Promotional preparations began in August 2016 with the release of teaser images and their participation in songs and advertisements. YG Entertainment revealed the final line-up and name of the group on June 29, 2016.
Blackpink was the first girl group to debut under YG Entertainment in six years after 2NE1, with their debut single album Square One, which was released on August 8, 2016. The two lead singles charted at number one and two on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart, and Blackpink is the fastest act to do so and the third Korean artist or group to hold the top two positions after label mates Psy and Big Bang. "Whistle" topped the digital, download, streaming, and mobile charts on Gaon in August 2016. They also reached number one on the weekly, popularity, music video, and K-pop music video charts of China's biggest music-streaming website QQ Music. Blackpink's first music show performance was aired on August 14, 2016 on SBS' Inkigayo. They won first place on Inkigayo 13 days after their debut, and broke the record for the shortest time for a girl group to win on a music program after their debut. They wrapped up their promotions for Square One on September 11, 2016 with another win on Inkigayo.
Blackpink released their second single album Square Two with the lead singles "Playing with Fire" and "Stay" on November 1, 2016. The songs were produced by Teddy Park with R. Tee and Seo Won Jin. They performed their comeback stage on Inkigayo on November 6 and on Mnet's M Countdown on November 10, 2016. "Playing with Fire" was their second single to hit number one on the Billboard World Digital Songs chart. In South Korea, "Playing with Fire" peaked at number three while "Stay" managed to reach the tenth spot.
Blackpink's commercial success in their first five months earned them several rookie awards at major Korean year-end music award shows, including the Asia Artist Awards, Melon Music Awards, Golden Disc Awards, Seoul Music Awards, and Gaon Chart Music Awards. Additionally, Billboard named them one of the best new K-pop groups of 2016.
On January 17, 2017 Blackpink named their fan club "Blink", a portmanteau of "Black" and "Pink". On June 22, The group released a digital single titled "As If It's Your Last". The song was described as a "mixed genre of music", a change of sound from their previous releases. The song debuted at number one on Billboard's World Digital Song chart dated June 22 after only one day of tracking, making it their third number one hit on the chart. The music video for the song later went on to break the record for the most liked music video by a Korean girl group on YouTube.
On July 20, Blackpink held a showcase at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. It had an attendance of more than 14,000 people and it was reported that around 200,000 people tried to get tickets for it. The group made their Japanese debut on August 30, 2017, with the release of their self-titled Japanese extended play. Blackpink was ranked among YouTube's Global Top 25 Songs of the Summer for 2017, with their single "As If It's Your Last".