With the end of June rapidly approaching, the first half of 2011 has shockingly come to an end, and Oricon recently disclosed the top selling singles, albums, and DVDs since January 1st. Now they have also disclosed just how much the top acts have made these past six months in monetary terms.

AKB48 has proved to be a giant force in the industry, and have shown no signs of slowing down, as the group made roughly 66.6 billion yen (USD $82.6 million). Arashi also proved to be fierce competition, trailing behind the massive girl group by less than a million.


Check out the competition below!


1. AKB48 – 6.66 billion yen (USD $82.6 million)
2. Arashi – 6.59 billion yen (USD $81.7 million)
3. EXILE – 4.68 billion yen (USD $58 million)
4. Amuro Namie – 2.7 billion yen (USD $33.4 million)
5. Shoujo Jidai (SNSD) – 2.6 billion yen (USD $32.2 million)
6. KARA – 2.15 billion yen (USD $26.6 million)


Shoujo Jidai (SNSD) and KARA ranked as the highest foreign selling acts, despite debuting in the tail end of 2010. Shoujo Jidai sold roughly 153,000 copies of their single, “MR. TAXI/Run Devil Run“, and 326,000 copies of their debut Japanese album, “GIRLS’ GENERATION“, just enough to snatch them the lead spot in the foreign artists category.

Tohoshinki (TVXQ) ranks as the foreign act in fourth place, selling 284,000 copies of their single “Why? (Keep Your Head Down)“, while Jang Geun Suk rounds off the top 5 with 186,000 copies of his debut Japanese single, “Let me cry“.


source : tokyohive