The music industry’s top physical sales of 2023 so far have been revealed per data from Luminate, further highlighting the relationship between K-pop fans and physical music sales.
While streaming continues to dominate as the most popular music consumption method, physical sales are also up across all formats — and super fans are helping to drive those numbers, according to mid-year data from Luminate.
Luminate defines a super fan as a music listener aged 13+ who engages with an artist and their content in multiple ways — streaming, social media, purchasing physical merch or music, or attending live performances. In this case, super fans were participants who self-reported as engaging with their favorite artists in five or more ways.
In the US, super fans account for 15% of the population, and they influence an artist’s relationship with their listeners. Fans who buy physical music in the form of CDs, cassettes, or vinyl are 128% more likely to be super fans, and they spend 80% more money on music each month than the average listener.
Top Physical Sales of 2023 So Far — CD & Vinyl
Luminate data reveals that K-pop fans are more than 69% more likely to purchase a vinyl record in the next twelve months than other primary genre super fans, and they’re more than 67% more likely to buy music to show their support for an artist. K-pop fans drive CD sales (46%) and cassette sales (23%) more than fans of other genres, and one in four K-pop fans have purchased a cassette in the last year.
Top CD Album Sales
- TOMORROW X TOGETHER – The Name Chapter: TEMPTATION – 395,000 copies
- Stray Kids – 5-Star – 322,000 copies
- TWICE – Ready to Be – 258,000 copies
- Seventeen – Seventeen 10th Mini Album “FML” – 233,000 copies
- Agust D (Suga of BTS) – D-Day – 186,000 copies
- Taylor Swift – Midnights – 176,000 copies
- Jimin (BTS) – FACE – 168,000 copies
- Ateez – The World EP 2: Outlaw – 129,000 copies
- ENHYPEN – Dark Blood – 127,000 copies
- Stray Kids – Maxident – 114,000 copies
Top Vinyl Album Sales
- Taylor Swift – Midnights – 251,000 copies
- Lana Del Rey – Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd – 132,000 copies
- Taylor Swift – folklore – 107,000 copies
- Tyler, The Creator – IGOR – 104,000 copies
- Fleetwood Mac – Rumours – 103,000 copies
- boygenius – The Record – 100,000 copies
- Melanie Martinez – PORTALS – 93,000 copies
- Michael Jackson – Thriller – 85,000 copies
- Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon – 85,000 copies
- Lana Del Rey – Born to Die – 84,000 copies