Ayu is the 4th best-seller
 

http://www.oricon.co.jp/news/rankmusic/43071

According to oricon, Ayu is 4th on the list of the Best-selling japanese acts of all times. Because of Mr.Children's latest album, they updated the top5; so there are new numbers based on sales in Japan. Also this makes her the number 1 female and number 1 solo.

1. B'z (75.614 mil) 1988-now (average: 3.979 million a year)
2. Mr.Children (50.635 mil) 1992-now (average: 3.376 million a year)
3. Southern All-stars (47.083 mil) 1978-now (average: 1.623 million a year)
4. Hamasaki Ayumi (45.528 mil) 1998-now (average: 5.056 million a year)
5. Dreams come true (40.893 mil) 1989-now (average: 2.271 million a year)

I think it's common knowledge that she's 4th in the all-time sales chart, though the up-to-date exact sales are quite good to know. Thanks for posting.

Errr... isn't this common knowledge? Anyway, thanks for the update in sales :D I was looking for this. Gambatte ayu! Only 200k more to be 3rd best seller >_<

edit: ^Wow, our posts were like, identical O_o

ermm. don't you mean 2 million?

Thanks =)

thanks for the info. i didnt know it before. and she is the highest ranking female star!!

Oh, and also the youngest *-*

20 years of career between her and the 3rd, that's HUUUGE O_O

Congrats Ayu-chaan, YOU DESERVE IT =333 ♥♥ !!!!
:love

Ometedou! Go go ayu!

Really? I would think by now she would have overtaken SAS with the release of A BEST 2 and Secret (nearing 3 million copies). I tried to find the Music Station ranking chart which also had her sales to compare, but I can't seem to find it.

Besides, when was the last time SAS released something?

I think she will move up being the youngest by far.

appearantly, their latest release was their single "DIRTY OLD MAN ～さらば夏よ～" in August 2006, which got #1... An in October 2006 they released their dubbel-album "Killer Street" that got reached to 1 million copies.

wow! gd job!

amazing... she holds soo much records.

woo.. nice.. gogo ayu~

*hopes it doesn't include A BEST 2 even though it probbaly does*
I already knew, but it's nice for updates figures.
This is interesting:

Average sales per year (sales divided by years in industry):

B'z - 3.979 Million
Mr Children - 2.531 Million
Southern All Stars - 1.623 Million
Ayumi Hamasaki - 5.056 Million
Dreams come true - 2.271

wow
she is the only one in that top 5 list
that debut in the late 90s
congrats
marry me ! ayu ..

all time no. 1 single artist(not a band), too!

That's really impressive if you think about it.
:) Congrats to Ayu. :)

omedetou ayu!!! this is great news. ayu is the greatest!!!

and thank you for this!

Thanks for the info! Go Ayu! :D

thanks for this info!

Plus: B'z had 28 albums and 43 singles; Mr Children had 30 singles and 16 albums; Southern All Stars had 52 singles and I'm not sure how many albums (i guess around 32?); Ayu had 29 albums (incluinding her remix albums) and 40 singles and Dream Come True had 39 singles and 21 albums.

So, even if she was the last one to debut, she has as many releases as the others on the lists (of course, lots of them were remix albums).

Omedetou Ayu!! Great news!!
Arigatou for the info!! ^^

Great, love to hear and know, Ayu is the only one solo artist and she is the only soloist female there. Good job, Ayu ^^ One way to go..

ayu is just absolutely amazing...youngest, only female...
thanks for the info!

That's really cool, very impressive :)

Go Ayu!

LOL she's also the first artist who managed to be on top for not releasing boring songs XD I mean, I'm yet to listen to a song from those other groups who doesn't YAWN me.

wow! thats good achievements ayu have made!! congrats to ayu!

Wow! That's GREAT!
Also, Ayu is the highest ranking female singer!

:laugh

I would have to agree!

Nice...

yay! :)

all those other people have been around for sooo long, and ayus not even at 10 years yet haha thanks for the news :D:D

Good, she widened the gap between her and Dreams Come True and closed the gap a bit between her and SAS. Her placement is even all the more impressive since she hasn't been around nearly as long as the other artists in the top 10 (same for Utada.)

That's not really fair to those groups. :) I used to think that too, until I actually really listened to any of them. Southern All Stars has some great classic j-pop songs like Itoshii Ellie. Mr. Children - though I do think a lot of their singles sound the same - really stand out for their lyrics and I especially like their recent singles Fake and Shirushi. And B'z is just great - they have many excellent songs. Of course I prefer Ayu to them all. :) But any artist that the Japanese public reveres so highly I think is worth giving an objective listen to.

yes, its pretty amazing. she is the most efficient japanese artst ever, according to this ^^
I mean, 9 years, 8 albums, 1 mini [im not going to count remix albums, they amount to almost nothing in sales ...] only female, youngest, most efficient, ect ect ect. really what this is saying is, the others have sold more, but ayu is the best XD

LOL yeah, I really generalized and was somewhat unfair since I never listened to even 1% of their works (except for B'z, which i listened to them a little more), but it's just that anything I try from them, I feel turned off. B'z does have some cool songs indeed, but I generally tend to forget most of them and a lot of their songs sound uninteresting, maybe because I'm not that much into the type of rock they produce.

That's good impressive really.

wow!! go ayu!!!

edit: and mink!! lol!

That's a bit deceptive, since only 8 of her albums were studio and her remix albums usually sold less than her singles did.

I think she might slip farther behind soon though, since her sales are dipping while the other top artists are fairly consistent. Mr. Children's newest album's first week sales are higher than Secret's overall sales.

I have a question! is ayu the first one to be on the top 5? is she the first solo female EVER? or was there some1 before ayu? as a solo? or female?

DREAMS COME TRUE's most recent album sold about 410k in 4 weeks so I don't think they'll pass her if Ayumi stays at her normal releasing pace.

I meant relative to those above her; I've been waiting for her too surpass SAS for about a year now, lol. They have a pretty slow release pattern though, so maybe she'll be able to best them irregardless. I'm just hoping she comes along with an amazing single this year and sees a resurgence in popularity ala Hikki.

good for Ayu being the #1 selling female singer! of course, B'z have been around for a while, so that's why they were #1 in selling

Not really since the remix albums are included in the 45.5 million.

That's one wicked average she got there.

While that's a valid point, you have to take remix albums for what they are. All 16 of their sales add up to less then 4 million, which means she'd still be #4 and have a higher average than the top 3 without them. Saying Ayu's released as many albums as Michiru, SAS, or B'z is a bit misleading since most of their albums have been studio/compilations.

that's awesome! go AYU!

I'm so happy it's confirmed by Oricon :3

I don't think she is likely to catch Mr. Children and no one will be catching B'z, but Southern All Stars are possible since they aren't selling quite as well as they used to and aren't releasing as often. Ayu's spot is secure over Dreams Come True because their sales have really taken a dive lately.

If who is #1 was based on length of time in the business, it would be Southern All Stars in that top spot. B'z has just sold an amazing amount of records consistently - they are 20 million+ ahead of the closest competition. No one will be catching them anytime soon, if ever.

I'm sure Matsutoya Yumi would have been at some point.

Mr. Children debuted in 1992, that's why they are celebrating their 15th anniversary this year.

I think it was rumored that Killer Street was Southern All Star's final album. That's just speculation, of course. It'd be a damn good album to end their career on though. Ayu will probably surpass them if that turns out to be true.

Mr.Children and B'z. No way. She doesn't even deserve to pass them. She's already good enough in my book as the best selling female. I think she'll be holding that spot for a loooong time. Of course, unless some female comes along and revolutionizes J-pop music the same way Ayu did.

Some should really consider checking out those other bands in the top five though. B'z and Mr.Children are very popular, like Ayu, for their lyrics. Sakurai Kazutoshi has got to be one of Japan's all-time best lyricists. (Go see Centigrade-J for translations and see what I mean) They have way larger discographies than Ayu, so it's even more common for songs to sound the same. But when you have a lot to say, you tend to sacrifice a catchy melody for lyrics, you know what I mean? They're excellent live too.

I guess these bands won't float everyone's boat though. I tend to gravitate towards male singers in general, but I dislike L'arc and visual rock. I find that type of rock terribly boring. And I'm way over ELT, DAI, DAT, and all those girl-lead-bands.. except for ZONE.. they're amazing lol.

so COOL she deserve it..looks like in the end of her carrier she will be third for the best selling japanese artist

Mr. Children is, by far, the most successful act on the list, I mean they have much less releases than all the others on the list and they still sell A LOT.

Congreats Ayu!

Ayu is the youngest artist. So Cool!
Fighto! Fighto!

No.1 Forever >.<

I wonder just what boosted Mr. Children's fame to such a point that they don't even need promotion to sell like, 300k of a single.. D:

good job
thanks for sharing this

God damn, evil magic, thats what, DAMN THEM!

Fight for the first place!! :D:D:D

congrats on ayu..wee~~

Consistent good lyrics/melodies throughout the 15 years?

thanks for the info^^

Go ayu, Go ayu!!

Something had to have caught people's attention..

They rose up to having consecutive million-selling singles after their first few.. D:


Their first week -> total sales are SO SCARY. 2,000 and 7,000 for their first two albums respectively..

And those two albums sold 400k and 1 million respectively.. D:

well Ayu relli is the best!

Yay for Ayu!

That is a tremendous and astounding number! So if anyone is upset, I'll smack you xD J/k..

Oh, don't we all... :P

I think she has sold 50,000,000 that's what i've counted by my self :rolleyes

Thank you very much for sharing! This isn't common knowledge to me at all, so I was pleasantly surprised! Everybody else on the list has been around for a decade longer and we can expect Ayu to reach third place in a year. That's just too awesome. Her annual average seems higher than her current sales, though; I suppose her past successes are boosting the figure.

mr children are amazing. how could they be out for so long and still continue to be pumping out the sales like that? it must be because they have a wider audience... old and young

yeah! i think so too... just like 4mil copies of A BEST

OMG thats greathttp://www.ahsforum.com/for:love :love um/images/smile2/love.gif

It's good but not so impressive if you count how much singles and albums she have to keep that title.