Top January K-pop Acts: BTS and NCT rule Gaon with multi-million albums
With 2022 finally beginning, it is that time of the month and the K-pop industry is off to a good start. Gaon Music Chart, which is one of South Korea’s most reputable music charts has released its list of top K-pop acts for January 2022. Gaon awards album sales certificates to the best-selling albums and singles for the month of January. The music chart combs through their data of all releases till the month in focus and awards them badges like million and platinum-seller certificate. In the last few months, we saw best-sellers by BTS, NCT, Stray Kids and more.
Back in December 2021, we saw K-pop acts like TXT’s first repackaged album ‘The Chaos Chapter: Fight Or Escape’ becoming a triple-platinum seller while The Boyz’s single ‘Maverick’ got a double-platinum badge. Gaon partners with South Korea’s KMCA (Korean Music Content Industry Association) and honors the best-selling acts of each month. They acknowledge releases that cross a minimum of 250k sales and are older than six weeks. This is why fans knew NCT, Stray Kids and IVE would be included in January’s sales certificate list.
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BTS and NCT have multi-million albums
On February 10, Gaon released the list for January that includes K-pop acts that have been given album award sales certificates. BTS’ ‘Butter’ became a triple million-seller and it is their fifth album to reach this milestone. This also makes them the only act to have multiple albums with a triple million badge on Gaon.
NCT’s full group album ‘Universe’ was awarded a million-seller certificate. It is the group’s third album to get a million badge while NCT has crossed 5.3 million sales total. ‘Universe’ also charted at #4 on Gaon’s Monthly Album Chart and #6 on the Retail Monthly Album Chart. In the meantime, NCT 127’s ‘Favorite’ topped the Retail Weekly Album Chart while Mark Lee’s solo debut single ‘Child’ topped the Weekly Download Chart.
JYPE has a good month
Stray Kids’ ‘Christmas EveL’ received double-platinum while it charted at #12 on the Retail Weekly Album Chart. They have crossed 4.7 million sales total making them the highest fourth-gen group to do so. Their labelmates at JYPE, Itzy received double-platinum too for their first album ‘Crazy In Love’. It is their best-selling album yet as it topped the Weekly Album Chart and is in the top 15 of the Monthly Album Chart.
IVE stays strong second month into their debut
Super rookies IVE received a platinum badge for their debut album ‘Eleven’. It is the best-selling debut album by a rookie group of 2021-22. It is also the third best-selling girl group debut album in Gaon history. ‘Eleven’ was also #5 on the Weekly Digital Chart and Monthly Digital Chart. The album peaked at #3 on the Weekly Streaming Chart, #5 on the Monthly Streaming Chart and is at #13 in the Monthly Album Chart.
SM’s ensemble album with all of their artists, ‘2021 Winter SMTOWN: SMCU Express’, is a platinum seller. It also ranked at #2 on the Monthly Album Chart, #5 on the Retail Weekly Album Chart and #2 on the Retail Monthly Album Chart.
Ateez’s latest album ‘Zero: Fever Epilogue’ is platinum and is their second album to reach this milestone. EXO Kai’s second solo album ‘Peaches’ and Treasure’s ‘The First Step: Chapter Three’ are also platinum sellers. Red Velvet’s ‘Power Up’ received a platinum badge for surpassing 2.5 million downloads. Additionally, rookie artist Lee Mujin’s ‘Traffic Light’ received a platinum badge for surpassing 100 million streams.