Oricon released their official 2018 ranking with Namie Amuro taking Top Artist Sales, thus winning this ranking two years consecutively—a feat that hasn’t been accomplished by a female solo artist since Koda Kumi in 2007. Amuro totaled the year out with close to 19 billion yen in sales, making 2018 the second consecutive year Amuro has sold past 10 billion yen.
As the Hesei Era ends in Japan, so too will Hesei Pop Queen Namie Amuro. Following Amuro is Nogizaka46 with 1.3 billion yen in sales—making them one of the only groups with shorter careers to make the Top 3 in two consecutive years—and AKB48 taking third.
Speaking of AKB48, they also broke an amazing record by “Teacher Teacher” and “Sentimental Train” taking both #1 and #2 for Top Selling Singles. This marks the ninth consecutive year they have achieved this. Following AKB48 is Nogizaka46’s “Synchronicity” tailing in at third, with additional artists such as Keyakizaka46’s “Glass wo Ware” taking eighth and King & Prince’s “Cinderella Girl” rounding out at tenth.
On the album side of accomplishments, Namie’s Finally took number one, albeit selling only 630,000 copies. AKB48’s 僕たちは、あの日の夜明けを知っている (Bokutachi wa, Ano Hi Yoake) trailed close behind with a 20,000 copy differential. With Southern All-Star’s 海のOh,Yeah!! (Umi No Oh, Yeah!!) taking third. Not to be ignored, Korea’s BTS’s FACE YOURSELF and Twice’s BDZ taking seventh and eighth respectively .
We at Ongaku To You would like to thank and congratulate all of the artists for their hard work throughout this year and we are excited for what they have in store for 2019!
