Sales of K-pop albums hit a record high in the first half of this year. BTS (shown) topped the list with 4.52 million units. (Official Facebook page of Big Hit) 

By Aisylu Akhmetzianova and Yoon Sojung

Album sales by K-pop artists reached a record high in the first half of the year.

Kim Jin-woo, chief researcher at Circle Chart (formerly Gaon Chart), on July 17 said cumulative sales of the top 400 physical albums of K-pop acts from January to June this year recorded 34,947,247 copies.

The figure was up 34.6% from 25,963,993 year on year to set a record high for year's a first half of the year. 

Over the last four years, sales of K-pop albums have continued to grow from 10.48 million copies in 2018 to 12.93 million in 2019, 18.36 million in 2020 and 25.96 million last year. The figure has rapidly increased since the outbreak of COVID-19.

"Eight of the K-pop acts responsible for the top 400 physical album chart saw their album sales surpass a million copies in the first half of this year," Kim said. "This is three more than the five last year: NCT Dream, BTS, Seventeen, Exo and Baekhyun."

By act, BTS topped the list with 4,523,749 copies, followed by NCT Dream (3.983,696), Seventeen (2,720,858), Tomorrow X Together (2,104,740), Stray Kids (2,072,689) and Lim Young Woong (1,142,727).

In single album sales, BTS' anthology album "Proof" topped the list with 2,957,410 copies.

Sales of physical albums by K-pop acts in the first half of 2022 (Screen capture from Circle Chart)