Top 10 highest album sales: BTS and TWICE shows their potential, 2nd Gen groups surprise everyone
Including all the album sales in both the Korean and Japanese market, these groups are the “monsters” when talking about physical sales.
Recently, a post on an online forum in South Korean summarized the album sales of boy groups and girl groups throughout their career. Through those numbers, a chart of album sales in K-Pop history has been made. These numbers include the physical sales of the main group, units, solo and live albums released in both the Korean and Japanese market since debut.
With big strides in recent years, 3rd generation idols’ representatives such as BTS, EXO and TWICE surprise everyone with their achievements. BTS is the youngest group in terms of seniority, but they are leading the chart with 12 million albums sold. EXO is also impressive at #3 with 11,5 million albums sold since their debut. It has only been 3 years since their debut but TWICE soared through the girl groups chart to get to #2 with 4,5 million albums sold.
The rise of 3rd generation idols’ representative still cannot erase the strength of 2nd generation idols. TVXQ ranked #2 on the boy groups chart, surpassing EXO. BIG BANG, SHINee, Super Junior, and
However, the most surprising thing is the achievements of the 1st generation legendary groups. Compared to the 2nd and 3rd generation, most first generation idol groups have a shorter actual active period. They also have a very limited number of products (most groups do not have Japanese albums, unit group albums or solo albums). But with just over 10 albums, H.O.T, g.o.d, S.E.S, Fin.KL, … have reached the number that the juniors need dozens of albums to reach. Regarding the average number of copies sold for each product, H.O.T and Fin.K.L are the
Top 10 male idol groups have the highest album sales in their career:
- BTS
Total sales: 12,335,456 copies
Number of products released: 25
Average: 493,418 copies / product
2. TVXQ
Total sales: 11,589,644 copies
Number of products issued: 80
Average: 144,870 copies / product
3. EXO
Total sales: 11,529,611 copies
Number of products issued: 22
Average: 524,073 copies / product
4. H.O.T
Total sales: 6.097.677 copies
Number of products issued: 8
Average: 762,209 copies / product
5. Big Bang
Total sales: 5,609,557 copies
Number of products issued: 51
Average: 109,991 copies / product
6. SHINee
Total sales: 5.346.190 copies
Number of products issued: 51
Average: 104,827 copies / product
7. g.o.d
Total sales: 5.130.358 copies
Number of products released: 10
Average: 513,035 copies / product
8. Super Junior
Total sales: 4,959,344 copies
Number of products issued: 52
Average: 95,372 copies / product
9. Shinhwa
Total sales: 3,436,779 copies
Number of products issued: 22
Average: 156,217 copies / product
10. 2PM
Total sales: 3,255,797 copies
Number of products released: 48
Average: 67,829 copies / product
Top 10 female idol groups have the highest album sales in their career:
- SNSD
Total sales: 5,699,199 copies
Number of products released: 34
Average: 167,623 copies / product
2. TWICE
Total sales: 4,586,493 copies
Number of products issued: 15
Average: 305,766 copies / product
3. KARA
Total sales: 3,842,238 copies
Number of products released: 37
Average: 103,844 copies / product
4. S.E.S
Total sales: 3,579,859 copies
Number of products issued: 15
Average: 238,657 copies / product
5. Fin.K.L
Total sales: 2,158,698 copies
Number of products released: 7
Average: 308,385 copies / product
6. T-ara
Total sales: 1,149,905 copies
Number of products issued: 35
Average: 32,854 copies / product
7. APink
Total sales: 1,031,247 copies
Number of products issued: 29
Average: 35,560 copies / product
8. Red Velvet
Total sales: 964,577 copies
Number of products released: 11
Average: 87,688 copies / product
9. Baby V.O.X
Total sales: 899,065 copies
Number of products released: 9
Average: 99,896 copies / product
10. 2NE1
Total sales: 770,260 copies
Number of products issued: 14
Average: 55,018 copies / product
Source: Tinnhac
