EXILE dominates music sales for first half '08

[Tokyograph News]

Oricon has published its sales rankings for the first half of 2008 (includes part of December 2007). According to the company's sales data, the group EXILE had the highest total sales of albums, singles, and music DVDs, amounting to almost 2.97 million units. The next closest artist was Kobukuro with 1.75 million, followed by KAT-TUN (1.19 million), Hikaru Utada (1.09 million), and Hideaki Tokunaga (1.01 million).

Looking only at album sales, EXILE led the rankings there as well, with "EXILE LOVE"s selling more than 1.4 million copies to rank #1 and "EXILE CATCHY BEST" selling more than 1.1 million to achieve #3. They are the first act in history to have two million-sellers within the first half of a year.

The top single so far this year is Thelma Aoyama's "Soba ni Iru ne" with 439,000 in sales. KAT-TUN had the next two spots in the rankings, with "DON'T U EVER STOP" quickly closing in - 433,000 copies after only a month and a half of sales - and "LIPS" right behind it with 422,000 in sales.

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[migimaru]

Total Sales

1. EXILE (2,966,000)
2. Kobukuro (1,751,000)
3. KAT-TUN (1,188,000)
4. Hikaru Utada (1,086,000)
5. Hideaki Tokunaga (1,010,000)

Albums

1. EXILE, "EXILE LOVE" (1,447,000)
2. Kobukuro, "5296" (1,372,000)
3. EXILE, "CATCHY BEST" (1,139,000)
4. Hikaru Utada, "HEART STATION" (925,000)
5. Dreams Come True, "AND I LOVE YOU" (780,000)
6. BUMP OF CHICKEN, "orbital period" (649,000)
7. Kumi Koda, "Kingdom" (604,000)
8. Ayumi Hamasaki, "Guilty" (568,000)
9. Kou Shibasaki, "Single Best" (523,000)
10. YUI, "I Loved Yesterday" (447,000)

Singles

1. Thelma Aoyama feat. SoulJa, "Soba ni Iru ne" (439,000)
2. KAT-TUN, "DON'T U EVER STOP" (433,000)
3. KAT-TUN, "LIPS" (422,000)
4. Shuchishin, "Shuchishin" (380,000)
5. Arashi, "Step and Go" (374,000)
6. Masato Sugimoto, "Waremokou" (303,000)
7. NEWS, "Taiyo no Namida" (291,000)
8. Namie Amuro, "60s 70s 80s" (285,000)
9. GReeeeN, "Kiseki" (259,000)
10. NEWS, "SUMMER TIME" (251,000)