K-Pop Source — Keeping the K-Pop Forum Spirit Alive

hmmm...any ideas why their sales have fallen (and by how much)
now I know some of the bigger groups sales have fallen - like some due to chinese boycotts and others just general downtown but is there anything specific related to PK?

Yeah, I've heard that a lot of groups are experiencing a slight decrease in sales, but I don't think that explains the huge drop PK has had. At least not totally. The (#) is the release order of the album, so INTO VIOLET is their debut, BXX is their most recent.

(2) HIDE & SEEK - 37,310
(3) memeM - 32,546
(4) Geekyland - 25,625
(6) FESTA - 16,545
(5) Cabin Fever - 15,897
(1) INTO VIOLET - 12,405
(7) BXX - 11,020

So, to me, it looks like they started off strong - people responded to their debut song and liked the follow-up - but have been on a gradual decline since. People really liked the title off of Cabin Fever (Sweet Juice) and that gave a slight bump to the follow-up, but FESTA's title was a huge deviation from their usual sound (even including B sides) and I think that, combined with the fact that a lot of Plory don't seem to like BXX's title, is what's caused that one-two punch. Like it's one thing to have people skeptical so pre-sales were weak (PK does have a tendency to gain traction and then have an off-brand follow-up that is trend chasing and kills that momentum, like memeM and 7Heaven), but the fact that people didn't even go out and buy the album after hearing the title...

What's your take?

I used to remember reading somewhere a while back (when I first got into kpop so around 2019/2010) that previously album sales of 100K was considered good for a kpop GG...
now obviously groups like BP, Twice, Aespa, IVE, LSFM, Gidle and NJ have blown that out of the water but I still think 100K is a good breaking point to consider a group "successful"
now I don't know much about PK as a group other than they are Mamamoo's sister group...so my comments will limited to the general kpop album sales as oppose to anything specific to PK

now one thing that will be interesting is to compare similar groups that debuted the same time as PK 2020/2021 and in a similar situation - Lightsum? Everglow? Craxy? Secret Number? Cignature? black swan? Stayc? Tribe? and look at their sales to see how they fair compared to PK...

Oh, interesting thought! Lightsum might be good to look at, because they're in that same boat of from a known company, but not a company that has stans. Like no one's lining up to listen to their groups solely because of the name behind it, like the Big 4 get. And they're like PK in that their sound is pretty inconsistent and they've lost members since debut.

So here are Lightsum's first week #s:
(4) Honey or Spice - 19,622
(1) Vanilla - 19,108
(2) Light a Wish - 18,181
(3) Into the Light - 17,838

So we've got that same sort of gradual decline, which you'd expect from a group who you can't be sure what sound you're going to get from them, but then faith restored? It'll be interesting to see once they have a 2024 album drop, if that slight boost did anything for them or nah.

Here's Billlie... They have a couple of "special" singles that I skipped, just because I don't think "here's an unpromoted single for our fans" is really that comparable.
(4) the Billage of perception : chapter three - 76,105
(3) the Billage of perception : chapter two - 74,334
(2) the collective soul and unconscious: chapter one - 28,675
(1) the Billage of perception : chapter one - 9,363

That's kind of interesting, considering their best charting title (Ring Ma Bell, off their third album) peaked lower than Purple Kiss's, but then again, Billlie's follow-up to that was at least consistent with their sound, whereas PK pivoted from their peak into something completely different.

And here's TRI.BE who is more nugu than the others, but also more consistent in sound:
(5) W.A.Y - 16,066
(4) LEVIOSA - 14,625
(3) VENI VIDI VICI - 4,234
(2) CONMIGO - 3,423
(6) Diamond - 2,757
(1) TRI.BE Da Loca - 779

So gradual incline for the most part, kind of reminds me of Dreamcatcher. They have a more niche sound, but they're very consistent in it. So they'll never top charts, but can have a relatively stable fandom. Diamond's a bit of an anomaly, but also, their producer killed himself three days after they released the song and that affected promotions, so I'm inclined to not interpret that one either way.

I checked out other 2021 debuts, but the rest seem to either be in that totally nugu range (Ichillin, Hot Issue) where their sales are so low that there's no data or incomparably popular (IVE).

If nothing else, this has been a fun exercise! It's been nice to think it out, because a lot of Plory have been pretty defensive over how badly BBB is doing. Like anyone who says they don't like it gets told that PK was more involved in BBB than any of their other songs, so as fans, we're obligated to like it. And I'm like... but am I?

LS seems pretty consistent with their sales - not growing which is a bad thing considering

ancient Chinese Saying - Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still

Maybe people checked in post the -2 members??? but Honey and Spice was a lot better than Alive (at least for me)

I think the thing with Billie is that Tsuki sorta went viral with something if I remember??? and she's constantly shows up in variety content (at least I've seen the one with her and chuu and yuqi) but I don't know any of the other members

I know nothing of Tribe sorry lol

one of the things I consider in kpop is sales, charting, touring is meaningless in a vacuum - what I mean is that there has to be a benchmark for something to compare it to...and it's that comparison that is important maybe it's compared to their peers, maybe it's compared to other similar groups in their tier, maybe it's compared to their previous results - the problem is when fans think it's an attack on their favs and instead of looking at it from a purely analytical numbers, growth , forecasting perspective...

Oh, that's a good saying! I hope they manage to find their footing, because I agree with you: Honey and Spice was a fun title and I think their best to date.

Yes! I almost thought about excluding Billlie because Tsuki's virality would skew things, but I also think it's interesting that they've continued to still be getting a bit more each comeback. One member going viral can only do so much if people don't otherwise like the music, you know?

I agree. It would be one thing if every group was facing such huge declines in sales that 2021 numbers looked amazing by comparison, then it'd be the market is what it is and we have to mentally adjust. It kind of reminds me when people look at mega popular second gen groups and go "but Gee (the album) only sold 100K? Blackpink's worst selling album was 5x that" and it's like... yes, but that's the difference a decade makes.

And to your point: comparable not just in time but to peer groups. I didn't include IVE on purpose. It's a personal pet peeve when people look at soloists and claim they're flopping because Taeyeon sold... Yes, shocking to imagine one of the best selling soloists outsold someone else. It's like, what were the actual realistic expectations for them, and how did they do in comparison? What would be awful for Taeyeon could be amazing for someone else.