Is 2-2.5mil going to be the plateau for kpop sales?

Quote from desdesdes

I've search something that maybe could help with this,
but it may be too broad to picture the situation.

so this is GDP growth of SK from 2010 to 2021

as you can see that it's quite stable around 2016-2017
and twice already hitting total sales of 500K around December 2016, and their more&more album hitting 500K sales on July 2020.

for izone they are hitting total sales of 500K around April 2019, and their oneiric album hitting 500K on June 2020.

but like I said, the SK gdp alone can't picture the whole thing since each of them had one album hitting 500K in 2020, which in 2020 their gdp is really dropping (also it's not like all people in sk buying kpop album ).
So there must be another factor, which is the global market.

and the kpop sales are indeed increasing along with the globalization of kpop to other sides of the earth.
So I think they key factor is the global market, mainly Japan and China. These two market will likely be the sustainer for 1 - 2 million sales number. But for how long?

and maybe the sales number could even increased if somehow the companies could grow a bigger market in the west. Like someone already said, 3 - 3.5 million is achievable; but only if they also had the West as their market.

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Definitely the global market will be the biggest factor in album sales. We know China and Japan continue to buy albums at a frenetic pace, but Kpop groups are even getting locals here to buy physical albums, something unheard of for most local artists.

I just remember back in 2019-2020, everyone was fainting at GGs selling 500k and now we've got literal rookies doing that at debut. Back in 2020, we all thought Hardy was nutso when he predicted over 1M in album sales for BP and the dude ended up being spot on. In less than two years since then, we've now got FIVE girl groups selling 1 million and a few more from this list that are on deck and within striking distance of reaching that threshold in a year or two (Red Velvet, NMIXX, Lesserafim, Newbeans, Kepler, StayC, Gidle).

In case you guys missed it, NMIXX joined the jewel ver. club.

Quote from onlyfacts

It depends on how willing companies are to increase the number of versions. It is visible that HYBE is. Like no one would have thought that Seventeen will eventually outdo their 15 versions from last year. But they somehow managed to get that number to 22 versions and repack with 18 versions. TxT and Enhypen also almost doubled to tripled their number of versions from last year. Both new HYBE girl groups debuted with like 8 versions (cmiiw). fromis_9 too I guess did like 11-12 versions. YGE too is in the same vein as HYBE with Treasure and Blackpink. SME is taking it slow compared to the aforementioned two. They are being sneaky just like JYPE increasing the versions.

So it depends on how much more these companies are willing because it is very much visible that the groups are actually not growing through their respective digitals. It all depends on the number of versions.

Just a friendly reminder that enhypen has sold 1M copies of an album with 3 versions first, before they got to sell another 1M copies of their latest album with more versions. Txt was also close to selling 1M even with small amount of versions.

Hybe just knows their groups have a big selling power and they're using that fact to generate even more money of them by adding more versions. If some nugu companies try giving 20 versions to their groups then they will still not be able to crack 500k sales.

GG gonna catch up BG album sales then after that the album sales bubble gonna burst since most of the sales is because of merch gimmick.

I don't know, not when shipping cost keeps increasing

Quote from Amsuej66

For once in my life, i want to see hybe go all for BTS using all the typical gimmicks and standard pricing. Just to see their selling power at a level playing field.

Nah. I don't want BTS/HYBE to do digipacks ver. BTS can definitely break their own records if they do 3-4 vers with standard pricing same as MOTS:7 actually. With their growth from that era to now & the growth of kpop albums overall-- I estimated BTS to sell 7M at minimum with the same roll out as MOTS:7.

Atleast, it shows that they don't need to do multiple versions & cheap tactics to do insane sales. Reminding everyone that BE deluxe alone with expensive pricing did 2.7M sales in 2020 despite it being released in November. Something that the rest of Kpop groups cannot do.

Do you know how many it sold up-to-date? onlyfacts Gaon mashed the Deluxe & Essential version so I don't know the exact sales overall.

Anyways, this 'power' of BTS actually backfired to the fans & to them as well. Now, HYBE have the audacity to hike up the price of their albums ever since the BE release on top of only doing 2 ver per album release. Knowing HYBE they will ofcourse put huge profits than album records (tho this only applies to BTS). Maybe, they will move if someone breaks MOTS:7 records & armys demand for more versions? Let's see.

Anyways, I'm also very curious to know how many sales they can actually pull with the same tactics as the rest (minus the digipacks).

Quote from onlyfacts

Both new HYBE girl groups debuted with like 8 versions (cmiiw).

lesserafim only have 3 versions (2 regular and 1 digipack)

Newjeans have 10 versions (3 bags, 6 photobook, 1 weverse QR card)

Quote from ISaidISaid

Versions have nothing to do with album sales I thought this is a well known and proven fact

Cheaper albums have affected album sales but number of versions not at all. And we have so many examples of it. Because bulk buying which boosts album sales people don’t even look at what album they’re buying. Lol. It’s all about the price and how many they can buy.

Totally not true. Have been proven if there is more versions ESPECIALLY member version, they will have impact on the total sales number

The latest obvious case is Blackpink's solo digipacks. Once they are announced, the sales went up a lot.