Arashi beats Taylor Swift and BTS with Guinness World Record for biggest-selling album worldwide
On 11 August, Japanese boyband Arashi’s compilation album 5x20 All The Best! 1999-2019 was certified by the Guinness World Records for selling the most copies worldwide in 2019: a whopping total of 3.3 million!
Their total sales had overtaken both Taylor Swift’s Lover with 3.2 million sales and BTS’s Map Of The Soul: Persona with 2.5 million sales, based on figures published by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Note that the IFPI figures are purely determined by physical and digital sales, and do not include streams.
Released on 26 June 2019, Arashi’s compilation album contains four CDs with a total of 64 specially selected tracks. With first-week sales of more than 1.3 million, the album also debuted at first place on the Japanese Oricon Albums Chart on 8 July 2019.
However, Arashi may owe their record partly to Japan’s relatively more robust market for CDs, and partly to the fact that the compilation album has three versions. Each is packed with enticing content, such as the music video and behind-the-scenes of their 20th anniversary song 5x20, and selected concert clips since their first concert in 2000. The bountiful content serves as a form of gratitude to their fans worldwide who have supported them all these years.
Regardless, it is truly an impressive and heart-warming achievement for Arashi, who will be suspending their activities at the end of this year.
