Quote:
Originally Posted by rakeru
I recently read in Billboard that Japan has surpassed the US in physical sales, though the US is naturally ahead of Japan in digital sales. That's hard to measure though, since actual sales aren't as readily available in the US as they are in Japan, and may be skewed because the release patterns are very different.
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The numbers I saw are from 2008, and I read them in the RIAJ yearbook document, although the info themselves comes from a neutral party, but they said the following :
The US sold 2 million physical singles, Japan 50 million. (This number isn't all that surprising since physical singles are pretty much dead in the US.)
Japan sold 165 million albums, the US 385 million. (This number isn't all that surprising either, since Japan only has half the amount of inhabitants. I'm not sure whether the US one counts digital sales or not ...)
Also interesting is that in Japan, MORE dvds are sold than in the US. And not just by comparison of country size, in total, which I think is pretty amazing.
Also of note :
The retail value of everything sold in the US is 5.9 billion. In Japan, it's 5.1 billion. Now that is, I think, a tiny gap for a country with just half the amount of inhabitans o.O.
Anyway, that's my ramblings XD