The Best-Selling K-Pop Stars

Who have sold the most albums in Korea since the beginning of the now famous Gaon charts in 2010? The answer is transnational boy group EXO, who sold 10.6 million albums since its founding in 2012, according to Gaon data reviewed by Forbes in November 2018.

The Chinese-Korean pop group that used to tour and record split up in language groups, has been concentrating on their joint endeavor since 2014, while its members keep recording music in Mandarin and Korean.

Second up on the list is another boy band, BTS, which was still below the 10 million mark when the ranking was released by Gaon, but have passed that mark already with their hit album “Map of the Soul - Persona” racking up more than 3 million sold albums in 2019. But EXO have also had a new album out, selling “Don’t Mess up my Tempo” more than 1 million times. It could well be that BTS, which was founded in 2013, has surpassed EXO by the time the next ranking is released.

Only one girl group, TWICE, appears on the list which is otherwise dominated by boy bands.