Arashi takes top two again in first-half sales rankings

Oricon has published its music sales rankings for the first half of 2010, and for the second year in a row, Arashi held the #1 and #2 singles with “Troublemaker” (688,000 copies) and “Monster” (654,000 copies). Only Pink Lady and Hikaru Genji have achieved #1 and #2 simultaneously before, but Arashi is the only one to do it in consecutive years.

AKB48 held the #3 and #5 spots with “Ponytail to Chouchou” (577,000) and “Sakura no Shiori” (381,000), while KAT-TUN’s “Love yourself ~Kimi ga Kirai na Kimi ga Suki~” landed in between them (440,000 copies).

On the albums chart, Namie Amuro led the way with her “PAST < FUTURE” (566,000). FUNKY MONKEY BABYS, TVXQ, and Ikimono Gakari were not far behind.

In DVDs, Michael Jackson’s “THIS IS IT” topped the rankings with 789,000 in sales. Arashi was #2 with their “ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5×10″ (688,000).

The Top 50 rankings in each category can be viewed at the Oricon website.

Source:
Oricon