Rookie girl groups are making themselves known in the K-pop scene.
Last month, IVE’s second single album, LOVE DIVE, sold a whopping 338,141 copies in the first week of its release. The first-week sales record tells how many enthusiastic fans have rushed to purchase their album upon its release. The female K-pop act boasted their growing popularity with their second single album, doubling their first-week sales record set by their debut single album ELEVEN.
LE SSERAFIM’s first new mini-album FEARLESS sold a total of 307,450 copies in the first week of its May 2nd release. They garnered attention by setting the highest 1st-week sales record among all rookie girl groups.
Since girl groups do not sell as much as boy groups do, selling more than 300,000 copies per album was considered a massive success for K-pop girl acts. Until 2019, Girl’s Generation, TWICE, and BLACKPINK were the only girl groups that had hit over 300,000 sales in their first week of release.
However, things changed in 2020. The pandemic pushed many fans to buy more albums than ever due to the restrictions on various offline concerts. Red Velvet and IZ*ONE’s albums sold more than 300,000 in their first week. In 2021, ITZY and aespa’s albums sold over 500,000 copies.
If rookie girl groups continue to make waves in the music industry down the road, they will establish a strong foothold as the popularity of top girl groups, such as BLACKPINK and TWICE, are still strong as ever.
Source (1)
