Celebrity

List of Kpop idols who sold over 500,000 copies in the first week in 2021

This is a milestone that was rarely achieved before by any K-pop idol (whether as a group or as a soloist), but this has completely changed in 2021.

Decades ago, it was common for a K-pop artist to sell a large number of albums because digital music was not as popular as it is now. However, in an age when people can easily listen to music online, it is admirable that K-pop artists still can sell a large number of albums.

The culture of buying albums to support idols has become stronger than ever, especially as the K-pop wave is spreading worldwide.  It used to be commendable for artists to sell only a few hundred thousand album copies in an entire year, but now they can even do it in a week.

Recently, a post on a Korean online forum has received the attention of Knets when mentioning Kpop album sales. Accordingly, it was very hard before for Kpop artists to have a total sales of 500,000 copies, but now it happens frequently, even in an incredibly short time. In 2021 only, there are 12 Kpop groups/solo artists that sold 500,000 copies in the first seven days after going on sale in 2021.

Note: 

– The statistics below are Hanteo’s – that is, the actual sales figures have been calculated. 

– Including solo artists and groups, and only those who sold 500,000 or more copies in the first week of release. 

– Sort the list from highest to lowest sales.

BTS – ‘Butter’ (1.97 million copies in first week of release)

Idols album sales chart

SEVENTEEN – ‘Your Choice’ (1.36 million copies in first week of release)

Idols album sales chart

NCT DREAM – ‘Hot Sauce’ (1.01 million copies in first week of release)

Idols album sales chart

NCT 127- ‘Sticker’ (929.5k copies in first week of release)

Idols album sales chart

EXO – ‘Don’t Fight The Feeling’ (902k copies in first week of release)

Idols album sales chart

Baekhyun – ‘Bambi’ (868.8k copies in first week of release)

Idols album sales chart

ENHYPEN – ‘DIMENSION: DILEMMA’ (818.7k copies in first week of release)

Idols album sales chart

Lisa – ‘LALISA’ (736.2k copies in first week of release)

lisa

ATEEZ – ‘ZERO: FEVER Part 3’ (665.3k copies in first week of release)

ateez

Stray Kids – ‘No Easy’ (641.5k copies in first week of release)

stray kids

TXT – ‘The Chaos Chapter: Freeze’ (630.5k copies in first week of release)

txt

The Boyz – ‘THRILL RIDE’ (523.6k copies in first week of release)

the boyz

For groups with strong album sales, such as BTS, EXO, SEVENTEEN, or NCT’s subgroups, this achievement is probably not surprising Meanwhile, K-pop boy groups are growing rapidly recently, as Stray Kids, ATEEZ, The Boyz, and TXT all sold half a million copies in just a week. Knets also praised Baekhyun (EXO) and Lisa (BLACKPINK) for being able to accomplish this feat on their own.

However, the factor that surprised Knet the most was ENHYPEN.  Accordingly, ENHYPEN just debuted in November 2020 and is just a rookie group.  However, with the first full album in their career, ”Dimension : Dilemma’‘ (the title song ‘Tamed-Dashed’), the group sold 818,700 copies in just 1 week.  This number surprised everyone. ENHYPEN is also the 4th generation K-pop group with record-high first-day and first-week album sales in Kpop.

Many Knets, who had previously believed ENHYPEN was not very successful, had to reconsider after seeing the group’s album sales. Meanwhile, many Knets pointed out that the HYBE family’s dominance can be seen in this list when they have up to four names: BTS, SEVENTEEN, TXT, and ENHYPEN. This can help predict the company’s “huge” revenue when 2021 ends.

Source
Tinnhac
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