AKB48 – New single “FLYING GET” sells over a million on the first day!
August 25, 2011 Leave a comment
This just in: AKB48‘s newest 22nd single “FLYING GET” has sold a whopping 1,025,952 copies in its first day on the charts, setting a new record in first day sales of a single! Needless to say, “FLYING GET” took the #1 spot quite convincingly. The next closest competitor came in at a measly 28,943 copies sold of their newest single. Yeah…XD.
The members participating in this highly-anticipated release (pictured) were decided by the recently held 22nd single senbatsu elections, which saw a record number of votes cast along with surprising results.
AKB48 shatters the previous record set by their last single “Everyday, Kachuusha“, which sold 942,475 copies in its first day. Everyday, which is currently the best-selling single of 2011, also toppled a long-withstanding record held by Mr.Children for over 15 years by selling 1,333,969 copies in its first week. “FLYING GET” is poised to surpass this and establish yet another new record in first week sales of a single.
It all began with “Beginner” (what a fitting title :P), AKB48‘s very first million-selling single from 2010. Here’s a timeline of their record-shattering singles released since then:
2010
Oct. 27 – “Beginner” is released, sales of 568,095 copies sets new record in first day sales of a single (since March 2009, when Oricon first started publishing daily sales figures).
Nov. 01 – “Beginner” sells 826,989 copies in its first week, achieves 9th highest first week sales in Oricon history.
Dec. 20 – “Beginner” is announced the best selling single of 2010 with 954,283 copies sold.
2011
Jan. 26 – “Beginner” breaks the million sold mark. Becomes their first million seller.
Feb. 16 – “Sakura no Ki ni Narou“, their first single of 2011, is released and opens with sales of 655,344 copies. Breaks the previous first day record set by “Beginner“.
Feb. 22 – “Sakura no Ki ni Narou” sells 942,479 copies in its first week, achieves 6th highest first week sales in Oricon history. Becomes best selling single of 2011.
Mar. 05 – “Sakura no Ki ni Narou” breaks the million sold mark. Becomes their second million seller.
May 25 – “Everyday, Kachuusha” is released, sells an amount almost identical to Sakura’s first week figure on the first day with 942,475 copies. Breaks the previous first day record set by “Sakura no Ki ni Narou“.
May 26 – “Everyday, Kachuusha” breaks the million sold mark. Becomes their third million seller.
May 30 – “Everyday, Kachuusha” sells 1,333,969 in its first week, achieves highest first week sales in Oricon history. Becomes best selling single of 2011.
Jun. 20 – “Everyday, Kachuusha” reaches 1.5 million sold mark, becomes first single to sell that amount since 2005. AKB48 becomes just the 5th female group to have a single sell that amount, and the fastest to reach that amount with a single.
Aug. 24 – “FLYING GET” is released, sells 1,025,952 copies in the first day. Breaks the previous first day record set by “Everyday, Kachuusha“. Becomes their fourth million seller.
2012
AKB48 ends the world with apocalyptic single release.
Honestly, selling a million of anything in this day and age is quite a feat. To do it within a few months or weeks is really amazing. To do it within a few days is ridiculous. But to do it in just one day? That’s almost unheard of. These girls are doing it all though, and we’re witnessing history being made repeatedly. To put it into perspective, from 2002-2010, there has not been more than four singles to sell over a million copies in the same year they were released. All four of those singles were released in different years by different artists.
With “FLYING GET“, AKB48 already has three singles released in 2011 that have sold over a million copies. If these kinds of torrid sales keep up it’ll be four come October, when their next single is slated for release. They will more than likely end up colonizing the top 4 spots on Oricon’s yearly single ranking for 2011. As of now, they are pretty much guaranteed the top 3 spots.
I personally did not think this single would do so well. Boy was I mistaken! The sky’s really the limit for these girls though, and I’m glad to be a part of it all. From here on out, I’ll just sit back and enjoy the ride of brilliance :).
Can’t wait to see the figures by the end of this week!
Nippon Gaijin 