(Starship Entertainment, FNC Entertainment)

Quartet Sistar and septet AOA each released their respective third mini-albums, “Shake It” and “Heart Attack,” Monday.

The girl groups’ simultaneous launching of EPs gained heated attention from fans, curious to see who would rank higher on the real time popularity chart.

AOA, garnering a head start by releasing at midnight, held the top spot on the Melon song chart in the morning, but Sistar quickly took over after releasing its EP at noon.

As of 2 p.m., Sistar had edged out AOA, coming in first with the eponymous track from “Shake It,” while AOA closely followed in second, also with the title track from “Heart Attack.”

AOA is a rising rookie group that debuted in 2012. Sistar is seen as more established, with a relatively longer history starting from 2010.

Further drama is anticipated in the female K-pop acts’ landscape as more girl groups including Girls’ Generation, Apink and Girl’s Day are slated to release new material in July.

Watch AOA's "Heart Attack" M/V:



Watch Sistar's "Shake It" M/V:



By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)