G-Dragon’s First Week Album Sales Sparks Heated Debate

4 weeks ago 11

Netizens are divided in their opinions.

1 hour ago

BIGBANG member and rapper G-Dragon recently made his much-awaited comeback with his third studio album, Übermensch.

This album marked G-Dragon’s return to music after BIGBANG’s 2022 release, “Still Life.” It is also the rapper’s first solo release in eight long years since his last EP Kwon Ji Yong, which was released on June 8, 2017.

Given the long break, G-Dragon’s return was undoubtedly much eagerly anticipated. But his latest album’s sales data has left netizens baffled. According to Hanteo, the total number of first-week sales for Übermensch is well over 832,700 copies, marking a career peak for G-Dragon as a soloist.

To put it into perspective, the first week’s sales number of Übermensch is approximately 18 times higher than the first-week sales record of his last EP, Kwon Ji Yong, which is 46,397 units. While G-Dragon has always enjoyed consistent popularity as an artist, his new album seems to have reached a much wider audience than before.

This huge uptick in sales numbers has garnered some mixed reactions from netizens. While some saw it as a testament to G-Dragon’s ability to reach new peaks despite his long-running career, others felt that it reflected the changing consumer mentality among K-Pop fans.

“GD is GD.”
“Back then, the ‘first-week sales’ culture didn’t exist, LOL.”
— “2017 was the heyday of the third generation. It was very much there.”

“Wow, the album-purchasing culture really has become distorted. Looking at it like this, it feels even more strange.”

“Wow, but this is really impressive. Is he really a 2^nd-gen idol?”
— “Ye,s he is.”
“Oh my gosh!”
“Please release albums often.”
“20 years in, and he just set a new career high.”