The Official Oricon Thread of ~You were.../BALLAD~ II
 

Sources: www.oricon.co.jp
& natsu style blog.

NINKI: 92.00
jbook highest position: #1

Note: Daily sales with the position that is under #3 are sales from natsu style since oricon doesn't post them.

New Achivements
-Artist with most top 10 singles in Japan (45) beating B'z, ZARD, SMAP and Southern All Stars, SMAP and B'z and all others.
-34 #1 Singles.
-22 Consecutive #1 Singles.
-The only female artist to have #1 single each year for 12 years.

ayumi hamasaki is the best selling female and solo Japanese artist of 2009, both in physical sales and digital downloads
#9 Overall - Best seller in yen.
#3 Overall - Digital Downloads

*1　14,461,000,000　嵐 - arashi
*2　12,932,000,000　EXILE
*3　*6,895,000,000　東方神起 - tohoshinki
*4　*5,374,000,000　B'z
*5　*5,200,000,000　The Beatles
*6　*5,182,000,000　GReeeeN
*7　*5,181,000,000　Mr.Children
*8　*4,694,000,000　Michael Jackson
*9　*3,436,000,000　浜崎あゆみ - ayumi hamasaki
10　*3,255,000,000　絢香 - ayaka


**　*1,887,000,000　安室奈美恵 - Namie Amuro
Source: Mr_Children@jpopmusic http://contents.oricon.co.jp/music/s...218_01_06.html & recochoku yearly charts.

Additional
NEXT LEVEL 29th Week

Position: #173
Sales: 1,675
Total Sales: 379,547

EXT LEVEL 30th Week

Position: #271
Sales: 442
Total Sales: 379,989

You were.../BALLAD Positions & Sales

You were.../BALLAD Monthly Position: #2 January 2010

1st + 2nd Double Weeks


3rd Week



4th Week



5th Week



6th Week


7th Week



8th Week



9th Week


10th Week


11th Week
Position: #162
Official Sales: 366
Official Total Sales: 117,658

12th Week
Position: #163
Official Sales: 315
Official Total Sales: 117,973

13th Week
Position: #194
Official Sales: 276
Official Total Sales: 118,249

Total Sales By Far: 118,249

Source for top five: http://contents.oricon.co.jp/music/s...218_01_06.html

Ayu did rather well for 2009 considering that these other acts were so much more wildly popular. As far as I can remember, 2009 had Days/GREEN, Rule/Sparkle, AT08, NEXT LEVEL, Sunrise/Sunset, and CDL08-09. It seems a little weird that Ayu made it to the top ten with just that...

Yet again she is the best selling female and solo artist of the year. :D
The same goes for digital downloads according to rekochoku.
Kudos for her.

Michael Jackson counts as a solo artist to me, so I guess solo J-Pop artist then?

Oh yeah I excluded him =P
So yeah the best selling female and Japanese solo artist. lol

Thank you for bringing that up here I will add it.

It's rather weird how Ayu's in such "decline" and yet she's still able to do well for a female soloist. Perhaps people are just overreacting to their dissatisfaction with what she's been putting out?

because most of them from singles sales which are more cheaper than album and DVD. Ayu sold almost 1 million and Ayaka sold 800K but 90% from Ayaka's sales is from her best album which is more expensive. its fair enough

Well NEXT LEVEL had the 2CD+DVD and USB versions (and the USB was hell expensive) so it might balance or almost balance the profits from both. XD

I think NL 2CD+DVD have same price like Ayaka's History 2006-2009 and NL only sold 378K and Ayaka sold 760K by the end of 2009 and USB is just very few,right?

I just wondered how the beatles could sell that much o.0

They reissued all of their albums.

I was in total awe to see You were.../BALLAD jump back to #5 and now I am completely stunned that NEXT LEVEL is charting again as well! And being #9 over all in 2009. #1 female and #1 solo artist? Eh, who says Ayu has lost her touch, she's still got it and is about to bring us some more this year! I can't wait :D

Thanks for sharing the numbers truehappiness. I'm positively surprised to see her ranking in 2009 ^ㅂ^ She did really well last year.

So does this mean that these numbers:
浜崎あゆみ　　NEXT LEVEL
This week　　　442 copies
Total sales　 379989 copies
Chart run　　 30th week　

Are from last week? SO. CLOSE. TO. 380k.

yes I can see that she is so unpopular :rolleyes She must have like what 50 fans or something?

Great numbers for her!! Thanks for sharing!!

Hahaha, awesome! It is today's most brilliant quote :banana1

ayumisrael, I think you should try to put the top ten 2009 yearly sales in the first post, since the top 5 is only mentioned in the source.

Did so. ^^ thanks.

ayuimisrael,i think you have to amend the data again :P
latest week
7th Week should be 3rd week
Position: #13
Estimated Sales: 5,017
Estimated Total Sales: 108,368
Official Sales: 5,269
Official Total Sales: 108,620

^Thank you! It must be the hour :P
After everything's fixed I'll be off to sleep. ^^

That's quite a lot of stuff actually. :) The other people in the top list released a lot too. So often times this list is more of a "who released the most products this year" top 10. Although occasionally you'll get people who just really had a humongous seller and that's enough to put them there. I think this year, Mr. Children was that only exception because I think they had just 2 releases counting. I think a better list to make would be one that shows the number of releases in proportion to the amount sold. It's still a nice achievement to be in the top 10, but Avex is definitely smart to have her release so much even if it might be to the detriment of her own health though unfortunately.

oh btw, I guess that bump in Next Level sales was from the double week? That would make more sense since it seems everyone's albums got bumped up and it would put it around the "controversy" articles time.

True, but it all didn't sell that amazingly... so it's a little weird IMO that she made it up that high. Apparently, it's normal for Ayu's most recent albums to pop back in for the double weeks. Someone mentioned A BEST 2 / A COMPLETE popping back up in 2007-2008.. hm. Oh well. I guess in comparison to most other acts, her two live DVDs probably boosted her up above say, ayaka who just had her best album.

It's interesting though how most of the top 10 has at least one million selling item, and the earnings don't seem to be all that much higher. (Except in the case for the top two... and Tohoshinki just released a load of DVDs/CDs in 2009 so I don't think they really count...)

Days/GREEN is considered as 2008 single right?or its counted towards 2009?

^ It's counted as 2009 because the Oricon year starts in mid-December.

@Truehappiness: Yeah, compared to boybands and whatnot they had a lot of releases too. But in terms of other female artists, Ayu did probably have the most releases throughout the year. It's weird because as fans it always seems like she should release more! haha. But really in retrospect, she released a lot of stuff this year.

It's interesting then since this is Ayu on a pretty light load, haha. (2 singles + album + two live DVDs) It's just so weird that someone like Namie with a 250k+++++ selling DVD/Blu-ray didn't manage to break the top 10...

Let's see if we can dig up her older earnings from previous years and compare...

^ Compared to her early time it is a light load, but I think its pretty standard for her the last few years though. Like 2008 she had A-Complete, Guilty, 1 single, 2 dvds right? So actually she released more this year than last. Also I'm not sure if Oricon factors in book sales as well. Oricon does have a chart for books, so its possible that the Vivi book got counted this year too.

Namie only had 1 dvd and 1 single, so her total is an extremely high return considering that.

I believe they specify that they only count singles/albums/DVDs.

http://ahsforum.com/forum/showthread...=oricon+yearly

Dang, she was #2 in 2008 with 7.1 billion yen. I guess A COMPLETE really helped, and the lack of competition from GReeeeN and such. Did B'z get helped this year by Ichibu to Zenbu or what!?

^ haha, for sure it did. :) B'z also had a concert dvd, album, and another single too. So by B'z recent standards this was kinda a busy release year for them too.

I'm not sure what all Greeen released this year cause I don't really follow them. But Mr. Children I think has the smallest number of releases in the top 10. I believe they just had 1 album and 1 concert DVD counting towards their sales. Namie also only had 1 single and 1 concert DVD, but the sales weren't high enough to make the top 10. What did Ayaka all release this year? I know about her best album but was there anything else?

[Was B'z's MAGIC in 2007? Maybe my memory is fuzzy...]

GReeeeN released Shio, Koushou, a few singles, and their best [AB DESUTO?!]... so that's quite a lot. Shio, Koushou was very close to the mllion mark, so... yeah. They released more than they usually do. I think ayaka just had her best album and two singles. The singles didn't do that well, so... I guess the best album was a big part of it.

The yen totals overall for earnings this year seem to have been pretty low, but I guess that's a sign of the times. EXILE/Arashi don't count, haha.

^ lol. MAGIC was just released this past November. :)

Looks like I was thinking about ACTION. Blah! Haha.

It's scary looking at the records that B'z has in sales... jeez.

Well congrats to Ayu! And Tohoshinki's #3 woo~

Yeah, and with the declining sales I don't think anyone has a shot at touching them ever.

That's great ayu is once again the best female selling artist! I'm pleased with you were.../ballad's sales and next level back on charts?!! This is great!

ayu-mi-x 6 -GOLD- & -SILVER- + Vinyl records... ;D Can't leave out my babies!

^ woah, I totally forgot about ayu-mi-x 6. It seems so old-school now...
But props to NL for jumping back up!

Ahhh totally forgot about those since I don't really listen to remixes.

Not really.
kuu had stay with me, It's all Love!, 3 SPLASH and Alive/Physical thing as singles.
TRICK as an album and TRICK Live 2009 DVD.

ever since the singles went from 4-6 to 2 a year, it seems a little to me. the only thing that keeps it seeming consistent is the albums, because she has been steady.

Actually, after A BALLADS, it was basically 3 singles a year until 2005 which had 4. And arguably, (miss)understood might've sold a million had B&D not been released. And since 2006, it's been two a year. If we count 2009's R/S, S/S, Y/B (released after 2009 Oricon year ended), then she's gone back to the three singles for the first time since 2004. You could say that Together When... coming after g/f and t2m was a "3rd single" but officially, I don't think we count the digital single in her single discography.

So they were tied for the number of releases then. Koda's single sales though this year took a huge dive it seems.

And Collab Best + Driving Hits ^_^

In other words, no, they're not tied, but yes - Ku's singles, other than It's all love!, weren't that successful this year.

Ayu had 3 singles released in 2009: Days/GREEN, Rule/Sparkle and Sunrise/Sunset, Ku had four - that doesn't tie them either :P You were.../BALLAD is, as you know, counted towards 2010.

^ Oh yeah, I forgot about that one too. So yeah, basically after Trick, Koda's sales really, really plummeted this year.

Right I completely forgot about them. lol

So kuu had stay with me, It's all Love, 3 SPLASH, Alive/Physical thing, Out Works & Collaborations Best, Driving Hit's, TRICK and LIVE TOUR 2009 ~TRICK~ DVD.

the Out Works & Collaborations Best kinds of flopped as well.
DOUBLE was never half popular as kuu was but her collaboration best sold more than 200,000 while kuu's didn't even sell 50,000...

^ DOUBLE's had Black Diamond I guess. Driving Hits did well for a RMX album though. I am guessing that AVEX is most likely content with Ku's sales considering she keeps releasing stuff with a constant pace.

Yeah, it appears that her single sales were half [or less?] Ayu's amount with the same amount of singles... I think.

1st of all yay for new thread

2ndly , NEXT LEVEL has charted back on Oricon ? that's good :yes & hopefully You were ... / BALLAD will overtake Sunrise/Sunset sales as it really deserves to

16 14 14 12 12 *5↓28　浜崎あゆみ 「You were.../BALLAD」

At #28 for today with about 20+ new releases in the top 30.

err... what's wrong with the first thread?
has it reached 500 posts? keh keh ... LOL

i think it will enter top 20 again...
let's hope for the best

huge drop we expected I think it can raise to top 20 too =)

Woww!! Amazed at Ayu's position. I'm really happy (even though I ventured into Kpop last year >.<) She really released a lot to be counted in 2009. Can't wait to see what she can do this year.

I think there wasn't enough bias in your post, could you please add a little more?

that's the same as saying ayu-mi-x 6 flopped. and that's something you'd never admit. ("it's not bad for a remix album these days!!11")

the gold & silver mix definitely didn't sell a good amount lol. XD

anyway, big drop, but I'm sure it'll rise throughout the week ^^

Calm down, I'm sure ayumisrael didn't mean anything by it. Both Ayu and Kumi's remix albums didn't have amazing sales, but that's to be expected. :shrug

Don't go you are biased on me please.
I like kuu almost as I like ayu and I do own a lot of original (well original studios+compilations) albums of kuu in their maximum editions and I support her too when I can myself, I have nothing against her.

I just think that a compilation album regardless of what it is need to sell a good amount unless if people aren't interested in it much, like people say that A BALLAD flopped.
And on that time A BALLADS didn't intrigue much people as other albums of ayu, like kuu's Out Works & Collaborations (and BEST ~BOUNCE & LOVERS~).

ayu-mi-x 6 did normal for what they are, specially when both were released together and both are remix albums. If anything the RMW WORKS series flopped more since ayu was still highly popular on 2003 but then remix albums in general stopped selling that well.
I don't think that SUPER EUROBEAT and Cyber TRANCE 3 were that "****" and had "******" songs.

^What is imposible when it's about remix albums... and not only in Japan :P

yaaa! that's what i meant, and well imo... I don't really count Rule LOL maybe it's just me, but in terms of "nonstant new flow of material" it was like a prelude to the album.
I was particularly shocked in 2008, when we had a giant gap between MW and D/G. Even Together When... is the same as Rule for me.

But honestly... I have high expectations. I guess it's bad, but I love how I can always expect new stuff even after stuff has already come out.
Like I remember right after Days came out, there was news of a new song in the DBE movie called Rule and I was SOOO pumped LOL

Go Ayu Go!!!

108k is amazing :yes Go Ayu! :heart I hope it will sell more than Sunrise/Sunset because it really deserves that!

#30 today. ^^

I wanna know numbers :/

I hope that the single can climb some positions again...

3rd Day
Position: #30
Sales: 355
Total Sales: 109,917

Natsu didn't update with the last 1st and 2nd day estimations so we will never know them. In those 3 days it sold around 1276 until now. ^^
It should outsell Sunrise/Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~ in 2-3 days.

yikes! spike drop! X(

Yay, better than S/S

almost 110k...c'mon!!!
i think it will end up selling 120k

Yeah it seems 120k is the most likely total. So sad, this single deserved way more.

I don't think it will reach 120k...maybe somewhere from 115-118k...but it would be nice if it can reach 120k though. :)

4th Day
Position: #27
Sales: 284
Total Sales: 110,201

If the real total will be more, or like it, or not that much less than those estimations then, You were.../BALLAD outsold Sunrise/Sunset ~LOVE is ALL~. :D

did it rise today lol

If ayu sold 284 copies at #27, I wonder what the number is like at #200...o_O

Anyways, glad it outsold s/s!

^ I was wondering that too.
#200 seems like a hell for me. O_O

And yehey! for outsold Sunrise/Sunset single!!!

5th Day
Position: #25
Sales:
Total Sales:

yay it raised again! :D

yay for outsold S / S

5th Day
Position: #25
Sales: 270
Total Sales: 110,471

oh thats wonderful. it outsold s/s very nice. . . ^___^

still it really should sell quite a bit more. such nice songs on this single

i think it will end up selling 113k!!!!

I have this feelings that because people are seeing the "low" sales for the dailies, they think that the single will suddenly drop out of the top 200 in the next week or so...

6th Day
Position: #31
Sales:
Total Sales:

yay, im glad you were.../ballad has surpassed sunrise/sunset at least but it doesnt look like it's going to sell much more :( all that promotion too... let's hope that ayu takes a nice break and focuses on getting her stellar voice back in shape!!!

i wish they would release the figures for EVERYTHING something has sold whether not the item charted or not... i'm sure that Next Level has actually far passed 380,000 by now but since it hadnt charted it's as if it sold 0 copies a week for however many weeks it wasn't on the chart lol. i also wonder what the real total numbers for ayu's numerous older hits are now. for example, i'm guessing duty has actually passed 3,000,000..?

Duty shipped over 3,000,000 copies and therefore is certified 3 million by RIAJ.
It sold 2,904,420 copies in stores. ^^

oricon didn't track stuff that dropped out of their top ranking (not sure if it was still only top 100 during the Duty era). so it most likely sold more than 3 million silently over a long period of time.

Yes, though unfortunately we will never be able to know the figures...

6th Day
Position: #31
Sales: 323
Total Sales: 110,794

How do we know the daily sales of singles below 3? I would love to know the dailys for Nana Mizuki this week so far if that isn't TOO off-topic(PM or something? please!)

EDIT: Found it...

Thanks for all the sales info :) !

Thanks!!! You can find the others on Natsu Style

7th Day
Position: #23
Sales:
Total Sales:

Cool it went up. :) Looks likes this single will have decent longevity.

But it's the last day of the week. Come Wednesday and probably we will see it in the 40s I guess

7th Day
Position: #23
Sales: 390
Total Sales: 111,184

4th Week
Position: Still Unknown
Estimated Sales: 2,563
Estimated Total Sales: 111,184
Official Sales: Still Unknown
Official Total Sales: Still Unknown

271 　173　***,442　*,379,989　*30　浜崎あゆみ 「NEXT LEVEL」

Thank you tourniquet!

Couldn't it sell 11 more copies? What an eyesore total. -_-

Hopefully NEXT LEVEL will chart for another week, but I doubt it will.

back to top 20 ? Keep it up !

Wowww o_o

Couldn't it sell 11 more copies? [2]

but yay for still chartin' \o/

I'll buy 6 if you'll buy 5 LOL.

That is from last week.

But dang, #271? Maybe when the tour starts...