BTS becomes the first overseas artist in history to be ranked number 1 on this annual sales chart in Japan

For the longest time, the Japanese music market was the goal and objective for many K-pop idols in the history of K-pop. The Japanese music market was deemed the doorway or the stepping stone to the overseas, global music market for many K-pop idols over the years.

However, over the recent years, K-pop has grown to a size to even dominate the Japanese music industry, with many K-pop idols making the Oricon charts and garnering many Japanese fans.

Recently, it was reported that BTS became the first overseas artist to rank 1 on Oricon's annual album sales chart earning over 18.48 billion Japanese Yen, which is about 192 billion KRW or 160 million USD. In the history of the K-pop industry making their entrance to the Japanese music market, BTS set a dominating record as the only K-pop artist that was able to earn close to 20 billion Japanese Yen.

BTS came in at number 1 as the artist that had the highest album earnings in 2021, followed by Japanese artists Snow Man, King & Prince, Arashi, SixTONES, Nogizaka46, YOASOBI, Official Hige Dandism, Kis-My-Ft2, and B'z in the top 10.

What was also impressive was that there were other K-pop groups that made the list in the top 50 as well. In rank 11 were Seventeen, followed by TWICE in 15th place, TXT in 31st, ENHYPEN in 33rd place, and NCT 127 in 43rd place.

BTS's album 'BTS, The BEST' also took first place as the most sold album in 2021 on the Oricon charts, followed by 'Snow Mania S1' by Snow Man, '1ST' by SixTONES, and 'Re: Sense' by King & Prince. In fifth place was Seventeen's 'Attacca.' Seventeen's 'Your Choice' also took ninth place on the most sold albums of 2021.

After seeing the latest chart results, Korean netizens couldn't help but be impressed with BTS's influence and performance on the Japanese music market. Netizens commented, "BTS is in another level even in Japan," "That's so crazy how they became the first overseas artist to get number 1 in the annual album sales chart," "Wow, congrats, they did so well," "I'm also impressed with Seventeen," "BTS is really globally popular, the numbers on the chart shows too," "Wow, they're really King-tans," and "BTS is amazing, congrats!"