NCT Turns 10. Here's Everything the Group Has Planned for the Year.
On April 9, 2016, NCT U released "The 7th Sense." Ten years later to the day, SM Entertainment launched NCT 2026 - a year-long anniversary project covering every active unit, with albums, world tours, a pop-up store, and a full exhibition all confirmed.
The group opened a dedicated website at 2026NCT.com at noon KST on April 9, publishing a full roadmap under the slogan "EVERYTHING, ALL AT ONCE, NEO." The timeline is dense.
NCT 2026 Roadmap by Unit
NCT WISH - First full-length album Ode to Love drops April 20. Japanese single follows in Q3, second album in Q4.
NCT 127 - Album and world tour in Q3, marking the unit's own 10th anniversary.
NCT DREAM - Fan meeting in Q3, new album in Q4.
WayV - Album and tour in Q3.
NCT JNJM (Jeno & Jaemin sub-unit) - Tour running June through August.
Beyond the music, two in-person events are confirmed. A pop-up store titled "POP UP: NEO GROUND" runs May 15-23 in Seoul. An exhibition, "EXHIBITION: NEO DIMENSION," is scheduled for Q3 - venue and international tour dates not yet announced.
The announcement lands one day after Mark Lee's contract with SM officially expired on April 8, ending his decade-long run with NCT 127 and NCT DREAM. NCT 127 continues as a seven-member group; NCT DREAM as six. Neither Mark nor Ten - who also departed SM on the same date while remaining a member of both NCT and WayV on a case-by-case basis - are referenced in the NCT 2026 roadmap.
NCT debuted under an "infinite expansion" concept that was met with skepticism in 2016 - a rotating, scalable roster with no fixed member count across multiple simultaneous units. Ten years in, the concept has produced four active units, a combined discography across Korean, Japanese, and Chinese releases, and a global fanbase operating across vastly different regional markets. The NCT 2026 project is framed as both a retrospective and a reset: the promotional website is designed as an ongoing archive connecting the group's decade of activity, while the roadmap signals continued output well into 2027.
SM said further content and events will be announced throughout the year. NCT WISH's April 20 album is the first concrete date on the calendar.
