Physical album sales by K-pop acts last month set a record high led by boy band NCT Dream (pictured). (NCT Dream's official Facebook page)

By Wu Jinhua

The number of K-pop albums sold last month set a new monthly record.

Circle Chart, the nation's leading music ranking service, on Aug. 22 said the top 400 albums saw sales last month grow 32.1% to 14,353,000 physical copies, up 3.4 million from July last year. This was the highest monthly mark since Circle Chart's inception in 2010 as Gaon Chart.

"This already accounts for about 87% of sales for all last year, and if this pace continues until December, this year's gross album sales will exceed 100 million," Circle Chart's head researcher Kim Jin-woo said on the cumulative sales of the top 400 albums in the first seven months of the year.

By act, the boy band NCT Dream led K-pop in album sales last month as its eight albums collectively sold 3.75 million copies.

NewJeans was second with 1.83 million, followed by TREASURE, EXO, ZEROBASEONE, ITZY, NMIXX, SEVENTEEN, SHINEE and (G)I-DLE.

"Including NCT Dream's, each album from first to sixth on the monthly physical albums chart sold more than a million copies," Kim added. "Even a newcomer like ZEROBASEONE sold over a million copies of its debut EP, breaking the record for highest physical album sales in a month since the inception of Circle Chart in 2010."

This linear chart shows fluctuations in K-pop album sales from January 2022 to July 2023. (Circle Chart)

jane0614@korea.kr