SORRY FOR JUST COPY AND PASTE FROM REDDIT, I FIND THE DATA FROM OP IS INTERESTING AND DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO ADD
Hanteo First Week Sales:
pre-order-album-sales-appear-to-be-plateauing-12-down-v0-sffj9ob28syc1.png
Hanteo First Week Sales (Change)
It's been discussed before, but it appears for the most part, the Kpop album sales have reached a zenith. I couldn't happen to notice the last week of 2 powerhouse groups (SVT and IVE) were both down on their previous albums, and I wondered what the overall lay of the land was for the top groups.
It appears that apart from a few outliers (such as NJ, and Twice - which could be an issue with their shipping manifesting as a first week sales increase), the overall landscape appears to be at most leveling out, if not declining slightly. The change of added up is -12.02%, or about 3 million albums less then the groups earlier album. This is focusing on Retail Hanteo sales - mainly Pre-orders of albums. Whilst there may be some differences with the Circle data, it roughly follows the same trend.
Hanteo First week Sales Data:
pre-order-album-sales-appear-to-be-plateauing-12-down-v0-576l7rci8syc1.png
My note: I guess it's probably just fan fatigue. On average, Kpop groups come back once every 5-6 months, and between that, they release Japanese albums, go on tours, sell merchandise, and so on. The Kpop market is huge now, but exposure-wise, we didn't have Bts and Blackpink serving as free noise marketing for the whole industry. The bubble probably burst a bit already; the Kpop market is bigger now than ever, but at the same time, it hasn't really grown a lot like before.
