AKB48: 3 Million Single Sales in 2010

AKB48: 3 Million Single Sales in 2010

If there is anyone who believes that AKB48 does not have control of this industry on the female side,  it is either someone who is a dedicated anti fan or someone who refuses to face the reality. To be honest  not much separates both.

When it comes to female idol genre in 2010 one-group stands out above all others and that is AKB48.

AKB48 released five singles in 2010, each one setting new records for female artists. These five singles currently total sales for the year of 2010 is impressive.

'Sakura no Shiori" started off the year in February .Sakura entered the chats at #1  with a first week sales of 317,828  and is still on the Oricon top 200 after 41 weeks  with total sales  of 390,957 .

May saw AKB48 release "Ponytail to Shushu" ,and like Sakura the single entered the charts at #1 with sales of 513,453 .Ponytail like Sakura is also still on the Oricon charts 29 weeks after the release with total sales of 659,959

August saw the release of "Heavy Rotation" .HR continued AKB48`s streak at #1 with a first week sales of 527,336. HR is still charting after 17 weeks with total sales of 713,275

This single saw AKB48 become the third female artist in Japanese music history to have back-to-back 500,000 first week sales. They also became the first female idol group to accomplish this. It was also #1 on the mobile sales chart.

AKB48 released "Beginner' in October.' Beginner "shipped 1,030,000 copies to stores, their highest single shipment in history.

"Beginner" entered the charts at #1 with a first week sales of 826,989."Beginner's" first day sales was the highest first day sales  since Oricon started to report daily sales .It also was the highest first weeks sales for a female artist in 12 years . It was also the third highest sales for a female artist. It also marked the first time that AKB48 had a video rejected for television and hard disk distribution due to it`s violent content.

This was somewhat controversial as there are many more, questionable content videos out in stores and the rejected version was far from those levels, leaving many to believe that this was a planned marketing campaign by the agency.

" Beginner" is still on the Oricon top 20 , 7 weeks after release with sales of  954,283 and never falling below 17th in the weekly  and never below 30th in the daily and is currently averaging  7,000 + sales a week.

AKB48`s current single "Chance no Junban" was released on December 8th and like all the singles before it this year ,entered the charts at #1 with a one week total of 596,769 .
"Chance no Junban" marks AKB`s 4th half million first week single in a row.
This single also put AKB on the sale level as Onyanko Club with six consecutive #1 singles, something that Onyanko Club done 23 years ago.   

"Chance no Junban" also became the fifth consecutive #1 single for AKB48 in the same year, something that no female artist has done in 32 years.

"Chance no Junban" like it`s singles before it will end the year in the Oricon top 50 for 2010. AKB currently holds the # 1, 2,5,8,12,48 positions .SKE48 holds the 41st and AKB48 album holds the 12th.

These five singles to date totaled 3,315,243 in sales for 2010. If you add in the 32,717 sales for the 2009 released "River" sold just in 2010 the total increases to 3,347,960

"River" by the way is also still on the Oricon charts some 57 weeks after it`s release.

If we turn our attention to the mobile side AKB48 currently has  5 singles  in the " ring tone charts"  ,4 singles in the "video preview charts" and  14 songs in the " video clip charts" .

When you add in all the sub unit releases the AKB48 franchise for 2010 total hard disk sales increases to 3,724,025 .If you add in the three AKB48 albums that were released in 2010 that have sales of 592,493, total hard disk sales for the franchise known as AKB48 comes to 4,316,518

If you add in the success stories of SKE48 and SDN48 and the birth of NMB48, 2010 was an incredible year for the 48 franchises, that saw them reach new levels of respect and fan interest across the country.

Will 2011 see AKB48 and their sister units continue their unchallenged control of the female idol industry?

Will 2011 see the rise of new idol groups not only to continue out of the independent ranks  , but to create new challengers for the 48`s ?

Will 2011 see veteran groups  regroup and find pride inside them and take the fight to AKB48 ?

2011 will be on us shortly and so many questions are starting to be asked .If 2010 is any indication ,2011 will see the female side continue to be  full of surprises and excitement. And for the 48`s this maybe only the beginning.