[2004] Second most No.1's in history + 18 million singles sold
 

According to Oricon , Ayu has just achieved the second most no.1 singles obtained of all female Japanese artists in history:

●表1　歴代シングル首位獲得数記録（女性アーティスト部門）
順位 作品数 アーティスト
1 25 松田聖子
2 21 浜崎あゆみ 中森明菜
4 11 小泉今日子 工藤静香

Ayu now has 21 no.1 singles after CAROLS reached no.1 (178,000 in first week), tied with Akina Nakamori in second spot and 4 singles behind Seiko Matsuda.

Ayu also moved up to fifth spot on the singles sales of all time, having sold 18 million 400 thousand singles:

●表2　歴代シングル総売上枚数記録
順位 総売上（万枚） アーティスト
1 3194.2 B'z
2 2452.1 Mr.Children*
3 2277.2 サザンオールスターズ
4 1893.7 SMAP
5 1840.2 浜崎あゆみ
6 1837.5 GLAY*

Impressive, and she's likely to overtake Seiko eventually to get to number 1. But where's Hikki on the second list: strange she doesn't make the top 5 in overall sales. Also surprising just how popular those Japanese boybands are.


PS you might want to edit it to say "second most no.1 singles obtained of all female Japanese artists in history" :)

Nice to hear this ^^
this chart is for Singles only...that explains why hikaru wasnt in the chart.
Moments and INSPIRE are on the 2nd place for both best lyrics and music!!!
http://www2.oricon.co.jp/ranking/word.html
http://www2.oricon.co.jp/ranking/melody.html

http://www2.oricon.co.jp/ranking/produce.html
As for this I'm not sure which single won the best production...should be Moments since they put a 1 next to it...but why is INSPIRE on top of it???

Wow. COngrats to AYU!! ^^ Go Ayu GO!! Thx for sharing :wave

Nice :) :yes go ayu!

wooo, congrats Ayu!

very nice!!
well i think it is only a matter of times before ayu can take the number one spot(females) and she is not too far away either..4 singles to go ^-^
and i doubt she can reach first on the all time sales*points to boybands X.X*
but where is hikki....

I think Ayu should stick around to top Seiko Matsuda! That'd be awesome to be number 1 in that category, and she could totally do it!

i hope ayu will release more singles so she can overtake Seiko Matsuda!!

Sugoi.. that's a lot of singles and money..

Yes! Great news! Even if Ayu planned to quit after next year she'd still have a good chance of getting the top spot, with singles from a new album and then perhaps a farewell single. Doubt she'll beat B'z sales though. Is that thirty million?!

this is amazing! we need to help her to be NO. 1!!!!!!

ayus close to SMAP..!!

2nd best among female JAPANESE artists. Hmm..i wonder where she ranks in the world, as in how many singles sold? Or maybe cd's sold.

Woah! Yeah, in little over a year she could be #1!

I think Hikki's not up there because, well, she doesn't have many singles. True, she sells a lot of each, but it's still not enough to add up into the top 5 of ALL TIME. If she had more singles, there's a possibilty she'd be higher up. (If we disclude the theory that she only sells so much of each because she "starves" her fans)

But congrats to Ayu! That's quite an achievement!

i'm sure ayu can surpass SMAP w/ 1-2 more singles
but i doubt whether she can get any further up
coz there's this 3,800,000 discrepancy between SAS and SMAP
dat's equal to 10-12 more singles...
(she'll need 4 more albums to do dat)
will ayu release dat many singles?

congrats to Ayu!
just 4-5 more singles and she'll beat Seiko. =]

yeah same here, wud like to know that =)

She might actually have the second most number 1 singles in history. According to various sites I've been looking at, it seems like the Beatles are titled as having the most number 1 singles, with 20 of them.

I'm not sure if this is just billboard's charts though.