21 through October 19, so it should not be treated as a September 19 winner yet.
CORTIS Quietly Ended Up With One of the Night’s Biggest Hauls
CORTIS stands out once the full winners list is viewed as a whole. The group won Record of the Year, Artist of the Year and Next Leader, giving it three separate trophies across the main TMA categories.
That combination is especially interesting because the three awards point in different directions. Record of the Year is heavily tied to physical album performance, Artist of the Year recognizes broader activity during the eligibility period, and Next Leader is positioned around rising acts. Winning all three in the same ceremony puts CORTIS in an unusual place: both a developing act and one of the night’s top album-based winners.
ATEEZ, NMIXX and RIIZE each paired a grand prize with Artist of the Year. TREASURE paired Artist of the Year with World Best Performer. RESCENE took Artist of the Year and Today’s Choice, while ALPHA DRIVE ONE combined Artist of the Year with Next Leader.
NMIXX and Sullyoon Had Two Different Kinds of Wins
NMIXX’s Sound of the Year win is a good example of how TMA separates performance-based awards from fan-voted categories. The official criteria give Sound of the Year an 80% digital weighting and 20% judges’ score. NMIXX was also one of the 11 Artist of the Year winners.
Separately, Sullyoon won the female FANNSTAR MYSTAR award. That is not the same type of trophy as Sound of the Year. FANNSTAR awards are built around fan-voting structures, so grouping the two together as if they came from one scoring system would miss an important part of the result.
RIIZE Took Muse of the Year — and the Category Is More Performance-Oriented
RIIZE’s Muse of the Year award uses a different formula from Sound of the Year and Record of the Year. Its official weighting combines digital performance with performance and trend-related scores, giving stage impact and broader momentum a more visible role in the final result.
RIIZE also won Artist of the Year, giving the group two trophies from the main ceremony. Member Sohee later described Muse of the Year as a grand prize in a Weverse post, reinforcing how the group itself viewed the significance of the win.
BTS Won Three FANNSTAR-Section Awards
BTS did not appear in the four main grand-prize categories, but the group still shows up repeatedly on the complete winners list. BTS won FANNSTAR CHOICE — Group as well as Best Music — Spring and Best Music — Summer.
Jin added an individual FANNSTAR MYSTAR — Male win. PLAVE took Best Music — Autumn and Global Hot Star, while Lee Chan Won won Best Music — Winter and FANNSTAR CHOICE — Solo. Lim Young Woong also collected two awards: the TMA Popularity Award and the Special Jury Award.
The Award System Matters as Much as the Names
The full winners list makes more sense when the categories are separated by how they are decided. TMA’s official criteria state that its main awards draw on data from Circle Chart, Hanteo Chart and Melon, with an eligibility period running from September 1, 2025 through August 31, 2026. Each category then applies its own mix of digital scores, album scores, performance, trend-related measures and judges’ scores.
Fan-voted awards operate differently. The TMA Popularity Award was decided by pre-voting, while Today’s Choice was based on on-site voting. FANNSTAR categories followed their own voting schedules. That is why simply counting trophies without looking at the category can be misleading: a grand prize, an Artist of the Year trophy, a fan-voted award and a seasonal Best Music award are not interchangeable.
The 2026 TMA Was a Four-Way Grand-Prize Night
What stands out most in the final results is that no single act swept the top prizes. The four grand prizes went to four different groups, and each award reflected a different set of criteria.
ATEEZ took the broadest “icon” category, NMIXX led the sound-focused award, RIIZE won the performance-and-trend-oriented Muse trophy, and CORTIS topped the album-heavy Record of the Year category. The result is a four-way split rather than a sweep by one act.
For fans checking results the morning after the ceremony, the cleanest summary is simple: ATEEZ — Icon of the Year, NMIXX — Sound of the Year, RIIZE — Muse of the Year, CORTIS — Record of the Year. Everything else on the list makes more sense once those four are separated from the multi-winner Artist of the Year category and the FANNSTAR fan-voting awards.
For more background on how major K-pop awards fit into the industry’s wider growth, see KWaveScope’s history of K-pop’s five generations and our guide to how Korea’s Big Four K-pop companies differ.
Sources
- The Fact Music Awards — official 2026 event page
- The Fact Music Awards — official judging criteria and voting structure
- The Fact Music Awards official account — sequential 2026 winner announcements
- FANNSTAR / The Fact — ATEEZ Icon of the Year confirmation
- RIIZE Weverse — Sohee on Muse of the Year and Artist of the Year
- Soompi — full winners list cross-check
This article was checked on September 20, 2026. The ceremony winners listed above are complete based on the official announcements available after the September 19 event. TMA Best Stage remains a separate post-event fan-voted category with voting scheduled after the ceremony.