Super Junior and SNSD become the best-selling artists of 2011

Super Junior and SNSD have become the best-selling boy group and girl group of 2011.

On December 28, Hanteo Charts, a website that researches album sales, announced, based on its 2011 Singers’ Awards, that Super Junior have sold total 355,915 copies from January 1 to December 27 2011.

Debuting in 2005, Super Junior ranked first by having sold over 300,000 copies of total 32 albums released until now. After ranking second on this chart last year, they finally ranked first this year.

Super Junior released their fifth album, Mr. Simple, in August, and have sold 199,329 copies of A type and 73,969 copies of its repackaged album. They also became the best-selling artist with this album this year.

SNSD, who ranked first on the Hanteo Singers’ Awards last year, sold total 226,769 copies this year and ranked first among female artists and third out of all. Debuting in summer 2007, SNSD have sold over 200,000 copies of total 44 albums released until now. SNSD have sold over 130,000 copies of their third domestic album, The Boys, released in October.

In this research, TVXQ, who released Keep Your Head Down in this January, ranked second among male artists and also second out of all. Debuting in 2004, TVXQ have sold total 230,897 copies of 136 albums released until now.

This shows that three artists from SM Entertainment ranked from first to third on the 2011 Hanteo Singer’s Awards.

On the Henteo Singers’ Awards, Big Bang (221,175 copies), Kim Hyun Joong (212,191 copies), JYJ (188,481 copies), Infinite (124,130 copies), B2ST (112,598 copies), IU (92,988 copies), and 2PM (90,719 copies) ranked from fourth to tenth.

Among them, new boy group Infinite is attracting attention. Infinite have sole over 80,000 copies of their first album, released in this July, and a repackaged album.

The ranks of Hanteo’s Singers’ Awards are based on the year’s total sales of all albums of each singer (or each group).

Hanteo Charts collects all sales data from major record stores and internet shopping malls and counts the data, considering them as roughly 85% of the total sales. Taking all variables into account, it determines the total sales by comparing and analyzing all collected data and estimating the rest 15%.

However, agencies’ total sales data are different from Hanteo’s because they count them by checking the number of albums released and data from record stores. The number of sales announced by the agencies is usually 1.5 times more than Hanteo’s.