AKB48 breaks the record for total singles sold by a female artist in Japan
 

http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/rankmusic/2024989/full/

The group's 31st single, Sayonara Crawl, debuted at #1 on the Oricon Weekly charts with 1.763 million copies sold. This brings AKB48's total number of singles sold since they debuted in 2006 to 21.852 million copies. It took them seven years and four months to displace Hamasaki Ayumi (with 21.416 million singles sold) from the top spot.

01. AKB48 - 21.852 million
02. Hamasaki Ayumi - 21.416 million
03. Amuro Namie - 16.558 million

Starting with their 22nd single, Sakura no Ki ni Narou, the group has released 12 consecutive, million-selling singles. They currently do not hold the record for highest selling single by a female artist. That record is held by Amuro Namie, with CAN YOU CELEBRATE? (2.296 million copies).

I was wondering when this useless news would pop up.
LOL.

Ayumi is still on top. AKB48 is a BAND
Ayumi is a solo.

Its two different categories.

With the inclusion of this single, EXILE will be booted from the top 30, which means AKB (and related groups) and Arashi will be the only two groups making up the top 30 singles from 2010 until now.

Well I guess they are carbon prints of one person, so they could be counted as one idol.

I listened to most of the songs the other day. Terrible.
Congrats to the producer though. He's happy.

Sold by a female artist? AKB48 is a BAND not a solo female artist...

Holy balls. 12 consecutive million-selling singles? Ayu and Namie are crying tears of nostalgia and pain right now.

Good for them though, that is really amazing.

Tbh I'm not impressed ... sure it's a lot and these are amazing figures but the methods used in order to get these high figures are disgusting... It's even not AKB members the problem it's their produceur ! He is the great winner in this story. Sorry if I hurts someone but I find their success reductive for all the singers who can actually sing, write & compose their musics & are implicated in the production ... Yes I don't like Idols groups male or female :o

lol

Congratulations Japan. You officially look ridiculous.

^ :rofl

It's interesting reading various BBS websites in Japanese talking about this news article. It's brought something up that I hadn't realized.

"Even though it's selling a huge amount of copies, I haven't heard it once" is basically the feeling people are expressing, and it's true for me as well.

Omg! I didn't even realize but I haven't heard it either!! Not in the car or when I'm out and about.
How strange.

What do you think that statement means, like maybe in relation to the japanese music market or those crazy lonely fans who buy the multiple copies?
It sounds very interesting to me.

crazy lonely fans.

21,8 m : 48 = 454.166 copies each member XD
congrats anyway...

There's more than 48 members in AKB48. There's 86 now

I am disgusted by this high amount of sales. Their music all sounds the same and they're not even good looking girls

Same here, I don't get it. And yea it kinda made Japan look ridiculous lol

Its just numbers :/ I don't care.

I've never heard any music from either Arashi or AKB48. Ever. And honestly this doesn't even make me want to listen to them. However, I am curious about the hype. It has to be more than music for either group to sell the way they do. Or maybe their music really are masterpieces and I'm missing out? ...Nah

I think the japanese fans love the video and concept.
And they have good songs, but the a-side isn't always the best song

that's kind of the point though. They're supposed to be like, the girls next door. Not some divas who normal people can't relate to, like Ayu, for instance.