K-pop hits 100 mln copies in annual album sales milestone in 2023

Circle Chart, a leading tracker of local albums sales, reported Tuesday that the top 400 physical albums collectively sold 116 million copies in the first 11 months of 2023.

This represents a remarkable 144 percent increase from 80 million copies in the same period last year, setting a record of 100 million copies in annual sales even before factoring in December's figures, Yonhap news agency reported.

In fact, the cumulative sales for this year had already surpassed 106 percent of the entire 2022 annual total by September and crossed the 100 million mark the following month.

November alone saw a further surge, with 15.16 million copies added to the total. This represents a 217.2 percent increase from a year ago, breaking the monthly record set in the previous month, it added.

"The number of months with sales exceeding 10 million copies was only one last year, but it has increased to six this year," said Kim Jin-woo, head researcher of Circle Chart.

But he emphasised the need for continued monitoring due to sluggish exports to China and Southeast Asian countries. "Those are markets K-pop basically has to give weight for further growth," he added.