SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – JANUARY 30: NCT Dream attends the 29th High1 Seoul Music Awards Photocall at … [+] Gocheok Sky Dome on January 30, 2020 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by The Chosunilbo JNS/Imazins via Getty Images)
ImaZins via Getty Images
About halfway through the month of May, NCT Dream released their debut full-length Hot Sauce, which was one of the most highly-anticipated projects in the South Korean music industry of 2021. The title easily claimed the No. 1 spot on the weekly Gaon Albums chart after its first full tracking period had passed, and just a short time ago it was also named the bestselling release of the month of May in the country.
Every month, Gaon reveals which songs and albums sold the best as well as which tracks were the most-consumed and which singles racked up the most streams, and someone has to come in first. While it’s not shocking that Hot Sauce ended up ruling that monthly ranking, the number of copies the set was able to sell in less than a full month is staggering.
In just the month of May (keeping in mind it wasn’t released until May 10), Hot Sauce was purchased 1,995,091 times. It only missed the two million-mark by a few thousand copies, according to Gaon, and it has surely already passed that threshold.
To put that figure into perspective, Hot Sauce outperformed the No. 2 bestselling title of May, Tomorrow X Together’s Chaos Field: Freeze, more than two and a half times over. That runner-up managed to sell 693,217 copies in just one day (including presales), as it was released on May 31.
Hot Sauce was so popular, it actually outsold the rest of the titles that appear inside the top 20 on the list of the bestselling albums in South Korea in the month of May combined. That group includes new releases from the likes of ENHYPEN, ITZY, ATEEZ, EVERGLOW, Highlight and several other NCT-branded acts, such as NCT, NCT 127 and a handful of other NCT Dream products.
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