I'm highly suspicious on your first statement that Hamasaki might be over Utada and Amuro combined, I'm pretty sure that's not gonna happen though. Utada has roughly 40 million Oricon sales (English albums included) while Amuro has 35 million or higher. So the pure sale combined already over 60.94 million CSPC album results by Hamasuki, and the number will be even bigger after CSPC manipulated, correct?

Utada's and Amuro's Oricon sales are all just PHYSICAL sales, they sold less in digital. Ayumi is the 3rd best-selling artist in digital singles of all-time in Japan, while Utada is the 8th, and Amuro didn't even appear in the top 10. Also, singles reprensent a huge share of their Oricon physical sales, while 3.3 singles only equal to 1 album.

There is no competition with Christina really. They are not at the same level. According to Oricon, Ayumi Hamasaki has sold over 120 billion yen in physical record sales alone. That equals to 1.2 billion US dollars. That's even without digital singles, which Ayumi sold 46.5 million units(while in Japan only 4 digital singles can equal to 1 album on price). Ayumi Hamasaki is the best-selling female artist globally of the last 25 years in US dollars.

Well yeah but u need to consider the fact that she sold a lot more records than anybody else throughout the last 25 years. And she is definitely not the best selling female artist over the last 25 years. If she really sold 1.2 Billion records then her CSPC should have already been between 80-100 million already. That is unless u dont believe xhartmasters are accurate. Furthermore I really2 doubted she can beat Britney Spears sales. Are u telling me that she beat Britney Spears 65 million albums vs 22 million albums and 83 million downloads vs ur claim 46.5 million. And she barely leads Britney im the physicle singles and DVD/Compilation department. For sure Britney has created far more value than her. And Im pretty sure Rihanna, Taylor Swift, etc has created more value than her too. So shes definitely not the biggest selling female artist globally for the past 25 years.

Hi Orange!

I fixed the last two, I'll fix the first one once I have the file at hand 🙂 the total in the final table is correct if you want the real EAS value!

Hi Isaiah!

Yes sure for the breakdown. About international artists, it's more an opportunity thing. We love to portray different artists, we always learn a lot from them. Here for example I strongly improved the methods to estimate Japanese downloads. Luis Miguel or Julio Iglesias would be nice additions, we already did French / Japanese acts, a Latin one would be great.

Hi Bill!

Physical singles are worth 0.3 units under CSPC (0.5 for singles with 4+ tracks) so CSPC numbers can easily be lower than Oricon figures, it depends on the share of singles / how much the artist sold off radar or abroad and digital sales.

Did you understand me? No. Ayumi only sold 61 million EAS, while Britney sold nearly 110 million. In sales copies, Ayumi sold less than what you mentioned. But, in Japan, records were sold three times more expensive in US and Europe, and even much more expensive than places like poor Latin America and Southeast Asia. Ayumi sold 120 billion yen=1.2 billion US dollars with 50 million physical copies scanned byOricon, which shows her records were sold at $25. And singles are even sold cheaper, meaning that albums sold way much higher on price! maybe at over $30~$40! Also, In Japan, 4 digital singles equal to 1 physical album,meaning that their digital single sales were selling at at least $7.5, while in US ringtones were sold at only $2.5 and downloada at only $1. In US and Europe, albums were sold only at from $10 to $13. Compared to Japan, Ayumi's album and singles together were sold at $25, meaning that maybe her albums were sold at at least $30~$40! Now you understand? What I mean is in money! record value! money! not sales copies. Ayumi made much more on sales value/money, because Japanese records were sold much more expensive than any other parts of the world. Any other parts of the world. Also, Ayumi sold 120 billion yen in physical sales, this is officially scanned by ORICON, which is lack of sales off panel. She would sold even more adding catalog sales and digital sales. She is difinetely the best-selling female artist globally of last 25 years in record value/money. Also,it is chartmasters's founder MJD who confimed 37.8 million albums, 26 million physical singles and 46.5 million digital singles for Ayumi. Not me,not me confirming.

I understand exactly what u mean. Even after factoring in Japan's higher prices Britney would still be leading. She has sold 103 million equivalent album sales. Times by 12-14 Dollars, that would already be 1.3-1.4 billion dollars. Chartmasters confirmed Ayumi sold 26 million studio albums for Ayumi and 37.8 plus compilation, DVD's etc vs Britney 65 Million studio albums + 12 Million for compilation, DVD'S, etc. When I refer to 65 million vs 26 million albums I mean studio albums. That us why later on I also mentioned their compilation/DVD stats. Furthermore u are assuming that Britney sold zero albums in Japan and other South East Asian markets when she sold a lot there despite what u said are much more expensive than in Europe/US. She sold around 4 million albums in Japan which we have to multiply by 30 dollars instead of 10-14. Plus she probably sold a lot of Down loads in Japan too. Not to mentioned back in the late 90s, early 00s CD's are a bit pricier than it is today. I read somewhere that in Germany it reached 17-19 Euro and in the UK it was something like 12 pound. Now that is already 18-25 US dollars. Her total should definitely be a little bit more than 1.4 Billion dollars. Last but not least Britney has way more streams than her which is absolutely non existent. Britney managed to get 4 million eas from streaming alone wherelse she had less than 500k. That alone is already a big difference. And its only getting wider.

No, you still don't get it. Oricon scanned 120 billion yen=1.2 billion dollars with 50 million physical albums and singles for Ayumi. That means that her records were selling at $25. Considering that Ayumi scanned 29 million albums and 21 million singles by Oricon, and singles were sold cheaper than albums, her albums were at least sold at over $35. Oricon didn't count catalog sales, exports and digital sales, which all reprenst a large share of record value. Ayumi sold 61 million EAS,so that would be around 2.1 billion dollars. Then, a lot of Britney albums sold in Japan were imports, which were sold at the same price as US albums, also, international releases were always sold cheaper than domestic idol releases. That's why actually the whole Japan actually don't havean averange album price at over $35, but Ayumi did it. Domestic idol releases were always more expensive. Plus, for Britney, 3.25 million in Japan is nothing compared to 77 million worldwide. Considering she sold over 10 million albums in Southeast Asia and Latin America, where album price were very low, this did downgrade her averange album price. Assuming her albums were sold at $16 with 103 million EAS,that is 1.6 billion. No doubt that she sold less than Ayumi in sales value, it is reported that at Ayumi's peak, she is only less lucrative than Madonna.(repeating, this is "at her peak", not carrer total). I can still maybe find a lot of article like that for you. Southeast Asian albums were so cheap,albums were sold at $3 to $8 in places like Thailand or Philippines, don't know why you mention that. Ayumi's Southeast Asian fans were buying Japanese exports, which were sold at over $35. They don't want cheap local ones since they are no collecting value. I read an article that in 2000, 16% CD exports from Japan were Ayumi Hamasaki's(exports were not counted into Oricon, but counted into RIAJ and label shipments). You can see her power in Asia outside of Japan. STREAMING were already counted into EAS, there is no need to mention streaming at all.

Thanks MJD 🙂

Thank you for all your replies! It made me realize how limited my understanding of Jpop is.

I always assume that Utada had bigger hits = bigger career. Her song First Love was a huge hit, that' as far as I know. She's not a 1-era-wonder then, hopefully?

The ranking you mentioned is based on recochoku, which takes 20% or less market share in Japan's digital music industry.

Thank you! This makes sense.

Definitely not. When I said her biggest albums (let's say top 3) wouldn't measure up to Hamasaki's, that's just because the latter's sales in that period were so astronomical. For Japanese releases, they're incredible.

If I were to quickly estimate, First Love should be at least 13 million, and Distance and Deep River are both well over 5 million; combined they'd be close to First Love's total. Ultra Blue and Heart Station should be over 2 million and 3 million respectively, and Exodus and Fantôme are both over 1 million. Hatsukoi (her most recent) is weaker but still well above 500,000.

As I mentioned before, Hamasaki has a larger number of high-value albums than Utada, and definitely a better CSPC total, but Utada has remained successful over a longer time period - at least in Japan.

I've never been able to find much info about how she did internationally, post-First Love. Looking at QQ Music, apparently Fantôme has moved some significant numbers in China though. Obviously there are more pressing topics right now, but eventually I'd love to see her and the remaining top Japanese acts be studied!