Is a group that doesn't sell 100k albums in first week a failure now?

Album sales as a whole have increased so much in the past few years so popular acts are selling a lot more than they used to. But I don’t think album sales alone is a determining factor of what’s successful and what’s not. Very popular act can do that in hours but that doesn’t mean those who don’t are failures.

Expectations need to lower. The Chinese government is going to regulate fandom behavior.

I don't know why album sales are definition of flop or bop nowadays. I mean, their own fandom are the ones who are buying the album. When the fandom is big, then the album sales will also be big, vice versa. But it doesn't mean they are a failure. Staying on charts is more important because it shows the group and the song is relevant to the gp. Its just my thought.

Depends on the group tbh, if BTS doesn't sell 100k in a week, it's a failure, period. Also Idk why you brought up SNSD Oh!, that album was released in 2010, and physical sales have grown so much. With only that 65k 1st week for Oh! it's enough to get them a spot in the top 20 of 2010 Year End Album Chart ranking. Meanwhile 65k won't be enough to get you a place inside top 100 on 2020 Year End Album Chart.

Depends...album sales are equivalent to the size of a fandom which is good for the longevity/stability of a group.

Girl groups are more subject to the whims of the general public and can be ended by "bullying"/attitude scandals due to a lack of a sizeable dedicated fanbase

also to go old school - there's a Netflix documentary about boyz 2 men (super popular male vocal group in USA in early 90s) - they went from having successive singles be no 1 for 16 weeks at a time to nothing within the span of 2 years because they had mass appeal but didn't have a large super loyal core fandom - that would never happen to BTS!

A group is a failure if they can't make money. Physical album sales is just one measure. Unless someone can make a breakdown on how much it costs for a comeback vs how much they need to sell, the 100K figure is arbitrary. For what we know, it may be possible that these sells may not make a profit depending on final cost.

I think album sales are just a measure of how big a fandom is or how many fans that idol has. It helps the idols to make much profit if they managed to sell more albums. However, an artist that has good digital sales without strong physical sales can still find success. So that statement is completely wrong.

Physical album is only one criteria. As long as they're making surplus (income>>>expenses) whether in streaming, album sales, brand deals, tour, gigs, etc. They're not a flop.

[Unpopular Opinion] I even put groups that can bagging many brand endorsements are more successful than the groups that can sell 100k albums because low risk (no production cost), no risk of the goods will be returned and they get much money too. And the most important thing is the sign that they're relevant to the general public.

Like every body else just one category

the surge of album sales is expected

since the reach of kpop is getting wider

Some soloists can manage 700,000 in pre-orders alone so I feel group albums should be able to achieve even more. K-Pop is more popular worldwide now than ever before so I don't see why they shouldn't aim higher.

I think that's really unfair to say groups or soloist that doesn't sell that amount is automatically unsuccessful the criteria of being successful doesn't rely on physicals alone it's so much broader The expectations kfans put on kpop takes the fun out of it

Depends on the group and the company

For small company 100K in first week, it's already a big step ... for others it's a failure