One group sold over three million copies for their first full-length album.
READ ALSO: The K-Pop Lexicon: What These Words Mean
Youtube views and Billboard chart placements are not the only records K-Pop artists are breaking these days. They dominate in physical album sales, too, selling not just thousands but millions of units globally.
Whenever a K-Pop group achieves this milestone, they earn an unofficial but coveted title—million sellers.
In the first seven months of 2021 alone, notwithstanding the prevalence of digital streaming platforms and a prolonged pandemic, a total of 26 million physical albums by K-Pop groups have been sold.
Here are some of the acts that now have the said title to their name.
EXO
After years without new music as a group, Kai, Chanyeol, Lay, D.O, Baekhyun, Sehun, and Xiumin—collectively called EXO—have come together again to work on a special album called Don’t Fight the Feeling.
Released in early June, it is now the group’s latest million-selling album with 1,216,175 copies sold, along with five others such as XOXO (2013), which included their breakout hit, Growl.
Member Baekhyun is also a million seller as a soloist. He achieved the feat twice with his last two EPs, Delight (2020), and recently, Bambi, which recorded 1,006,835 copies sold. The latter’s album sales were especially impressive as it was released just before his enlistment, which meant minimal promotion.
BTS
Known for breaking music records, it’s no surprise that BTS is the group that has the most million-selling albums—eight, to be exact.
The Permission To Dance singers—RM, J-Hope, Jimin, Jungkook, V, Suga, and Jin—have sold more albums in the last three years than they ever did since debut.
Map of the Soul: 7 (2020) is their best million-seller so far, with 4,515,669 copies sold. Map of the Soul: Persona (2019) is a close second, with 4,070,496 copies purchased, while BE (2020) follows with 3,662,219 copies sold.
Seventeen
The last three years have also been Seventeen’s most successful in terms of album sales. All four of their albums released from 2019 to present are million-sellers.
Your Choice, released just last June, sold 1,391,964 units. It’s a record just a few thousand copies behind their top million-seller, Heng:garæ (2020), which sold 1,436,314 physical albums.
Known for producing their own music and choreographing, the 13-member group—composed of S.Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu, Vernon, Woozi, Jeonghan, Joshua, DK, Seungkwan, Hoshi, Jun, The8, and Dino—are expected to release new music as they have renewed contracts with their company, Pledis Entertainment.
Blackpink
The four-member group—composed of Jennie, Jisoo, Rose, and Lisa—is the first K-Pop girl group to become million sellers. They’ve done it through their much-anticipated first full-length album aptly called The Album (2020).
It comes four long years after their debut, following intense clamor from Blinks or their fans.
Thanks to their local and international fanbase, the group who, prior to The Album, have only released no more than 15 songs, sold a total of 1,209,543 units.
The Lovesick Girls singers are currently focused on solo debuts, with member Lisa set to release her own music before summer ends in South Korea.
NCT Dream
Following the million-selling success of fellow units NCT 127 (Neo Zone and Neo Zone: The Final Round), as well as NCT 2020 (Resonance Pt. 1 and Resonance Pt. 2) last year, album sales are only getting higher for NCT.
Their other unit, NCT Dream, recently became the youngest bunch to achieve the million-seller milestone. The average age of the seven-member group—composed of Mark, Haechan, Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, Chenle, and Jisung—is 20 years old.
The group has sold over three million copies for their first full-length album—over two million for Hot Sauce and over a million for the repackaged edition, Hello Future.
Currently SM Entertainment’s flagship group, the multi-unit group is expected to release more new music before the year ends: a full-length and repackaged album from NCT 127; a full-length album from the Chinese unit, WayV; and NCT 2021, which will feature all 23 members from all units, and possibly with the addition of new members as per NCT tradition.
Banner Photo from @NCT_Dream on IG
