Annual Album Sales Surpass 40 Million as K-Pop Fandom Grows

BTS. Photo by Asia Economy DB

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] Thanks to the growth of the global K-pop fandom, the album sales of domestic artists surpassed 40 million units this year.

According to a column posted on the homepage on the 21st by Kim Jinwoo, Senior Researcher at Gaon Chart, the total physical album sales for the top 400 albums in Gaon Chart from weeks 1 to 50 (until December 12) this year amounted to approximately 40.26 million units.

This represents an increase of about 64% compared to last year's top 400 total (approximately 24.59 million units).

Album sales have steadily grown, recording approximately 10.8 million units in 2016, 16.93 million units in 2017, and 22.81 million units in 2018.

Researcher Kim analyzed, "The increase in album sales since 2017 has been significantly influenced by overseas export volumes, and especially this year, that influence appears to have been decisive."

Kim also explained that as the K-pop fandom grows globally, the regional distribution is diversifying.

According to a recent announcement by the Korea Customs Service, the share of Asia in album export value decreased from 92.6% in 2017 to 75.8% this year (January to November), while during the same period, North America’s share increased from 5.3% to 14.2%.

Meanwhile, the total album sales by artist this year ranked BTS in first place. Following them were Seventeen, NCT, BLACKPINK, NCT 127, IZ*ONE, TWICE, EXO Baekhyun, Stray Kids, and TOMORROW X TOGETHER, forming the top 10.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.