AKB48 sets record for most million-selling singles by a female artist
Oricon announced today that AKB48’s 24th single, “Ue Kara Mariko,” is officially #1 on the charts this week with approximately 1,199,000 copies sold. Although the single was unable to continue their streak of selling 1 million copies on the first day (it sold 959,000), it is their 4th consecutive single to sell 1 million in the first week. Their previous single, “Kaze wa Fuiteiru,” already made them the first artist to have 3 consecutive singles reach 1 million in the first week.
“Ue Kara Mariko” is AKB48′s 5th single released this year, and all of them have sold more than 1 million copies. It is their 6th single ever to achieve that, which gives them the record of “most million-selling singles by a female artist.” Before this, they were tied with Pink Lady, Amuro Namie, Hamasaki Ayumi, and Utada Hikaru at 5 singles.
Among all artists, AKB48 are the first to achieve 5 consecutive million-selling singles since GLAY in 1999.
With “Kaze wa Fuiteiru,” AKB48 set the record for most consecutive #1 singles by a female group, and this extends that record to 11. “Ue Kara Mariko” also ties them with Morning Musume for most #1 singles overall by a female group (11).
AKB48 currently holds 4 of the top 5 spots for first-week single sales:
- AKB48 - Flying Get - 1.354 million
- AKB48 - Everyday, Katyusha - 1.334 million
- AKB48 - Kaze wa Fuiteiru - 1.300 million
- Mr.Children - Namonaki Uta - 1.208 million
- AKB48 - Ue Kara Mariko - 1.199 million
The group also recently announced that their next single will be released on February 15. The title is still unknown, but it will be another “sakura”-related song.
source: TOKYOGRAPH