Luminate’s mid-year report for 2023 reveals the top albums by sale so far — both physical and digital combined — with Taylor Swift and K-pop albums dominating the list.
It’s been a big year for Taylor Swift, and the music industry’s mid-year data from Luminate reflects that — in addition to K-pop groups’ continued phenomenal worldwide success. Over half of the top ten best-selling albums of 2023 thus far are from Korean pop groups or solo releases from members of BTS during the band’s hiatus.
Among the top handful of albums by sale for the first half of 2023 are Taylor Swift’s Midnights, three albums from K-pop bands — TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION, Stray Kids’ 5-Star, and girl group TWICE’s Ready to Be), and country star Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time.
The second half of the list is rounded out by Korean boy band Seventeen’s 10th mini-album “FML,” Metallica’s eleventh studio album, 72 Seasons, two solo albums from members of BTS (Suga’s Agust D project D-Day and Jimin’s FACE), and Melanie Martinez’s PORTALS.
Notably, this list does not account for Total Equivalent Album (TEA) consumption or on-demand streams and only considers verifiable physical and digital album sales. It also highlights just how important physical sales are to driving K-pop sales, landing several acts on this list thanks to their legions of super fans willing to buy physical albums in multiple formats (vinyl, CD, and digital sales) to support their favorite artists.
Top Albums by Total Sales (Digital & Physical)
- Taylor Swift – Midnights – 607,000 copies
- TOMORROW X TOGETHER – The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION – 399,000 copies
- Stray Kids – 5-Star – 327,000 copies
- TWICE – Ready to Be – 286,000 copies
- Morgan Wallen – One Thing at a Time – 242,000 copies
- Seventeen – Seventeen 10th Mini-Album “FML” – 236,000 copies
- Metallica – 72 Seasons – 215,000 copies
- Agust D (Suga of BTS) – D-Day – 200,000 copies
- Jimin (BTS) – FACE – 196,000 copies
- Melanie Martinez – PORTALS – 194,000 copies