well, fpr selling 290000 copies is not bad considering that they don't include the index anymore. She would have sold around 500000 copies by now if they had done that. But i'm not an expert when it comes to how oricon has been doing in previous years... :)

^ Including the index would meaning nothing. These are the actual sales now. She would not suddenly have a sales increase if they added an index, it would be the same numbers that Oricon is reporting now.

Yeah, I think people are misunderstanding what the index meant. It did not mean that her reported sales would be the same as now times an index. Her reported sales would have been lower than they are right now, and only after multiplying with the index would we get the numbers we have now...

500k is pretty much impossible. Breaking 400k is going to be an achievement for her with this album.

For all the people who are worried about these sales, do you remember the following artists?

Mai Kuraki
Chemistry
Orange Range

At some point in their careers, they've outsold Ayumi Hamasaki, single-wise and album-wise. I think Ayu is still doing very well for someone who's been around for a decade.

If there weren't four versions of this album, I would think the decrease in sales would be relatively low. Maybe the sales would be 20,000 less. I find it hard to believe that there are that many stupid, wasteful people who would buy more than two versions of an album, or even one. I think I'm being generous: 20,000 is already a lot of stupid.

To be more scientific about it, maybe there can be an AHS poll. Who bought more than one version of Next Level? And then just work out the statistics and ratios.

:yes
Breakin' 400k sales is very possible or reaching 350k is also possible.

And ORICON doesn't use the indexes anymore.

2nd week sales:

*1　DO YOU DREAMS COME TRUE?　DREAMS COME TRUE 82,873
*2　NEXT LEVEL　浜崎あゆみ 50,271

Total 2 weeks sales: 291,081

Exactly. If you buy more than one version, you must be very stupid. :irked (But w/e, it's your life)


Great sales Ayu!

yeah 50K on the 2nd week :D.


I think it's quite weird to put Mai and CHEMISTRY there (not saying it's totally wrong :P). When Mai was freakin' popular around 2000 (thanks to hikki), Ayu was just very popular, but not super popular compared to Mai. The hikki vs. ayu wasn't even started because at that point no one would stand against hikki at all (well it's true :)).

I dunno why I feel CHEMISTRY shouldn't be on the list. I know which albums you're talking about: Second to None vs. RAINBOW (yearly no. 1 and no. 2 respectively). Probly at that time ayu was still freakin' popular (2002), so I dun feel ayu was "defeated" by CHEMISTRY at all. Not to mention that ayu got yearly no. 1 single in 2002 (even tho StN and RAINBOW were counted as 2003 releases in oricon year).

Of course I know your main point is that those three artists/groups were once extremely popular and now they're so dull. tbh... Mai's music were even MUCH more "recycling" compared to ayu. It's so boring to hear the same tune over and over again. CHEMISTRY... well once Douchin was married the group suffered a lot. And I dunno why, but their music wasn't that appealing as well. For OR... I think they're doing their own things and dun really care about the sales anymore...

some people have the money to spend and it won't affect their lives in a negative way by purchasing more than one version so yeah. it doesn't mean they're stupid. stupid would be giving up food for a few weeks to buy more versions.. (lol i've seen a few people on here say that x_x)

thanks for the update babamon..
2nd week sales bit higher than estimated

3rd week first day sales:

#2 3,803 NEXT LEVEL　浜崎あゆみ

^Wow such a huge drop.

DCT sold 10,655, how did they sell so much?

I'm amazed by DCT sales! selling above 10,000 copies on a Mon is definitely consider a feat. i hope the usb will help in NEXT LEVEL sales tomorrow ^^ maybe 10-15K? *finger crossed* i just wish NEXT LEVEL will be able to reach the 400,000copies mark, cos this album deserved much better than that

Oh ! huge drop for her ! maybe it'll go up a bit tomorrow !~^ !

i hope mine to arrive soon ....

She went Shibuya today to promote Vivi Deji Deji at Tower Records, plus the encore version of USB to be included tml.. hopefully sales will be good tml :)

At least that's the first platinum done. Now about the second almost impossible platinum... Let's see how it goes.

What a drop.. I hope it picks up later.

Then a lot of people on this forum are stupid then by this definition. I don't buy multiple versions of albums either, but I wouldn't call people that do stupid. And yes, a high enough statistic of people must buy more than one album or else the record companies wouldn't bother making multiple versions for any artist to begin with - its at least enough people to make the record companies want to continue doing such strategies.