5 Reasons Why BTS 'BE''s First-week Sales Are So Respectable Though It Didn't Break Records

5 Reasons Why BTS 'BE''s First-week Sales Are So Respectable Though It Didn't Break Records
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Hanteo announced the first-week sales of BTS's latest album 'BE (Deluxe Edition)' and it didn't break the record of 'Map Of The Soul: 7'.

At 2 PM KST on November 20, BTS released the new album 'BE (Deluxe Edition)'. 'BE' is a special music product because all 7 members of BTS contribute to each stage of conceptualizing and completing this album. The members not only participated in writing the music and lyrics, but also participated in building the overall direction of the album, art design and photo concepts, as well as the MV for the title track 'Life Goes On '.

Because BTS is well known for selling millions of copies for every album they release, the sales of 'BE (Deluxe Edition)' were also highly anticipated. Finally, at 12 AM KST on November 27, Hanteo announced the first-week sales of this album. Hanteo is a chart of physical albums sold on mainstream websites and stores in South Korea. The Hanteo chart only counts the actual number of copies sold.

Specifically, in the first week of its release, from November 20 to November 26, 'BE (Deluxe Edition)' sold a total of 2,274,882 copies. Thus, this album didn't break the record for the highest first-week sales in history of BTS' earlier album 'Map of the Soul: 7' (3,378,633 copies).

However, it still managed to become the album with the 2nd highest first-week sales, surpassing another product of the group, 'Map of the Soul: PERSONA' (2,130,480 copies). This also means that the Top 3 of this chart have continued to be dominated by BTS, who recently became the first Korean artist to receive a Grammy nomination.

The first-week sales of BTS' albums.
Top 5 K-Pop albums with the highest first-week sales of all time.

5 reasons why Korean netizens admire 'BE (Deluxe Edition)''s first-week album sales

Although 'BE (Deluxe Edition)' did not break the first-week sales record set by 'Map of the Soul: 7', Korean netizens do not think this is a step backwards for the boys. On the contrary, many people are amazed at the huge sales of this new album. Why?

Here are 5 main reasons why the achievement of 'BE (Deluxe Edition)' is so respectable:

1. The album has only 1 version.

2. The album does not have random photocards. This means that fans don't buy a lot of copies just to collect random cards.

3. The album does not come with a fansign event. Fans will also not need to buy a lot of copies to increase the chance of winning a fansign event.

4. The album is no longer receiving support from BTS' fanbases (bars) in China. Although it is possible that Chinese fans still buy a lot of copies individually, no large group order was announced like it used to be, because of the recent controversy.

5. The album is sold at a list price of 39,400 won (about 35 USD). Costs may vary due to shipping fees, but the list price is still two to three times more expensive than a normal album, as this is a Deluxe edition.

Many fans even said that if Big Hit sells the album's regular versions, the sales will be much bigger.

Some comments from Knet:

  • "Wow, this album even has only one version?"
  • "So amazing, already more than 2 million copies already?"
  • "39,400 won per copy, so the total sales would be around 90 billion won!"
  • "I didn't expect it to sell that much..."
  • "The problem is Chinese fans didn't even make group orders this time."
  • "This album is really expensive. I don't understand why the sales are so high."
  • "Selling 2.2 million copies without fansign or random card? Unbelievable!"
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