Sept top K-pop acts: Stray Kids, NCT Dream rule Gaon chart with million-seller albums
Gaon Music Chart is considered to be one of the biggest South Korean music charts. They collect sales data of new releases and then award the singles and albums with music recording certificates like platinum and million-seller badges. In August we saw acts like BTS get a double-million badge while Blackpink and rookie group Enhypen bagged double-platinum certificates. And for the month of September, we have K-pop acts like Stray Kids and NCT Dream.
Since 2018, Gaon has been awarding album sales certificates with the partnership of KMCA (Korean Music Content Industry Association). The badges go to all albums and songs that cross 250K sales. But it should be noted that Gaon only considers those releases that are more than six weeks old. This is why fans could predict September’s list since acts like Stray Kids made sales records even before the release of their albums.
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Gaon awards groups like Stray Kids and NCT Dream
On October 7, Gaon released the list for September that has acts that have been awarded certification badges. Stray Kids became almost million-sellers even before the ‘NOEASY’ release as the album crossed 830K pre-orders. With more than 1.2 million sales, their first studio album has now been certified as a million-seller. They've crossed a total of 3.7 million sales.
NCT Dream seems to be on a roll. They became the youngest act to become triple-million sellers with their recent releases — ‘Hot Sauce’ and ‘Hello Future’. As ‘Hot Sauce’s’ repackaged version, ‘Hello Future’ made history by becoming the highest-selling repackaged album in a day in Hanteo history with 500K sales. NCT Dream first got a double million badge in July and a platinum badge in August. ‘Hello Future’ has now crossed 1.2 million sales and has been given a million badge. They have sold a total of 5.3 million copies.
As mentioned in the August list, TXT’s repackaged album ‘The Chaos Chapter: Fight or Escape’ can be considered the best-selling repackaged album by a fourth-gen group. While they had 644K sales in August, they have now reached 698K sales. This has made Gaon award them a double-platinum badge. They've crossed a total of 3.2 million sales.
As for The Boyz, this is their second time on the list. They first got a platinum badge for their 2020 release ‘Chase’. And now they have secured an even better ranking with their sixth Korean language EP ‘Thrill-ing’. Having been released in August, it has crossed 638K sales and has been certified as a double-platinum album. They have crossed a total of 1.9 million sales.
With ‘Queendom’ being Red Velvet’s first album to cross 300K sales last month, it is no surprise that they would be on the list too. With more than 360k sales, Gaon has now awarded them a platinum badge. This is their first album certificate ever and first sales certificate in general since the title track 'Psycho' became a platinum seller in 2019.
Astro led the Gaon charts in August with their 10th EP ‘Switch On’. It got them several music show wins on national TV and had them topping charts like Gaon’s Weekly Album chart and Weekly Download chart. They were also the fourth boy group to debut on Gaon Digital’s Top 5 this year. And ‘Switch On’ has crossed 309K sales getting them a platinum badge.
Acts like Seventeen and NCT celebrate sales record
Fans also combed through other Gaon charts that were updated on October 7. Carats celebrated as Seventeen has had a total of 8.1 million album sales. EXO has crossed a total of 13.2 million sales. On the other hand, Itzy and Mamamoo have crossed 1 million sales each. Enhypen is set to cross a total of 2.1 million sales with pre-orders for 'Dimension: Dilemma' reaching 910K sales. BTS is the best-selling artist with 7.3 million sales this month. They have also crossed a total of 31.9 million sales. Mirae is the best-selling rookie group of the month with 80K sales.
Blackpink's Lisa is the best-selling female soloist with more than 753K sales. EXO's Baekhyun is the best-selling male soloist with over 1 million sales. As for the best-selling girl group, it's TWICE with 755K sales. They have also crossed a total of 10 million sales in South Korea and Japan. Ateez has crossed a total of 2.5 million sales. With 'Sticker' crossing 2.2 million sales and becoming the best-selling album of the month, NCT 127 has surpassed a total of 5.4 million sales making them the 5th best-selling K-pop act.