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AKB48's “Sakura no Ki ni Narou” achieves 6th highest first-week sales in history |
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Written by Angel Wings
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Thursday, 24 February 2011 |
 Oricon has announced the official weekly sales total for AKB48’s 20th single, “Sakura no Ki ni Narou.” After starting off with a record-setting first day, the single has sold approximately 942,000 copies to achieve the 6th highest first-week sales in history.
The last single to sell more than 900,000 copies in the first week was Utada Hikaru’s “Addicted to You” in 1999, which sold 1.068 million copies. This means that AKB48 is the only artist to reach that level since the turn of the century. Among female artists, the next closest single is Amuro Namie’s “Can You Celebrate?” (1997), which moved 828,000 copies in its first week, though AKB48′s “Beginner” came close last year at 827,000.
Oricon began tracking weekly sales data for singles in January 1968. The only singles that have performed better than “Sakura no Ki ni Narou” are:
1. “Namonaki Uta” – Mr.Children – 1,208,000
2. “Addicted to You” – Utada Hikaru – 1,068,000
3. “Dango 3 Kyoudai” – Hayami Kentaro, Shigemori Ayumi, Himawari Kids & Dango Gasshoudan – 1,026,000
4. “Winter, again” – GLAY – 956,000
5. “LOVE PHANTOM” – B'z – 951,000
With “Sakura no Ki ni Narou,” AKB48 has achieved a streak of seven #1 singles. They are only the second female group to do so, after Pink Lady in 1978.
Source:
TokyoGraph
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