K-pop superstars BTS, NCT, EXO, Seventeen and TWICE emerged as the top five K-pop artists with the highest album sales in the last 11 years from 2011 to 2021.
This is based on the annual cumulative album sales data released by Gaon Music Chart covering the period January 2011 to November 2021, Korean media reported on Jan. 12.
Particularly, the album sales of artists under HYBE Labels including BTS and Seventeen reached a total of 50,677,254 copies in the past 11 years as of Nov. 30, 2021. HYBE Labels include Big Hit Music, Belift Lab, Source Music, Pledis Entertainment, KOZ Entertainment and HYBE Labels Japan.
BTS emerged as the No. 1 K-pop artist with the highest album sales among solo singers and groups that debuted from 2011. They sold 32.78 million copies of albums since their debut in 2013. Their fourth full-length album “Map of the Soul: 7,” released in February 2020, sold 4.6 million copies to date.
Seventeen, which debuted in 2015, sold a total 10.2 million copies of their albums. An official from HYBE Labels said, "Seventeen's cumulative album sales were about 3 million copies until the middle of 2019 but they showed explosive growth, surpassing 10 million copies in two years and three months."
NCT, whose first subunit debuted in April 2016, sold 15.77 million copies of their albums and emerged as the second K-pop artist with the highest album sales from January 2011 to November 2021.
EXO, which made their debut in 2012, grabbed third place with a total of 14.44 million copies of albums sold.
Seventeen placed fourth with 10.2 million copies of albums sold followed by TWICE with 7.29 million copies.
Among the solo artists, EXO’s Baekhyun is No. 1 with 2.65 million copies of albums sold followed by Kang Daniel with 1.42 million copies.
Here are the K-pop groups with the highest album sales from January 2011 to November 2021 based on the Gaon Music Chart data:
1. BTS - 32,783,223 copies
2. NCT - 15,773,729
3. EXO - 14,443,618
4. Seventeen - 10,201,354
5 TWICE 7,299,094
6. Stray Kids - 4,562,267
7. GOT7 - 4,105,009
8. Wanna One - 3,646,766
9. TXT - 3,332,307
10. Monsta X - 3,139,226
11. BLACKPINK - 2,756,527
12. ATEEZ - 2,593,083
13. The Boyz - 2,552,987
14. ENHYPEN - 2,509,729
15. Red Velvet - 2,243,517
16. IZ*ONE - 2,148,234
17. NUEST - 1,850,641
18. ASTRO - 1,521,622
19. VIXX - 1,437,695
20. ITZY - 1,436,805
21. Treasure - 1,136,993
22. Mamamoo - 1,119,601
23. SF9 - 1,033,735
24. BTOB - 1,022,175
SOLO SINGERS
1. EXO’s Baekhyun - 2,657,711
2. Kang Daniel - 1,412,081
3. Kim Ho-joong (trot singer) - 1,092,933
4. Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon - 1,051,567
5. SHINee’s Taemin - 1,005,665