EXILE dominates 2008 sales rankings

[Tokyograph News]

Oricon has just released its sales rankings for 2008, and this year the clear winner was EXILE. The group had been aiming to make this their "Perfect Year," and Oricon's numbers now show how well they achieved it. Counting singles, albums, and DVDs, EXILE sold close to 5.2 million copies for a total of 19.58 billion yen. In comparison, Kumi Koda was last year's top artist with only 7.3 billion yen.

Ayumi Hamasaki and B'z were the closest competitors this year, though they only achieved 7.19 billion and 7.16 billion, respectively. Namie Amuro was #4 (6.80 billion) and Kobukuro was #5 (6.69 billion).

EXILE's three best albums all landed in the year's Top 10 Albums list. "EXILE LOVE" ranked #1 at 1.47 million copies, edging out Amuro's "BEST FICTION" (1.45 million). "EXILE CATCHY BEST" was #4 at 1.22 million, while "EXILE BALLAD BEST" (released just last week) was #6 at 940,000.

1. "EXILE LOVE," EXILE
2. "BEST FICTION," Namie Amuro
3. "5296," Kobukuro
4. "EXILE CATCHY BEST," EXILE
5. "HEART STATION," Hikaru Utada
6. "EXILE BALLAD BEST," EXILE
7. "B'z The Best ULTRA Pleasure," B'z
8. "A COMPLETE ~ALL SINGLES~," Ayumi Hamasaki
9. "AND I LOVE YOU," Dreams Come True
10. "A, Domo. Ohisashiburi Desu.," GReeeeN

However, EXILE had no entries in the Top 10 Singles of the year. Instead, Arashi was the big winner with three of their songs making the list. They took the top two spots with "truth / Kaze no Mukou e" (618,000 copies) and "One Love" (524,000), while "Beautiful days" was #10 (422,000). Arashi is only the 5th artist to have the top two singles in a year, with the last one being Princess Princess in 1989.

1. "truth / Kaze no Mukou e," Arashi
2. "One Love," Arashi
3. "I AM YOUR SINGER," Southern All Stars
4. "Kiseki," GReeeeN
5. "Shuchishin," Shuchishin
6. "HANABI," Mr.Children
7. "Soba ni Iru ne," Thelma Aoyama
8. "DON'T U EVER STOP," KAT-TUN
9. "LIPS," KAT-TUN
10. "Beautiful days," Arashi

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