In the first half of 2026, K-pop’s monarchs came back en masse—led by BTS and BLACKPINK—for a burst of activity. With K-pop album sales hitting an all-time high of 49.53 million copies, Chapter 1 takes a fun look at Hanteo Chart data on physical albums.
In the first half of 2026, 14 acts surpassed 1 million in total album sales on Hanteo Chart. We measured them with two yardsticks side by side: first-week sales and total album sales. Rankings are by total sales, and ATEEZ’s figure combines GOLDEN HOUR Part.4 and Part.5.
The number on the scoreboard is the actual first-week sales figure itself. Click the glove to take a swing yourself. See how powerful the punch each fandom landed in release week really was!
Click a machine to punch just that act. You can press a machine you’ve already hit to replay it.
We measured the albums the 14 million-sellers sold this half-year, each with a different yardstick. From the ocean floor to outer space, a round trip to the Moon, and 3,500 years into the past. Click each graphic to guess what result comes up.
Click a graphic to play just that act. You can replay graphics you’ve already seen.
The cumulative TOP 30 for all of the first half of 2026. Tap each month to see that month’s ranking (Jan–Jun).
Bar length shows sales relative to #1 in each table.
What the first-half 2026 Hanteo Chart data shows is not one act running away with it, but a peak set by K-pop’s monarchs. Beyond the temporary boom of the pandemic era, even as the global offline concert market fully normalized after the endemic transition, they rewrote the all-time sales record — an unprecedented boom.