It's highly unlikely that anyone will ever outsell Ayu in terms of CD sales as a solo singer in Japan male or female with the population going down and CD sales even more. THat would have to be Utada Hikaru. Someone debuting now doesen't stand a chance when it comes to CDs/Physical sales. Anyone debuting as late as koda will have the same problem. Ayu was lucky because she released at the end of the peak of CD sales in general in Japan.

I don't think ayu's total asian sales have ever been counted, but I don't think she can compete with the supposed numbers of this weiwei.

Found this list on internet:

All single + album + collection sales in Japan (up to 2005)
From Music Station 2005.04.01

Rank Artist Sale
1 B'z 75,614,000
2 Mr. Children 50,635,000
3 Southern All Stars 47,083,000
4 Hamasaki Ayumi 45,528,000
5 DREAMS COME TRUE 40,893,000
6 Matsutoya Yumi 37,790,000
7 GLAY 35,800,000
8 ZARD 35,450,000
9 Utada Hikaru 32,160,000
10 CHAGE & ASKA 31,220,000
11 Matsuda Seiko 29,260,000
12 GLOBE 28,600,000
13 SMAP 28,400,000
14 L'Arc~en~Ciel 25,760,000
15 Amuro Namie 25,750,000
16 Nakamori Akina 25,100,000
17 TUBE 23,880,000
18 Ohguro Maki 21,890,000
19 Every Little Thing 21,630,000
20 TRF 21,500,000
21 Nakajima Miyuki 21,310,000
22 KinKi Kids 20,790,000
23 Nagabushi Tsuyoshi 20,380,000
24 Makihara Noriyuki 19,830,000
25 SPEED 19,280,000
26 Fukuyama Masaharu 18,760,000
27 Itsuki Hiroshi 18,700,000
28 Kome Kome CLUB 18,320,000
29 SPITZ 18,290,000
30 MISIA 17,150,000
31 Yamaguchi Momoe 16,190,000
32 Himuro Kyosuke 15,710,000
33 Inoue Yosui 15,670,000
34 Sawada Kenji 15,660,000
35 Go Hiromi 15,620,000
36 Morning Musume 15,470,000
37 Mori Shinichi 15,400,000
38 CHECKERS 15,300,000
39 Imai Miki 15,220,000
40 Nakayama Miho 14,970,000
41 Kudou Shizuka 14,820,000
42 Koizumi Kyoko 14,230,000
43 Kuraki Mai 14,220,000
44 JUDY AND MARY 14,130,000
45 Matsuyama Chiharu 14,030,000
46 Yazawa Eikichi 13,930,000
47 WANDS 13,730,000
48 T-BOLAN 13,610,000
49 Mariah Carey 13,460,000
50 Takeuchi Mariya 13,400,000

---
OOPS! COUNTED HIKKI NUMBERS WRONG! Right ones:

Namie sales now would be +- 28,000,000
Hikki's +- 35,800,000
Ayu's +- 50,000,000
Koda's +- 12,000,000

So... Ayu most likelly outsold Southern All Stars and may be right now the 3rd best selling japanese pop act

Hikki outsold Zard and maybe Glay

Namie may have outsold L'arc (i don't have their numbers) and only them...

Koda is not one of the top50 best selling musicians yet...

---

BTW... i would guess Ayu sold 70,000,000... 75,000,000 albums worldwide...

^
I agree. I think that would be a good estimation of world wide sales for her.

Many other people on that list sold a lot recently. I know MM has passed some on the list and ZARD had a huge surge in sales with her passing away. It's possible that Namie Passed GLOBE, as BEST FICTION has sold 1 + 1/2 million already.

^I counted Best Fiction Sales^^

kuu is just SO far from being there xD

about ayus worlwide sales, I think they are be between 70k and 90k, I once tried to calculate them some months ago... and it was around 80k, so I think that span would fit probably

I think that estimate is way too large. Compared to other asian countries that Ayu has her cds available in, Japan far, faaaar outsells those countries when it comes to cd sales in general. She also hasn't always had everything available in those countries. I would estimate a few million copies have been sold outside of Japan at the most, not 30million plus.

^Well... i'm considering that she has 10 studio albums, 1 mini-album, 5 compilations (wich may have sold 1million outside japan per release... or even more when the economy was better), 20 remix albums (wich sell less, but still, she has tons of those), and 47 singles... So, imo its possible for her to has sold 20million copies overseas (50million she already sold on Japan alone)^^

^ But as I said, it's really only been the last few years I think that her albums have gotten released overseas. I doubt there are millions of people that after that went out and bought her whole back catalog. You have to keep in mind that Japan is the second largest music industry in the world in terms of sales behind the USA and the other asian countries traditionally have not been anywhere close to that - though Korea's music industry has been picking up. To hit a million copies for an album or even close to that outside of Japan, as far as I have seen, is a very rare thing to do even for the top korean, top chinese artists etc in their own home country, let alone for a foreigner. :)

For example, the best selling album for Korea in all of 2007 sold a whopping 190,998 copies. And it wasn't Ayumi's album. ;)

well... i'm saying something like... 50k copies here, 100k copies there... for each album... I know she would never sell 1million on only one country


btw... those numbers are usually based on shipping...

^ But even 50k-100k per release is still estimating way too much. Just look at the current sales for Korea in the year 2009 (who after Japan is generally considered to have the best music sales in asia): http://www.soompi.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=317370

Sorry, don't mean to jump on your post. :) But it seems that people here are always over estimating Ayu's sales in other asian countries. She definitely is one of the better selling Japanese acts outside of Japan, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the sales are actually high.

I know... that's why it was a guessing^^ We can't really know those numbers...
what woul be ur guess? 5, 10 million?

Mariah Carey is on the list!
woah anyone listened to Matsutoya Yumi ? interesting!
i think ayu can beat SAS soo close xD

I would say 5 million is probably the highest, but as you said, it's just a guesstimate.

Impossible. Sales in Asian countries are REALLY REALLY REALLY small. If she was a huge success in every single country in Asia she would still not be able to sell over 1 million per release. To estimate she sold 50k in one single country is already an over-estimation.

wow o_o

sunshineslayer is always doubtfull about ayu's popularity outside japan...
that what i always read every her posts...

that's my opinion about you....^^v

^Well, I just read that 10,000 copies sold in singapure is HUGE, and that Ayu (and Hikki) were ruling over there at their peaks cuz they sold more than this... Over there for example, according to the article, a really popular jpop albumsells +- 3,000

Well it would be great if oricon counted itunes sales for every japanese artist, they would atleast jump some few millions like the western singers.


Qestion - if people hardly buy CD's in asia, makes you wonder how the F.. do western singers sell so much or do people in western or european countries buy a lot of CD's?

i live in new york and ive never seen people hype over a release that you would have people standing outside CD stores waiting to buy the CD.

it just makes me wonder.

Western countries definitely buy more music, physically and probably digitally (but especially physically), than any part of Asia. When you look at worldwide charts sales, the US, Europe, and even Australia...they always have so much more sales than Japan, China, etc. And it's obviously not because they're more people in Western/English-speaking countries, and it's not usually because the music is more popular outside of the countries (sometimes, but definitely not always the case). So places like Japan have officially just gone into a huge slump as far as the music industry goes, I guess. :\ I know everywhere I've always lived in the US, CDs still sell pretty well. I'll see the stands in department stores that showcase the new releases, and much of it will be gone the next day. And right now, I live in a pretty dead city, but that's still the case.

i know the charts show that singers here are selling a lot more than in asian countries but it just makes me wonder if the numbers are fixed/setup. i dont know why but i get that feeling. but thats just me.