SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - JANUARY 30: NCT Dream attends the 29th High1 Seoul Music Awards Photocall at ... [+]
Many full-lengths and EPs that debut at No. 1 on the Gaon Albums chart, the weekly ranking of the bestselling projects in South Korea, don’t manage to hold there for a second turn, as there is always stiff competition for the highest rungs on the tally. This time around, one effort keeps its control over that roster, and it hits a very special sales threshold that only a handful of releases have reached in history...and it does so in almost record time.
NCT Dream’s debut full-length Hot Sauce is still a bestseller in South Korea, and it now stands as one of the bestselling titles of all time, which is incredible, as it has only been out for less than a full month.
According to Naver, Hot Sauce has now sold well over two million copies. In fact, the sum of 2,040,360 copies purchased was first reported on May 25, so the total could conceivably now be more than 2.1 million units.
South Korea is still a market that excels when it comes to sales, while many other territories have seen purchases of albums, EPs and singles crater as fans rush to streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. Even in that nation, it’s still rare for any release to hit two million sales, and it appears that fewer than 20 titles have been able to hit that mark since tracking properly began several years ago.
Hot Sauce is, amazingly, NCT Dream’s first full-length album, so it is clear that their fan base is massive and dedicated and that they already rank as one of the most successful musical acts in South Korea. The band has been together and releasing music for several years now, and almost all of their shorter collections have gone right to No. 1 on the Gaon Albums chart. The act features members of the larger group NCT, and NCT Dream is one of several highly successful sub-units of the top brand.
Gaon will unveil the bestselling albums of May 2021 in a few weeks, and Hot Sauce is bound to end up at No. 1 on that ranking. The exact number of units the set sold this month will be reported at the time, and at the rate it’s still selling, there’s no telling how much higher the final figure could wind up being.
