The time of the year has come folks, I was waiting the last gaon update of the first half to have the panorama of sales after the fraudulent era of inflated sales came to an end in the last quarter of 2023, so let's get straight to the data.
Top 10 best selling albums of 2024 until june:
- Ive - Ive Switch: 1,691,936
- Gidle - 2: 1,686,856
- Twice - With You-th: 1,237,984
- Aespa - Armageddon: 1,168,907
- Lesserafim - Easy: 1,163,827
- Newjeans - How Sweet: 1,085,355
- Newjeans - Supernatural: 1,021,730
- Nmixx - Fe3O4: Break: 780,429
- Illit - Super Real Me: 668,336
- Babymonster - BabyMons7er: 582,797
For comparison, the top 10 of the first half of 2023 was this:
- Aespa - MY WORLD: 2,018,429
- Twice - READY TO BE: 1,687,758
- Ive - I've IVE: 1,578,495
- Newjeans - OMG: 1,573,475
- Lesserafim - UNFORGIVEN: 1,513,834
- Gidle - I feel: 1,161,125
- Nmixx - expergo: 956,319
- Stayc - Teddy Bear: 404,798
- Kep1er - LOVESTRUCK!: 177,900
- Got the beat - Stamp On It: 171,335
And as the only user brave enough to call out the fraudulent sales we were witnessing not so long ago I was also expecting all those girl groups release to see how their albums sales perform after it, so here is the list of biggest drop of sales:
- Itzy's Born to Be: 52.93%
- Newjeans' Supernatural: 52.31%
- Newjeans' How Sweet: 49.34%
- Aespa's Armageddon: 45.5%
- Red Velvet's Chill Kill: 41.67%
- Aespa's Drama: 39.2%
- Twice's With You-th: 26.13%
- Lesserafim's Easy: 25.95%
- Ive's Ive Switch: 19.41%
- Nmixx's Fe3O4 Break: 18.12%
You can check the spoiler part to see the full display of each drop calculation.
Ive
I've Mine: 2,099,389
Ive Switch: 1,691,936
Drop: 19.41%
Twice
Ready to Be: 1,675,890
With You-th: 1,237,984
Drop: 26.13%
Aespa
My World: 2,144,573
Armageddon: 1,168,907
Drop: 45.5%
Drama: 1,303,919
Drop: 39.2%
Lesserafim
Unforgiven: 1,571,548
Easy: 1,163,827
Drop: 25.95%
Newjeans
Get Up: 2,142,195
How Sweet: 1,085,355
Drop: 49.34%
Supernatural: 1,021,730
Drop: 52.31%
Nmixx
Expérgo: 953,087
Fe3O4: Break: 780,429
Drop: 18.12%
Itzy
Kill My Doubt: 1,207,934
Born to Be: 568,622
Drop: 52.93%
Red Velvet
The ReVe Festival 2022 – Birthday: 1,048,239
Chill Kill: 611,531
Drop: 41.67%
So let's be clear, yes 100% there was a period of fraudulent sales on kpop, it was obvious before but is totally confirmed now. Yes some of these drops also have other factors influencing them, the most obvious one is itzy releasing an album with a member missing or some aespa fans pointing SM bad decisions like no distribution on the west for armageddon. I also think that still some of these sales are still inflated by some methods less fraudulently like cheap digipacks, lot of versions and photocards, but this is better than kpop companies and fandoms previous uncontrolled period of constant and absurd increase of sales.
I don't know if kpop companies really thought they could keep this fraudulent scheme forever or they simply didn't thought enough about it and just went along since everybody was participating in the fraud, but I'm glad time gave me the reason as always and proved how fake those sales were.