Display MoreBut Jisoo still outsold Suga overall, and she also outsold Jin, even though both of them only had 2 versions……..I think overall sales matter more. Not to be mean or a “bad ARMY” or anything, just stating the facts.
I *AM* AN ARMY (and also used to be a big BP fan if not actually a full-on Blink), I have bought all BTS albums and all but Born Pink from BP, just didn’t keep THAT close of an eye on how many versions every single member BOTH BTS & BLACKPINK had of their solo albums or anything since I wasn’t a HUGE fan of all of BTS’s members OR BLACKPINK’s newest solos, so I didn’t buy all of them and thus didn’t check out how many versions they each had. :P (I did buy some however, including that weird Weverse edition of J-Hope’s album they released at first that not even all ARMYs were aware of that didn’t even come with a physical CD, just a QR code for their Weverse Albums app and 3 photocards. I can take a picture of it, and all my other BTS albums and the BTS posters on my walls if you’re still not sure I’m an ARMY :P)
I agree that number of versions have an impact on sales, but am unsure how big of an impact they have on physical album sales nowadays, but I still think they’re not the biggest *END ALL BE ALL* factor for album sales as much as many Kpop fans think they do. For example, back in 2011, SNSD only released 2 versions of The Boys album in Korea (1 was a repackage), yet even before you count the repackage sales, it STILL OUTSOLD their following I Got A Boy album which had 10 VERSIONS (1 for each of the members + a group ver- most likely the album that started the trend of Kpop albums having a version for each member).
In my theory, that’s because The Boys overall as a comeback did better than I Got A Boy (for many reasons), which was more controversial due to its unusual song structure (yet also won Youtube’s Music Video of the Year award against Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, One Direction, etc and started the trend of disjointed song structures in Kpop, although Super Junior & SHINee did it first w/SPY and Sherlock (Clue + Note)). (Although I’m aware that the song The Boys didn’t chart as well in Korea digitally as the song I Got a Boy did. But digital chart ranking is not the only way you can measure the success of a comeback.)
Similarly, you might notice that some of BTS’s least popular songs since Dynamite were Life Goes On and Yet To Come, which likely impacted their respective album sales IN ADDITION TO the ridiculous prices and fewer number of versions of Be + Proof. Especially considering the only version of Be that was available for 3 months was $50! But Proof initially had both the affordable and expensive version available at release (priced at $25~ + $70 respectively). The $300 collector’s edition was released months later, lol.
I hope HYBE are not as stupid for BTS’s 2025 comeback and release a cheap digipack at initial release along with at least one normally-priced version, plus a version for each member or something like HYBE did with TXT. That would be amazing!! (Even tho most of us would most likely complain about being unable to collect them all, LOL~ XD;)
TBH I had no idea that BTS’s streams more than doubled after chapter 2 (when they went on hiatus and all their solos started) O_O That makes me feel a LOT better as an ARMY! Well tbh I agree I was mostly trying to stir up discussion….:P I do think ARMY have *mostly* stayed in place waiting for BTS (or apparently entirely if you look at those streams, LMAO)…..but notice that I DIDN’T say “ARMY are having a mass exodus to other groups”, I said they were “slowly trickling” since I noticed BTS’s solo albums haven’t been selling AS WELL as I expected from ARMYs as an ARMY, in my opinion, for whatever reason, even if you look at the number of versions and all that. But you know, if you look at the records they broke, I guess they all slayed, especially Jimin slayed, V slayed like I said, and JK will slay everything in his path too of course naturally.
And BTS will most likely slay everyone in their path who previously broke their record when they comeback in 2025. I do also agree with redcurtain that Seventeen and Stray Kids will most likely pass it back and forth between each other until BTS’s return however.
It’s an interesting take, I think Jimin still sold overall compared with Jisoo in terms of album sales (last time I checked the stats). But certainly Suga and Jimin did sell more than Rose and Lisa. But it’s strange as Lisa is much more popular than Jisoo, and their releases weren’t that far apart. Not to mention Lisa released it after HYLT which arguably a more popular era than PV if you look at the stats and views. You can say YG sabotaged her but it still doesn’t make any sense. It’s a bit hard to compare because the members of both groups are popular in different countries, like BP members absolutely dominate SEA but when it compares to US and Japan, the BTS members dominate. BP has always had better YT views compared with BTS since they debuted for MVs, so I don’t know why anyone is surprised when they dominate this metric. But when it compares to Spotify, it’s BTS. Again this is correlated to the markets they are big in. I think the only exception is Seven, I have not seen an Asian artist since PSY hit 1 billion on one platform this quickly, JK is expected to do this very soon. It’s not even doing badly on YT, 250 million after two months isn’t bad at all. I honestly don’t think people should care too much about album sales, it’s mostly bulk buying. Streaming is a much better indicator of one’s popularity…
