Last Monday, on April 24, SEVENTEEN released the group's 10th mini album 'FML'.
According to HANTEO Chart, which keeps track of physical album sales in real time, the sales of 'FML' has reached 4.5 million copies in the first week of its release.
HANTEO Chart shows the total number of sales solely made in Korea, but includes international sales at HANTEO's global partner record companies.
What was surprising was that the sales of the album said to have surpassed 3.9 million copies on the first day alone.
This is the first time an album to be sold more than three million copies in the first week of its release, and it exceeds the first week sales of all K-pop groups recorded on HANTEO Chart since it launched its service in 1993.
The current second most-sold album on HANTEO Chart, that used to be at the top of the chart until 'FML' came along, is another boy group BTS' studio album 'MAP OF THE SOUL : 7'.
The issue is that not all albums are purchased by a different person; numerous albums are also purchased by the same person.
They may do that to raise the number of sales within the first week for their favorite K-pop act.
But it could be the case that they only want to collect photo cards, wish to have a certain type of photo cards or increase their chances of winning places at special fan events, such as fan signing or video calling events.
Much of their surplus albums and merchandise end up in the trash, and that was exactly what happened with SEVENTEEN's 'FML' physical albums over the past week.
The albums were spotted lying around in the corner of the streets by record stores; some even in boxes, but with the packaging off.
They were abandoned on a table at a coffee shop as well.
Spurred by various concerns, some entertainment companies have recently started taking initial steps toward making physical albums and merchandise more sustainably.
However, it seems like the problem still exists, and they still have a long way to go to solve it.
(SBS Star)