Within 48 Hours Of Release, EXO's 'Exodus' Stands Out As Best Selling Korean Album For 1st Quarter Of 2015
"Call Me Baby" is calling all the fans to the music stores.
Within 48 hours of releasing their latest album, SM Entertainment idol group EXO became the top-selling act in South Korea in the first quarter of 2015. "Exodus" sold over 440,000 copies, according to the Gaon Music Charts, beating out the previously best-selling album of 2015, Jung Yong Hwa's "One Fine Day."
While "Exodus" sales soared and broke records, fans of the group showed frustration at the cost, protesting the 20 versions of the album.
"Exodus" not only became a bestselling album in three days, but also became the first Korean album in 2015 to sell over 400,000.
Both the Chinese and Korean versions of "Exodus" appeared on iTunes album chart the day it was released, with the Korean version appearing in the top five, alongside Taylor Swift's bestselling album, "1989."
EXO's album sold over 400,000 physical copies, and ranked high on Korean digital music charts, while miss A's "Only You" ranked number one on every chart.
In the past, EXO's albums have broken several records. The repackage of 2012's "XOXO" album became the best-selling Korean album in 12 years; over 1 million copies of the album were sold.
EXO's "Exodus" was released in 20 versions of the album, leading to fans buying multiple copies in order to complete both the Chinese and Korean language sets of ten. The sets of 10 included albums attributed to exclusive photos of each of EXO's ten members.
Previously, EXO sold two version of each album, one Korean and one Chinese. This is the first time that SM Entertainment released albums featuring each member. SM Entertainment's other large groups, such as Girls' Generation and Super Junior, have also featured multiple copies correlating to individual members.
"Okay 20 editions is just ridiculous..." said Kpopstarz reader Jiyong-crayon. "I cringed even when I saw people buying like 10 versions of BTS albums just to get a freakin trading card. Maybe one day people will realize what a waste of money truly means. I'm just buying one edition of this CD."
