Circle Chart announces the list of best-selling artists in 2022

2022 can be considered a successful year for the K-Pop industry, especially the explosive rise of girl groups.

In 2022, a total of 74,195,544 albums were sold, an increase of nearly 17 million albums compared to 2021 and 9 times more than the total number of albums sold 10 years ago – in 2013.

2022 is also the year that girl groups achieve a lot of success as the ratio of album sales by male and female artists has changed markedly. Male artists account for 83.5% of total album sales in 2021. However, in 2022, male artists only account for 66.2% and female artists contribute 32.6% of sales.

Below is the list of artists with the highest album sales in 2022 as announced by Circle Chart, the data published is based on the total sales of all artists’ albums from the 1st to the 50th week of 2022.

Top 15 artists with the highest album sales in 2022:

1. BTS – 6,078,249
2. Stray Kids – 5,837,407
3. SEVENTEEN – 5,463,151
4. NCT DREAM – 4,112,887
5. BLACKPINK – 2,825,311
6. TXT – 2,788,232
7. ENHYPEN – 2,697,962
8. IVE – 2,601,760
9. NCT 127 – 2,180,619
10. Red Velvet – 2,121,946
11. ITZY – 2,105,910
12. aespa – 1,982,552
13. TWICE – 1,981,926
14. TREASURE – 1,480,029
15. LE SSERAFIM – 1,256,479

Top 15 male artists with the highest album sales in 2022

1. BTS – 6,078,249
2. Stray Kids – 5,837,407
3. SEVENTEEN – 5,463,151
4. NCT DREAM – 4,112,887
5. TXT – 2,788,232
6. ENHYPEN – 2,697,962
7. NCT 127 – 2,180,619
8. TREASURE – 1,480,029
9. Lim Young Woong – 1,148,680
10. JIN – 1,038,349
11. ATEEZ – 1,032,721
12. NCT – 689,741
13. Kim Ho Joong – 686,676
14. RM – 685,416
15. THE BOYZ – 615,717

Top 15 female artists with the highest album sales in 2022

1. BLACKPINK – 2,825,311
2. IVE – 2,601,760
3. Red Velvet – 2,121,946
4. ITZY – 2,105,910
5. aespa – 1,982,552
6. TWICE – 1,981,926
7. LE SSERAFIM – 1,256,479
8. (G)I-DLE – 1,091,628
9. NMIXX – 1,044,744
10. Kep1er – 1,017,376
11. NewJeans – 691,606
12. STAYC – 629,924
13. Nayeon (TWICE) – 543,182
14. fromis_9 – 326,979
15. SNSD – 294,419

Total album sales over the years:

• 2013: 8,262,089
• 2014: 7,377,150
• 2015: 8,383,913
• 2016: 10,808,921
• 2017: 16,930,491
• 2018: 22,819,118
• 2019: 24,594,928
• 2020: 41,707,301
• 2021: 57,089,160
• 2022: 74,195,544

Percentage of album sales by male and female artists in the last 4 years:

• 2019: 82.8% (male) : 17.1% (female)
• 2020: 80.1% (male) : 19.3% (female)
• 2021: 83.5% (male) : 16.1% (female)
• 2022: 66.2% (male) : 32.6% (female)