^ Maybe because people got tired or confused because of that gigantic title? LOL

I would say the position doesn't matter, but I do like to see my favorite artists selling well, because obviously that's good for them.

For me it doesn't matter at all if the artists are in or out of top 5/10/20/30/etc for me to like them or not, one of my all time top favorite artists is constantly out of top 20 in oricon and I don't care about that, but still I'm always hoping for them to sell well, because sales are important for an artist to keep active, so I always hope they can do well in that sense. I couldn't care less about the position in the rankings, but the numbers do matter in a way... That's how I see it.

She pretty much out sold all these women

Namie Amuro: 31,543 (Big Boys Cry / Beautiful)

miwa: 29,562 (Faraway / Kiss You)

AI: 26,177 (VOICE)

Koda Kumi: 25,953 (Dreaming Now!)

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: 24,977 (Mottai Night Land)

ayaka: 15,216 (Beautiful / Chiisana Ashiato)

Otsuka Ai: 10,276 (Re: Name)

Mika Nakashima: 10,036 (Boku ga Shinou to Omotta no Wa)

Miliyah Kato: 7,009 (Lonely Hearts)

BoA: 6,982 (Message / Call My Name)


Namie amuro just 1k under but she's gunna for sure surpass it, and Hikaru Utada has 33k which Ayu will surely pass

Kana is at 38k which i'm thinking ayu will pass in the long run but thats not so sure fire,

either way 30k in first week when all these other female artist who are considered the leaders are getting sales figures under that

I think ayu is doing really well! :) especially for being out of the single game for 3 years!!

^^ I hope this kicks off the start of more and more singles from ayu! (and promoooo)

^

ayu sold 30k on her first week, those numbers are final numbers, not the first week ones, we should compare 30k with the first week numbers.

Kana sold 22k with Sayonara on its debut week.

Nice sales! Just as I thought, it's a single that's just selling normally. Good.

You know, this sounds so strange to me, 'cause I have the total opposite approach to music: I can rarely love a song, without loving the singer. I'm the type who grows attached to maybe few singers, but will follow them forever. I can't get all the "jumping to another, more popular singer badwagon" at all, lol.

Sales are good, not just ok, neither great.
Position is "bad" having her last 25 singles at #1.

But about these two things, I think like pimienta said. I "care" about sales, because it's good for the artist to keep active and make more music; I "don't care" about position because in the end it doesn't mean nothing.
For me, only yearly ranking have a bit more meaning because it's like a compilation of all charts in just one :yes

Singles First week numbers of main solo female acts (decrescent order):

Mizuki Nana: 61,648 (Vitalization)

aiko: 43,682 (Loveletter / 4gatsu no Ame)

ayu: 30,385 (Feel the love / Merry-go-round)

Namie Amuro: 23,113 (Big Boys Cry / Beautiful)

Kana Nishino: 22,820 (Sayonara)

miwa: 22,479 (Faraway / Kiss You)

Koda Kumi: 21,135 (Dreaming Now!)

Utada Hikaru: 20,681 (Sakura Nagashi)

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu: 14,813 (Mottai Night Land)

Superfly: 11,042 (Force)

ayaka: 9,508 (Beautiful / Chiisana Ashiato)

Otsuka Ai: 9,364 (Re: Name)

Mika Nakashima: 7,082 (Boku ga Shinou to Omotta no Wa)

AI: 6,527 (VOICE)

BoA: 5,800 (Message / Call My Name)

Miliyah Kato: 4,725 (Lonely Hearts)

^Thanks for doing this, it's so interesting!! I can't believe Ayu already outsold Kana!! She was like the new queen 2 years ago :D that speaks a lot of Ayu's longevity

But NMB48 and SKE48 sales decreased too, and they released their respective studio albums. Even if AKB48 released an album on 2013 that's +1 million copies at most, then 2013 is still worse than 2012 and 2011!

That's just physical though. A lot of those singles did very well digitally. Example: Sakura Nagashi sold 350k digitally and is certified platinum. While Feel the Love/Merry-go-round didn't even chart digitally. I also know KPP and Kana are strong digital sellers but couldn't find official numbers.

^ Where do you check your digital charts? It might not have done as well as others, but saying it didn't chart (digitally) is wrong.

Can you really compare the theme of Evangelion to a single that had almost no promo/tie-ups? That movie's BDs sold 400,000+ copies.

yuupp! exactly thats what i meant with Ayu's first week sales she managed to almost out sell the full run of other singles! :P

The only artists with higher sales are Nana Mizuki and aiko. Nana has a lot of popularity because she is always doing something for animes, and aiko is loved by many japanese people (according to Oricon, XD).

I was checking Recochoku and i didn't see Feel the love or Merry go-round in the top 10.
I only saw the PV for Feel the love at No.8.

Amuro fans, Love Story is back in the digital charts in the top 10.

Here's the chaku-uta and recochoku's digital singles where she isn't in the top 10 weekly; but the iTunes Japan chart shows her highest ranking at #36 for a day before falling back down. I said 'didn't chart' as in the top 20, because below that (and hitting #36 for a single day is way below that) it's kind of useless to even mention when Japan already has a very weak digital market, below #20 and the sales aren't even significant enough to mention.

It isn't that it 'didn't do as well as others', it's that it 'didn't do' at all.

I was just responding to his/her comparison in the first place with the idea that a lot of the artists he/she mentioned are stronger digital sellers (not only hikaru) who have far outsold Ayu's new single with digital copies, who's digital chart placement is basically irrelevant.

Not to say that it matters, but we should be realistic if we're gonna compare that way.

lots of great solo acts are overshadowed by bubble gum pop idol groups.... the trend is the trend style is timeless. they will fade eventually.

#5... Hmm... Yep, I was prepared - we already know HSJ and Yuzu, and I was right about Flower and Momoclo... The young ones sure are dominating the competition...

For Ayu streak lovers: :headache

But I don't care anymore. I'm still disgusted with Oricon charts overall with too much dominance of AKB48/related and Johnny's groups all year long... :eviltongu

Agreed :yes

Do you realize? The four artists ahead of Ayu are GROUPS, not soloists - Ayu's the top soloist here :P

So thus ends the streak. What did it end at? 24?

25 ^^ since Free & Easy

Oricon numbers are out ^^ From now on daily updates are back :)

and well, she kinda dropped more than what I was expecting on the second week... I was hopping for top 10 at least :~ it might sell around 2~3k this week.

1st Week


2nd Week

The 2nd day for week 2 is such a huge drop! But i kinda love how it went up to top20 on the 5th! LOL Her sales figures has always been like this recently.