Well, I think they'll definitely end up selling 1.5 million combined..

And perhaps even 2 million combined, as these are bests.
Perhaps Japan isn't into best fever any more after Koda and Ken :\

It's just that these sales just looks like they're gonna crawl miserably to even reach the 700,000 (if they do).

Sorry, but combining the sales to add both is quite unfair. Maybe the majority of fans are buying BOTH albums, so we can count both sales as 1 album, but not combine them. As if A BEST 2 has sold over 400,000 copies so far instead of 800,000.

Hey lol at least we are being truthful right impact, and i get what J-nerd is saying too!! its a freaking BEST album. Hitoto Yo's album was freaking awesome and still charting i don't know the sales but dang it was explosive! there is no reason why fans should be worrying about Ayu's sales! There is no excuse really!! after all didnt you all say you have faith in her. And it is slightly over SECRET's sales!

I'm starting to wonder if it will reach 1 million (individually) since she has big drops in sales after the 1st week.

DerrickRocks: Hitoto Yo's BEST has sold ~650k so far.

it will hit a million! its Ayumi Hamasaki! if it doesn't oh well. She sold well but its not over yet, Ayu has work to do this year!

Comparing Ayu's sales to that, Ayu's really not doing too badly. A big reason why Yo's album has been selling well is because a lot of people don't buy her original albums(as far as I know), whereas lots and lots of people buy Ayu's original albums therefore there is less need for them to buy a best album from her.

:D Take that everyone else!~ xDDD

Woah so they are already the highest selling albums for 2007 in one week? Thats pretty good! Go ayu!

LOL I dunno what to say about the sales. As I said before it's not like combing two albums into one will = 800K. But it's good to see avex's strategy for "sucking up people's money" doing well this time :P.

What's so wrong with combining the sales?

Do you really expect everyone to go out and buy both? That's super expensive, especially when they already have all of the songs, and especially when Ayu isn't exactly at her peak anymore...

I think she's doing great.

Didn't someone mention that pre-order sales had already surpassed 1 mil? Are they not being taken into account here?

I never expected high sales for these albums in the first place so I wasnt dissapointed at all. Some ppl had really high hopes...sales and chart position really means alot to them...but u gotta remember ayu has already released A best and A ballads (which it didnt reach 1 million in total)...this is not her first best...this is released after her peak...9 years in the industry and still able to sell almost half a million for each of the best albums in the first week which she released on the same day is very good already.

I personally think that as Ayu fans, we have a duty to totally disregard sales as a means of measuring "Ayu's amazingness."

They're just stupid numbers that are bound to go down..
I feel REALLY sorry for fans of the old school artists that barely sell 200k now.. and we're like: "AW, She sold 400k twice. That's not good enough for us!"

Yeah exactly. The TRF example you used is a really good one. Also look at Puffy's latest hits collection - I believe it sold even less than TRFs did.

Oh wow. Over 900 000 combined!! Yay! I think they'll both hit about a million each.

For the majority of people, I do. That's why the sales have been so close.

I was puzzled at that..

I'm sure that the sales will trail one another throughout the coming weeks :\



It's a bit insane if you think about it... she's sold quite possibly the most a CDL DVD has ever sold.. with this ;D

That's amazing!! Great news. :]

XD It's only March, somebody will come by and break that most likely. Come to think of it Ayu has never had a number 1 yearly album.

Both albums will get a million I bet. Otherwise avex will come up with some new edition for it to sell more.

Just as long as Ayu can beat the sales of 'Black Cherry', then I'm happy. :]

^Individually or combined?

You're right. Highest she's ever gotten was #2. And she got that for like 4 years straight I think. (2000-2003)

Well, I'm proud of her. =) After 10 years, she still manages to sell this much for (two) best albums? I'd be throwing a crazy party.

And that record for the 2 #1 albums is pretty cool!

i at least want ayu to get number one for the oricon year
she definitely deserves at least one album on it after 9 years
even though it's a BEST album

http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/rankmusic/42666/
WHITE: 475000 copies
BLACK: 470000 copies

and what does it say about Ayu beating Hikki's mum's record??
(I saw this initially @ ila posted by wincy)

so since ayu is the 1st time in 36.5 years, who was before her? does anyone know?

^1st time in 36.5 years that a female artist had a #1 and 2 weekly album on the same week?

I agree. I bought both CDs and I love them. I would buy the CD-only versions too if I could afford it. I want her to sell lots and lots and be #1, but buying it and liking it; that should be enough. Anyone who doesn't buy it; their loss. :p

this is amazing!!! I knew SOME sort of good numbers would come into play SOMEWHERE along the way...

and what's the harm of combining the sales? The two separate albums are basically two installments of one album... so why not count them as one?

GOOD! this much better than the indicator numbers.. In this case she manage to hit 1 mil.. congrat to AYU!!!!

not bad...but i hope she get a better sales..hope next week she can sales about 200k for both of them. so it can hit a million sales

Good sales indeed. I hope A BEST 2 will keep this pattern for some weeks.

Not bad! :) A BALLADS sold 560,000 copies in its first week

Yea
This mean A BEST 2 sold almost 1mi in 1 week
oricon did a good job terrifying Ayu's fan after all
XD
YAY !!!
GO AYU!!!

whieee

think of these best alums as A BEST 2 individually .. which sold 945 000
yay ! thats a loT !

When you think of the sales combined, it's like o___o wow.

hmm as I predicted...a best white is more favorable in Japan
since a majority fans loved her fun/happy/jumpy songs

haha i dunno what to feel now...
separately, i was hoping 500k for one...but together its really whoa...

i also hope she is top album of the year..but this is way too early to say...

Well, if Ayum can't beat Second Sessions, that'll be sad. She tried. =) Lets see if she can even hold her top position, Koda is releasing a third best, so yeah...exile. Erm...=) Go ayu.

Well, you have to remember;

In Koda's case, ~ss~ was released during her "peak popularity."

It'd be comparable to Ayu releasing A BEST and I am.. in 2001. Had Ayu had the immense popularity that she had then, I think she probably would have sold like 2 million first week easily for like, EACH of these..

wow!!!! keep it up Ayuu!!! the sales are not bad..

Exact figures by Oricon:

*1　| A BEST 2 -WHITE- | 475,284
*2　| A BEST 2 -BLACK- | 470,057

Why do Ayumi fans have this inferiority complex that their favourite artist's sales matters to them so much?

It's like they have to reassure themselves, 'she sells so well, I still have a reason to like her'. When she doesn't, they find all the reasons in the world to explain why her sales are dropping like no tomorrow. It's so amusing to watch.

Divide sales for the first week by 2, then on the next week sales should be around 200k, and combined sales of the 3rd and 4th week and then A BEST 2 should reach 1 mil. each other, that's my theory.

Go Ayu !!

Thanks *-*

Looks like neither of the albums will reach a million.

Nice sales, but a bit lower than I had expected.

Thank god ... not as bad as I thought the sales will be. 470k for each album isn't that bad. And that was just the 1st week. I hope the sales will go much higher. 1.1 million for each shouldn't be so hard to achieve. well ... we'll see ... maybe Japan is going back to roots of the good old fashioned J-Pop and in that area no one can compete with ayu. Let's go get 'em girl. *gg*

No... I think that low sales means that avex will support her less (less than now... :tired ) and that because of that, releases will have poor quality... (look at Ami Suzuki for example :( )

alot of people are saying it isnt! and i know your a huge ayu fan!! ^.^ but dont give up yet! soon as this new tour starts the sales will rocket!

its a little low for me too..i thought it can hit 800k for both of them in the first week...but lets see..i really hope it can hit million

Well, basically any album selling lower than 550k in the first week will not reach a million.

What about Mika Nakashima? She sold around 480k first week and eventually got 1.08 million..

Best albums imo are exempt from that "550k" rule..

True. We'll just have to wait and see if the 2nd week drop follows the normal 70+% drop.

Oh yeah, same goes for Porno Graffiti's "BEST BLUE'S" [which was co-released with BEST RED'S..]

After a while, BLUE'S touched upon a million and RED'S was in the high 900k-range. [They debuted with sales of like 460 and 430k..]

That rule applies to the biggest artists.

I think ORICON didn't take into account the preorder sales and some of the other less prevalent cd shops in Japan~ Perhaps they should make an estimation of that as well. If those counts as well, A BEST 2 might reach almost to a MILLION~
But I believe that the 2nd week will have a big drop because people perhaps are saving money to buy koda's new album... BOUNCE & LOVERS. and as well as Mika's new album YES!

The 3rd best is a limited edition. And technically, she isn't holding the top spot (since it's only the Oricon year that counts).

The indicator total for yesterday was 12-13k for the albums. If she manages to average 12-13k for the rest of the week, she would sell ~150k for the 2nd week.
====
A BALLADS went from 561,127 => 129,241 (and it didn't even reach 1 million in the end)

I think A BALLADS had a problem with the covers..
Like, the Japanese people were like "HUH."

I hope black gets no.1 at the 2nd week :)

anyway lets hope it will sell 1,000,000 copies :P

^i think the cover is ok..i have two poster of a ballad at my room wall...
about a million hit..lets pray the best for ayu..hope this album not follow the pattern like her original album that drop the sales for 70% in the second week

I have nothing to complain about sales-wise. Those numbers are great and I'm sure that in hindsight everyone will think so too since over 970,000 copies of one person's albums were sold in a week. That's almost a million.

Anyway, if this were a double-CD set, would Oricon combine the sales like Billboard does for double-CD sets lasting longer for 100 minutes? If so, there is nothing wrong with actually combining the sales.

^I don't think Oricon does that, as Ken Hirai's utabaka would very well probably be counted as selling 4 million copies...

GOGOGO, Ayu!!!
just ordered the black+white DVD jp version. this will +1 to the chart ;)

Woot. Great number. Glad it's selling well.

Porno Graffiti is a big artist.

What do you mean by "double CD set"? Like a 2CD + DVD kind of thing?

Omedetou Ayu!! Great sales for first week!! =)

I JUST GOT MY COPIES TODAY! I WAS SO EXCITED! FINALLY I COULD LOOK AT THE COVERS, THE BOOKLET, VIEW THE ENTIRE TRACKLIST, LISTEN TO AND WATCH THE PV TO PART OF ME! I LOVE IT!

i got my CD of white today, i got Black yesterday!!

this is frikkin sick.


go ayu

Great sales :) keep it going Ayu

I have a question,
Did Rody! make a mistake using the US calendar instead? XD
coz A BEST 2 debuted on 28th right?~ XD

The Oricon chart for 2/27 has all the new releases that are going to come out on 2/28..

...oh o-O huh XD okay, I don't get how that works lol~

...

XD help, can someone ...sorta explain? I'm don't know too much about the Oricon calendar :/

Releases usually are sold a day earlier than their actual release date. [probably to make up for the end of the Oricon week being on like, Monday..]


Like, fairyland was sold on 8/2, but its official release date was 8/3..
This is how it's been for all Ayu releases except the end of the year weird ones that were releases at like, 12/27 when 1/1 was the date.. and so on..

I guess 1/1 is day off.

No, 1/1 during the week that Oricon takes "off" I think..

So they release it before the New Year [when Oricon kind of stops for about two weeks..]

Indicator number today:
#1 EXILE 57992
#2 A BEST 2 -WHITE- 9940
#3 A BEST 2 -BLACK- 9505

Damn EXILE!!!

I expect around 100k this week. :O~

personally, XD I'm not the much of a fan towards the 'song' "Evolution".

and thanks truehappiness :).

as long as the next five weeks' weekly sales are between 100K - 70K, I will be happy :P.

Yeah..

EXILE will probably sell around 200-300k with this. :O~

awesome!!!!!!!! congrat to AYu!!!!

Hope A BEST 2 will be No. 1 & No. 2 again tomorrow.

With EXILE at close to 60,000, it most likely that A BEST 2 -BLACK- won't get that #1 position.

I predict ~140k this week.

will A BEST 2 be released in singapore?..i've checked many times but they are not available in cd-stores:no

by looking at that
it looks like A BEST 2 going to sell around 130k copies each this week !

Yeah seems that A BEST 2 is not going to be as successful as avex predicted.

I hope she gets to be #1 again. I didn't know EXILE was still "popular".

why does avex has to scedule the release of albums of the same company (EXILE & AYU) so close to on another-/-!~~ they are not helping ayu-.-... they dont give time for ayu to hold on for like 2 weeks-./- Next week, KODA will be on the chart as well. AYu;s sales will be greatly affected by the tight album scedule~~~~~

^Well...avex has been promoting them a lot for the past 4 months...

Awwwwwww, ayuu!!! i hope A BEST 2 will be no.1 & no.2 again!!!, I hope this album is sucessful.

I predict about 100k this week.

Go A BEST! Go go go! With the hype over BEST albums, I'm sure she can get pass that million mark! Go Ayu go! I need to go Japan now and get like 10 A BEST 2s of both versions now haha!

I thoguht it over. And technically Ayu did sell 800,000 albums in one week. That's pretty good.

Yes!! She's gonna hit one million eventually!!

True but I bet avex was expecting to make much more profit. You know how they are always trying to milk their artists for all they are worth.

however, 1 million mark is for 2 albums... A Best 1 alone is already 4million+++

i wish the sales could be abit better. T__T

Me either. I rather WE WISH in A BEST 2