AKB48 surpass Ayu as best selling female Japanese artist
 

Oricon made it official with the first tracking week of #Sukinanda pushing their total sales record to 51,298,000. Ayu still holds the record for best selling female solo artist with an amazing record of 50,675,000 units, however, Oricon doesn't differentiate between solo artists and groups under the male and female categories.

The current Top 3 of the best selling female Japanese artists of all time is:

1　51,298,00　AKB48
2　50,675,00　Ayumi Hamasaki
3　39,581,00　Yumi Matsutoya

source:
Article from Aramajapan which is based on Oricon itself.

Whatever ORICON. For me it still doesn't count since they're group versus one awesome living legendary woman. lol

I don't care about those idol groups, specially this one that had what? about 50 members or something lol sorry, that's just my opinion, they are only cute girls dancing around, they are a product, entertainers, but not real artist, as I said this is just my opinion tho

Ayumi is still the best-selling solo artist in Japan. Like, ever.

Solo vs. like hundreds of girls, lol.

I thought Hikki did pretty well, where does she sit?

^Hikki has sold about 37 millions

^highest selling album in the history i think?

Thousands of girls to be more accurate

Seriously you can't compare 1,000 people to 1 people's record

That just translates on how amazing ayu's record is that the only way it can be outsold is by 1,000 women that do bikini shoots in order to promote their "music"

:yes

I could understand if AKB48 was a normal band but with a group whose members are changed every X years, it just sounds ridiculous. It's the name who sells not the singers. I wouldn't be surprise if Oricon received money to make such kind of article as big show like MS special to get more air time than the other singers.

If anything this makes Ayu look even better because in order to 'topple' her, they had to have this massive and ever changing super group do it.

The biggest difference is that Ayu will always be remembered and represent an entire era of music in Japan. AKB48 is just one of many idol groups of this new era who happens to be commercially successful.

Yeap. Had her released more during her peak she would most likely had topped Ayu...

AKB48 is not just another group. They achieved huge success in a time when female idol groups were in the dark by making a difference with theater stages, senbatsu elections, janken tournament, etc. We can't deny their impact in the J-pop scene in this current decade. Songs like Heavy Rotation, Everyday Katchyusa, Flying Get or Koisuru Fortune Cookie were big hits.

Even so, this sale record is not real and can't be compared to Ayu's. Yes, one reason is because it's a group vs solo artist but there's a stronger reason. AKB48 huge sales are due to crazy fans buying hundreds of singles in order to get a hadshake ticket or senbatsu vote. Their singles also have multiple editions with different covers, songs and extras. Ayu sold million of copies without having all those. She sold because her music was good and people liked it.

In a recent LINE female idol popularity poll, AKB48 ranked 5th. Perfume topped the poll, followed by Nogizaka46 and Momoiro Clover Z. Then, why AKB48 latest single has sold 1 million and Perfume 49k? How many people buy AKB48's singles because they like the songs and not because they wanna get a handshake ticket to spend 30 seconds with a cute girl?

Jep ... First Love is No 1. Distance No. 4 and Deep River No. 8 :yes ...

I'm kinda annoyed to be honest because an idol group that's constantly shifting members has surpassed the record of a woman that writes her own songs.
I also believe that unfortunately, another sister group of AKB48 will surpass the sales of another solist.
Finally, for the person who mention the number of girls in AKB48. If you count with sister groups, sakamichi and graduated members, it's about more than 1200 girls.

:eek

12oo Girls?

Yes, I went to check on stage48 and AKB48+sister groups+sakamichi (Nogizaka46 and Keyakizaka46)+graduated members of all of that = 1206 members.

This is why I never count AKBs sales. They are popular. They are not THAT popular. Same reason why I don't count Exile's one million seller either; it was obtained through super manufactured means.

Yep. My experience when I was over there is that culturally AKB actually did not come close to having the same kind of impact as say, Morning Musume did or Arashi or SMAP by a longshot, yet "somehow" they have higher sales. It's a sham.