Kim Taehyung, aka V of BTS, set massive records on the day of his album release.
Taehyung achieved million-album seller status within 4 hours of the release of his solo debut album, “Layover,” accumulating 1,672,138 copies sold on its first day.
As a result, his album ‘Layover’ now holds the record for the highest-selling album in Hanteo history by a solo artist on its first day of sales.
However, prior to the final count of 1st-day sales, it was announced on Hanteo’s real-time chart that ‘Layover’ had sold over 2.2 million copies in less than 7 hours.
Over 500,000 sales were subsequently deducted, and Hanteo issued an official statement, acknowledging that they had ‘overcounted’ the ‘Weverse Album ver’ of ‘Layover’ and needed to rectify the actual sales volume.
Following the Hanteo change, ‘China Baidu VBar,’ Taehyung’s Chinese fan club, issued a statement clarifying what happened and providing receipts of their purchase.
A retailer they ordered from confirmed that their order was too large, and the limited supply was not enough to accommodate it.
Hanteo can’t record numbers until the vendor ships the album. This has led to the removal of over 500,000 sales that were initially counted. The complete sales from China is expected to be reflected early next week once supplies are available.
‘Kpop Merch,’ the retailer who was responsible for the fiasco, issued a statement apologizing for taking fans’ money without checking inventory and securing the album stocks from HYBE.
Regardless of the situation, Taehyung did sell over 2 million albums in one day, and it will officially be reflected on his 1st week sales records.
Fans have pointed out that other groups under HYBE regularly sell millions of albums, and they should have anticipated a large order for ‘Layover’ and made preparations accordingly.
Some fans expressed anger towards the shop’s misreporting, while others directed their frustration at the label.
Others also pointed out how shortages of stock are occurring in US and UK stores, even for albums that were pre-ordered weeks ago, further emphasizing that HYBE was to blame for not anticipating Taehyung’s enormous demand.
The silver lining in the whole situation was the proof that Taehyung can achieve massive sales without relying on his Chinese fan club, as he broke the record for the highest 1st day album sales with non-China sales.
