True, but it all didn't sell that amazingly... so it's a little weird IMO that she made it up that high. Apparently, it's normal for Ayu's most recent albums to pop back in for the double weeks. Someone mentioned A BEST 2 / A COMPLETE popping back up in 2007-2008.. hm. Oh well. I guess in comparison to most other acts, her two live DVDs probably boosted her up above say, ayaka who just had her best album.

It's interesting though how most of the top 10 has at least one million selling item, and the earnings don't seem to be all that much higher. (Except in the case for the top two... and Tohoshinki just released a load of DVDs/CDs in 2009 so I don't think they really count...)

Days/GREEN is considered as 2008 single right?or its counted towards 2009?

^ It's counted as 2009 because the Oricon year starts in mid-December.

@Truehappiness: Yeah, compared to boybands and whatnot they had a lot of releases too. But in terms of other female artists, Ayu did probably have the most releases throughout the year. It's weird because as fans it always seems like she should release more! haha. But really in retrospect, she released a lot of stuff this year.

It's interesting then since this is Ayu on a pretty light load, haha. (2 singles + album + two live DVDs) It's just so weird that someone like Namie with a 250k+++++ selling DVD/Blu-ray didn't manage to break the top 10...

Let's see if we can dig up her older earnings from previous years and compare...

^ Compared to her early time it is a light load, but I think its pretty standard for her the last few years though. Like 2008 she had A-Complete, Guilty, 1 single, 2 dvds right? So actually she released more this year than last. Also I'm not sure if Oricon factors in book sales as well. Oricon does have a chart for books, so its possible that the Vivi book got counted this year too.

Namie only had 1 dvd and 1 single, so her total is an extremely high return considering that.

I believe they specify that they only count singles/albums/DVDs.

http://ahsforum.com/forum/showthread...=oricon+yearly

Dang, she was #2 in 2008 with 7.1 billion yen. I guess A COMPLETE really helped, and the lack of competition from GReeeeN and such. Did B'z get helped this year by Ichibu to Zenbu or what!?

^ haha, for sure it did. :) B'z also had a concert dvd, album, and another single too. So by B'z recent standards this was kinda a busy release year for them too.

I'm not sure what all Greeen released this year cause I don't really follow them. But Mr. Children I think has the smallest number of releases in the top 10. I believe they just had 1 album and 1 concert DVD counting towards their sales. Namie also only had 1 single and 1 concert DVD, but the sales weren't high enough to make the top 10. What did Ayaka all release this year? I know about her best album but was there anything else?

[Was B'z's MAGIC in 2007? Maybe my memory is fuzzy...]

GReeeeN released Shio, Koushou, a few singles, and their best [AB DESUTO?!]... so that's quite a lot. Shio, Koushou was very close to the mllion mark, so... yeah. They released more than they usually do. I think ayaka just had her best album and two singles. The singles didn't do that well, so... I guess the best album was a big part of it.

The yen totals overall for earnings this year seem to have been pretty low, but I guess that's a sign of the times. EXILE/Arashi don't count, haha.

^ lol. MAGIC was just released this past November. :)

Looks like I was thinking about ACTION. Blah! Haha.

It's scary looking at the records that B'z has in sales... jeez.

Well congrats to Ayu! And Tohoshinki's #3 woo~

Yeah, and with the declining sales I don't think anyone has a shot at touching them ever.

That's great ayu is once again the best female selling artist! I'm pleased with you were.../ballad's sales and next level back on charts?!! This is great!

ayu-mi-x 6 -GOLD- & -SILVER- + Vinyl records... ;D Can't leave out my babies!

^ woah, I totally forgot about ayu-mi-x 6. It seems so old-school now...
But props to NL for jumping back up!

Ahhh totally forgot about those since I don't really listen to remixes.

Not really.
kuu had stay with me, It's all Love!, 3 SPLASH and Alive/Physical thing as singles.
TRICK as an album and TRICK Live 2009 DVD.

ever since the singles went from 4-6 to 2 a year, it seems a little to me. the only thing that keeps it seeming consistent is the albums, because she has been steady.

Actually, after A BALLADS, it was basically 3 singles a year until 2005 which had 4. And arguably, (miss)understood might've sold a million had B&D not been released. And since 2006, it's been two a year. If we count 2009's R/S, S/S, Y/B (released after 2009 Oricon year ended), then she's gone back to the three singles for the first time since 2004. You could say that Together When... coming after g/f and t2m was a "3rd single" but officially, I don't think we count the digital single in her single discography.

So they were tied for the number of releases then. Koda's single sales though this year took a huge dive it seems.