Why do NCT album sales increase so much more than other groups (Stray Kids, Txt,…) after NCT 2020?

IDK. TXT sells really well though, so I'm content, especially with their back catalogue. Their next album should have at least 1.2M preorders.

None of the other groups had chenles dad buying albums

I guess we all like to spend buying albums. We should be happy that our favorites can make money.

Idk maybe this is just my personal experience but it feels like something about NCT clicked with their 2020 full group comeback. I don't know if it was the way they promoted it, the many title tracks, the different units or the quality of the album they put out, but it definitely feels like it was spot on, and it brought a lot of new people to the fandom (including me).

Quote from bbb988

Album sales increase in general for everyone after 2020 because Kpop becomes more global and the pandemic starts. But before NCT 2020, NeoZone (NCT 127) has 530,000 preorders, then NCT 127’s next album, Sticker has 2.12 million preorders. That’s like 4 times higher. They sell 1.5 million more than their last. NCT dream also goes from 500,000 to 1.7 million preorders from Reload to Hot Sauce.

But if we look at other groups. Txt from Blue Hour to Freeze goes from 400,000 to 700,000 (a 300,000) increase; Stray Kids from Noeasy to this album goes from 830,000 to 1.3 million ( a 500,000 increase); Ateez from Fever p.1 to p.2 to p.3 goes from 250,000 to 350,000 to 810,000 preorders, still not comparable to NCT.

Why does NCT’s album sales jump so much more compared to other groups after 2020 when NCT doesn’t seem a have a bigger hit than the other groups in that time frame?

Kick it did really well in korea tho, at least better than these other bgs you mentioned. It opened the doors for 127 and the rest of units, then the yearly project sealed the deal. It was very hyped and during that time it seems nct 2020 attracted the most possible fans that groups like x1, got7, exo, etc left

Edit: Oh and it should also be noted that neo zone and its repackage was released in march-may 2020 while sticker in September 2021. That's a gap of almost a year and a half between releases.

Same case for dream. Reload was released in April 2020 and hot sauce in May 2021. A year of difference.

While cmiiw, the others groups released their albums in shorter time frames.

1+ year is enough time for a fanbase to grow and the sales jump was so big because unlike the others, they only had 1 release in 2020. The difference in increase is less noticeable when you have multiple releases each year.

Wayv also had a big increase (obviously not selling millions yet but 2020 was a turning point for them too). Just see how kick back sold after resonance era

Even though they are separate group they still have the advantage of being the same brand this isn’t rocket science lol.

I feel like I've answered this question before but here we go:

- NCT 127 has had slow and steady growth combined with the all-unit boost

The group was growing PRIOR to 2020 and improving with each comeback. We Are Superhuman was a setback for them in Korea because of the boycott (from a sales perspective), but a boon for them in the US and the West as they did the hard grindin' around the interview circuit across America during that album release, as reflected in the way they moved up the Billboard 200 Album Charts - Regular-Irregular was the first to chart at #86, when they began promoting more in the US. By the next album, they were #11, then #5, then #3.

That said, ISaidISaid is absolutely right here - the brand lifts the units. Sales of all units was higher post NCT 2018 Empathy and then again after NCT 2020 Resonance. These are major, heavily promoted, high visibility events that gain attention for the subs. What we saw with Resonance is that it could also elevate attention on members - fans became interested in WayV members like Xiaojun or YangYang because of their high visibility in Resonance. You can see the numbers jump in everything from first week Hanteo sales to total units on Gaon.

- The pandemic effect + social content

Quarkie is also absolutely accurate here. NCT, and particularly 127, has always involved itself heavily in content and their plethora of social content made it very easy for homebound people to find and fall in love with their content. Content can be serious or unabashedly silly, but it is very consumable in long or short form content. There is a pretty constant stream of content as well as jokes that reference other jokes or content created from fandom stuff. This all contributes to brand engagement and equity when albums come out.

Whether it's a fake late night talk, a spoof of vampires competing for a love interest or a play on America's Next Top Model, there's always something happening. In 2020, they really began to go even harder on content in our lockdown world. I mean, they even did an Adweek story about it..

How NCT 127 Turns Content Into a Digital Marketing Strategy

The K-pop collective and label SM Entertainment tell Adweek why personalization and creativity are key.

www.adweek.com

Much of this was also applied to NCT all-unit promos and other units, too, so it's not strictly a 127 thing. I mean, the snark everyone has had is that there are too many members and they can't get along, so they made a whole series about members that don't know each other well. Then they layered more fandom in-jokes into that - there's a moment in a behind the scenes video where Xiaojun seems intimidated by Yuta so they made a whole episode with those two AND referenced the moment.

- Long gaps between releases

Contrary to the idea that NCT has "releases all the time", the sub-units don't actually individually have that many. Neo Zone came out in March 2020, the next album Sticker came out in September 2021. (There was the Neo Zone repackage but that's just three more songs and a Japanese only release in February 2021). Similarly for NCT Drream, Reload came out in April 2020 and the next release in May 2021. Everyone was surprised (myself included) that Dream sold so well on Hot Sauce but that group puts out about one release per year - and those were EPs - of course those fans were excited to get a full album.

To put that in perspective, both groups launched in 2016:

(Korean releases only)

NCT 127 - 3 albums, 4 EPs, 3 repackages

NCT Dream - 1 album, 5 EPs, 1 album, 1 repackage

(other bg that launched in 2016 - this was a quick Google, if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me on these, fans of these groups)

Astro - 2 albums, 9 EPs

Pentagon - 1 album, 12 EPs

SF9 - 1 album, 10 EPs

Victon - 1 album, 6 EPs

- One final thought, it's strange that you're comparing their album sales growth to newer groups (which again goes back to the first point). NCT sub-units are 6 years old this year. That's a long time to build a large and loyal fanbase - it also means that there is more purchase power in the fanbase. As a working adult, I can spend a lot more money than I could as a high school or college student (there's a similar shift in purchase power for all "aging" fandoms.) And even though they have fewer releases than their peers, they do have a strong discography for people to dig into between albums to get even more hyped for the next one vs being a newer group that only has 1 or 2 releases.

How many album versions does nct 127 have? I only know what TXT had, which is 3 for Blue Hour/Freeze.

Bc Resonance 2020 era was a cultural reset

All the hoes had no choice, but to stan them

i think the101 got it down exactly.

personally, kick it got me hooked into 127 right away. resonance sealed the deal to stan the rest of nct as a whole. i have heard many people say the same thing esp bc of the pandemic. so the timeline makes sense to me.

Quote from dryheat

How many album versions does nct 127 have? I only know what TXT had, which is 3 for Blue Hour/Freeze.

I believe it's

Regular - Irregular - 2 versions

Regulate - I think there's only 1

Neo Zone - 3 versions

Neo Zone: The FInal Round - 2 versions

Sticker - 4 versions (one of those versions is a jewel case version exclusive to Target)

Quote from dryheat

How many album versions does nct 127 have? I only know what TXT had, which is 3 for Blue Hour/Freeze.

I think versions aren't really that important when it comes to album sales increasing? resonance has 2 versions and sold over 1.5 million copies. Universe with 1 version and 21 individual covers jewel cases sold 1.8 million copies

And 127 sticker has 3 versions + 10 jewel case individual covers, same as dream hot sauce.

Bc sm is lying

Nct sold more than 17 but doesn't appear on IFPI when sm love bragging about international charts

Quote from bbb988

Ok but similar to Kick it, God’s Menu was also a hit. It was very hyped internationally, even more hyped than Kick it internationally. And Stray Kids released In life in september 2020 with 300,000 preorders. Back Door was also big internationally, Stray Kids go on Kingdom as well and when they come back with Noeasy on August 2021, that’s one year, same with Dream/NCT 127, their preorders are 800,000. It didn’t increase 4 times like NCT did.

My point was to highlight their difference in korea. It's known nct main fanbase is korean, it's evidenced in how good the group and solos chart in 1st hour/day ( fandom-driven)

Kick it being bigger there than any 4th gen bg song helped to increase their fanbase and resonance sealed the deal. That's how they got such a supportive fanbase willing to buy albums like crazy, reaching 1million in first week even when shipping (to ifans) is difficult.

What other groups lack is a supportive and strong kfanbase. That could explain how nct jumped in sales more than them, and isn't like nct are nugus internationally.

So big ifanbase + massive kfanbase= increase 4x times, especially when units have only 1 release per year

Big/bigger ifanbase + medium sized kfanbase= good increase but not as big as nct's, especially because they have multiple releases per year so it isn't noticeable

Quote from bbb988

Ok, then let me compare NCT to Seventeen, Seventeen debuts one year earlier than NCT, which means they have even more loyal/older fans.

Seventeen releases three albums around that time frame Haengarae - June 2020 ; Semicolon - November 2020; Your Choice - May 2021. The preorders for them are 1 million - 1.1 million - 1.3 million. So the sales increase like 200,000 each time, not 1.5 million like NCT. And Seventeen digitals are decent too.

Or The Boyz - debut in 2017 - only one year later than NCT. Their album Chase in September 2020 did 400,000 copies. One year later, even after they went on Kingdom, August 2021, their new album did 600,000 copies - only 200,000 increase even after the exposure from Kingdom.

We can say maybe the increase is because NCT is in the big 4 companies and the others are not, but even then, why don’t that increase in sales happen in 2018, 2019, yet it happens exactly after NCT 2020?

Seventeen jumped from 1.3 millions with your choice to 2 millions with attaca so that's similar to nct

Quote from bbb988

Ok, then let me compare NCT to Seventeen, Seventeen debuts one year earlier than NCT, which means they have even more loyal/older fans.

Seventeen releases three albums around that time frame Haengarae - June 2020 ; Semicolon - November 2020; Your Choice - May 2021. The preorders for them are 1 million - 1.1 million - 1.3 million. So the sales increase like 200,000 each time, not 1.5 million like NCT. And Seventeen digitals are decent too.

Or The Boyz - debut in 2017 - only one year later than NCT. Their album Chase in September 2020 did 400,000 copies. One year later, even after they went on Kingdom, August 2021, their new album did 600,000 copies - only 200,000 increase even after the exposure from Kingdom.

We can say maybe the increase is because NCT is in the big 4 companies and the others are not, but even then, why don’t that increase in sales happen in 2018, 2019, yet it happens exactly after NCT 2020?

Again, I'll reiterate this is not a new trend. NCT 127's first week Hanteo sales for Regular-Irregular jumped 2.5 times after the release of Empathy, while NCT Dream's sales jumped almost 4 times. People aren't going far enough back in the data to look at the trends. This is a trend that already existed for NCT and was further accelerated/magnified by the pandemic effect, just like the acceleration of online shopping, online grocery shopping or OTT platforms. People had a lot of time on their hands to be online, doing and watching things.

Keep in mind, this is just the Hanteo and not the Gaon look, which I think just magnifies the effect of the larger marketplace.

Hanteo 1st week sales:

NCT 127:

NCT #127 - 26,659

Limitless - 34,592

Cherry Bomb - 56,593

NCT ALL UNIT - Empathy - 106,089

Regular-Irregular - 142,195

We Are Superhuman (K-fan boycott) - 122,374

Neo Zone - 276,748* (pandemic release just as things are closing down)

NCT ALL UNIT RESONANCE PT. 1 - 644,711

Sticker - 929,516

NCT Dream:

The First - 13,788

We Young - 34,031

NCT ALL UNIT - Empathy - 106,089

We Go Up - 124,118

We Boom - 182,970

Reload - 412,458* (pandemic release just as things are shut down)

NCT ALL UNIT RESONANCE PT. 1 - 644,711

Hot Sauce - 1,010,766

Both units were growing with each album, then they saw huge lifts post all-unit albums. NCT 127 went from 56,593 to 142,195 post Empathy, while NCT Dream went from 34,031 to 124,118. This also reflects the continued growth in Kpop since this occurred in 2018 and only continued to rise. Fundamentally, as I said, this is not a new trend - this is a pretty consistent pattern with NCT that got further magnified by the pandemic effect.

here's the data I'm using as a reference - I've removed the repackages here for a cleaner view and put the NCT all-unit releases in sequential order with the sub-unit.

Quote from killingtime1934

Bc sm is lying

Nct sold more than 17 but doesn't appear on IFPI when sm love bragging about international charts

SM doesn't submit its sales performance to IFPI, which we saw in previous years because there are other million selling SM artists that don't appear on the list either, when they would based on sales. Additionally, by this logic, anyone who was not on previous lists is lying, which includes other kpop that did not appear on this list in 2020. Are their labels lying too or is the more obvious answer that they just didn't report their sales data for that group?

It's crazy to me how last year people argued about the inaccuracy of the data and asked questions but this year it is presented as evidence of The Conspiracy.

Quote from 4d-maknae

I think versions aren't really that important when it comes to album sales increasing? resonance has 2 versions and sold over 1.@@@600b19a6-7c32-42a8-bada-c3544bf7ad3b@@@ million copies. Universe with 1 version and 21 individual covers jewel cases sold 1.8 million copies

And 127 sticker has 3 versions + 10 jewel case individual covers, same as dream hot sauce.

I'm sure it helps some

wait so 13 total??? Dang

Quote from dryheat

I'm sure it helps some

wait so 13 total??? Dang

Like I showed with the resonance and universe example it doesn't help a lot if there are other factors playing a part

And yeah the jewel cases have become something common now, but afaik at least with 127 it doesn't sell as much as normal photobook versions do

Quote from 4d-maknae

I think versions aren't really that important when it comes to album sales increasing? resonance has 2 versions and sold over 1.5 million copies. Universe with 1 version and 21 individual covers jewel cases sold 1.8 million copies

And 127 sticker has 3 versions + 10 jewel case individual covers, same as dream hot sauce.

Hot sauce didn't had individual cover or I missed it? Lol

Why are you all giving op answers and explanations they don't care about? Just tell them that the sales are fake and made up by SM, we all know that's what they want to hear

OP, many people mention NCT 2020, but for me what changes NCT's fandom size and success completely and brings them to a different level is NCT 127's Neo Zone.

For a start, SM does what's probably the best teaser and content promotion I've seen for a NCT comeback: every single b-side had a 'track video' which higlighted the song for about one minute, and the pre-comeback content was just so satisfying to follow. The pre-orders may have been around 500k, but with the release of Kick It, NCT gets a lot of hype on Korea, not only do they start charting decently (and still being the NCT song with the highest amount of unique listeners), but you can see the amount of other groups that cover the song is insane, it probably is the boygroup song from 2020 that had most people cover it, at least on Korea... And when you get a big fandom on Korea, it's not the same as say having a big fandom on the US. Asian fans are a lot more active on their support and they tend to buy albums more than western fans even nowadays.

If that's not enough, NCT was already getting a big chinese fandom before 2020, you would be surprised at the numbers some NCT bars were doing by 2019. almost EXO level.

Well, to be more direct:

- Neo Zone may had 500k preorders, but they end the year with around 850k sales.

- Reload sold like 700k

And then NCT 2020 happens, Resonance just was the next step to get a group selling even more. NCT releases Make A Wish which is the most viewed and liked NCT MV on YT so far, they get Dream as 7 again after some time, 90s Love, Resonance itself... NCT releases 2 parts of the album and both surpass the million easily (around 1,5M and 1,4M).

Then, last year, NCT Dream makes a comeback 1 year later with Hot Sauce, and not only it's the official return of Mark to the group, but it's the FIRST full album they get after almost 5 years since debut (yes, they were getting 1 EP for year and that's pretty much it), selling 2M while insane it's possible taking on account all factors and the push of Resonance. Then 127 came back with Sticker like 1 year and a half since Neo Zone. And apart from Resonance they had the hype after Kick It, and the motivation to surpass Dream's numbers (both units benefit from this competition between each other, and both get pushes from yearly projects if done well)

To all of this you have to add how even international nctzens are quite good at buying albums, they have charted on album charts from countries only BTS and BP could (and for some weeks as well), and 127 has been managing to chart on Billboard 200 since 2018, getting a #5 with Neo Zone and a #3 with Sticker.

they probably got new fans through their 2020 comeback.

I still don't understand why sales are so important? At this moment all groups sell, but popularity and sales do not define the winner, we all know that any group can become the most successful.

Quote from chounim

Why are you all giving op answers and explanations they don't care about? Just tell them that the sales are fake and made up by SM, we all know that's what they want to hear

I need you to stop making sense right now.

Quote from the101

I need you to stop making sense right now.

i refuse to believe people here didn't cotton on to op's shtick already

Quote from rukia24

I still don't understand why sales are so important? At this moment all groups sell, but popularity and sales do not define the winner, we all know that any group can become the most successful.

you had me in the first half. the only winner should be the group you end up liking the most, not whoever becomes more successful in the end.

Quote from bbb988

Ok but similar to Kick it, God’s Menu was also a hit. It was very hyped internationally, even more hyped than Kick it internationally(Spotify: Kick it: 89M; Gods Menu: 164M even though Kick it was released before). And Stray Kids released In life in september 2020 with 300,000 preorders. Back Door was also big internationally, Stray Kids go on Kingdom as well and when they come back with Noeasy on August 2021, that’s one year, same with Dream/NCT 127, their preorders are 800,000. It didn’t increase 4 times like NCT did.

This comparison is pretty nonsensical? NCT had a bigger and more established fandom when Kick It came out, than Stray Kids did when they released God's Menu.

And Kingdom is basically irrelevant to the growth discussion cause the viewership ratings were abysmal, even we fans literally had to watch it on Twitch streams so you can imagine people only casually interested could hardly watch the show (also because the directing was either boring or infuriating).

No way you don't have ulterior motives with this thread.

People like their music so people became fans and bought albums.

Also, your comparisons make no sense.

I assume that their albums are good, generally the album songs of SM groups have a certain level of quality. Their music style does not appeal to me at all, but their fans claim to love their music. Everyone's taste in music is different.