SEVENTEEN is facing allegations of possible sales manipulation.
SEVENTEEN | RollingStone/X
The HYBE boy group’s mini album 17 Is Right Here has seen record-breaking success, even achieving an unbelievable sales number of 5 million.
| theqoo
This astounding achievement has cemented the group’s position as a leading K-Pop artist in the industry currently, but Korean online communities are abuzz with suspicion. A recent post on the platform TheQoo criticized the 5 million sales, and given its virality, it appears that many netizens feel the same. The post has garnered over 100,000 views at the time of writing.
The OP(original poster) argued that with this kind of popularity, SEVENTEEN should have been able to secure a position on the Billboard Hot 200 chart. It should also have been translated into live audience turnouts, allowing the group to do full stadium tours all over the globe. The OP also stated that SEVENTEEN’s album is physically being sold only in Korea and Japan, which makes it even more difficult to sell 5 million copies.
| Nate Pann
If SEVENTEEN does indeed sell 5M+ copies of their albums, they should be able to reach the top on the US Billboard 200 chart with no problem and go on stadium tours all around the world.
It is impossible to sell albums at that level in Asia alone because the only Asian countries where physical albums get sold are Korea and Japan. And it is impossible to sell 5M+ copies to the pool of buyers in those countries.
Ultimately, the US, European, and Western markets have to aid in driving physical sales. But how can a group like SEVENTEEN, who doesn’t get much response in the Western world, sell more albums than Taylor Swift? You can hardly find SEVENTEEN albums on any European chart, like in the UK, Germany, or France. So for a group whose international focus comes from Japan alone to sell that many albums? Makes no sense. Domestically, too, it doesn’t make sense for a group like SEVENTEEN to sell that many copies when they have never reached the hype level of, say, EXO, BTS, or Wanna One.
— OP
Though netizens called out the OP’s tone for being rude, they felt that the allegations had some substance. Some, however, also countered that China is a big contributor to sales, which the OP did not take into consideration.
“I agree. When the HYBE acquisition rumors came out, their first-week sales suddenly jumped to 700,000 copies, and since then, the sales have kept increasing without any notable hit songs, which is very suspicious. It’s not like they’ve gained popularity in the Western market as much as BTS or Stray Kids.” “The tone in your message is offensive, but to be honest, I agree that 5 million copies do seem a bit too much.” “You sound rude AF, but honestly, you’re telling the truth. LOL. SEVENTEEN sticks out too much in this regard. They don’t particularly have mega-hit songs, and people don’t even know the names of the members. Seeing groups like them sell more than a million copies is shocking, LOL.” “You can just tell by their Melon ranking…” “Honestly, 5 million copies made me go, ‘huh?’ I mean, I know BTS hit that mark, but doesn’t that make SEVENTEEN the first after them to achieve it? It doesn’t seem like SEVENTEEN is at the BTS level for real… With all the third-generation top idols enlisting in the military and SEVENTEEN being the last of the third generation, it seems like they’re the industry leaders right now to achieve 5 million sales. But when you look at the music charts…” “I’m not a SEVENTEEN fan. However, the post includes only Japan and Korea from Asia. Aren’t most of the albums sold in China, though? 5 million copies? I agree that it sounds like a lot… but to say it’s ‘bullshit’ would be hurting the fans. Plus, SEVENTEEN has many Chinese members as well.”
