Sales of “Gingham Check” dip below Sales of “Uekara Mariko”

  October 10, 2012

AKB48
W Flying Get    Kazefuki       Mariko          GMF     Manatsu     Gingham
――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
1 1,354,492 1,300,482 1,198,864 1,287,217 1,616,795 1,181,966
2 *,*98,939 *,*67,662 *,*45,725 *,*74,088 *,128,604 *,*53,860
3 *,*44,845 *,*22,079 *,*19,675 *,*29,858 *,*35,550 *,*19,712
4 *,*23,034 *,*11,426 *,**9,484 *,*13,292 *,**9,837 *,*12,231
5 *,*19,387 *,**7,407 *,**8,302 *,**7,250 *,**6,612 *,**6,996
6 *,*11,023 *,**5,111 *,**5,044 *,**5,401 *,**4,381 *,**4,386
7 *,**7,675 *,**4,721 *,**2,896 *,**4,950 *,**2,762 *,**
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
WT 1,559,395 1,418,888 1,289,990 1,422,056  1,804,541 1,279,151
T 1,625,079 1,457,113 1,304,903 1,436,519  1,817,910 1,279,151

What UZA’s sales will be like….

Actually Manatsu was the peak of AKB48’s 1st chapter. What AKB’s 2nd chaptor will be like in increasing difficulty to sell physical records when people start getting bored with attending the same event again and again…..?

↑Election tickets.

That’s to be expected….. After all, Lyrics of Gingham Check is hard to understand.


And UZA will be compared to last year’s dark theme song, “Kaze ha Fuiteiru”?

Uhmmm I’m afraid that the Janken single won’t cross the one million mark…

But in Karaoke Ranking, Gingham Check is the 2nd most popular song of AKB48 after Heavy Rotation.

http://ugakara.com/ranking/index.html → 11th (2012/9/24~30)

http://www.clubdam.com → 10th (2012/9/30~10/06)

http://joysound.com/ex/ranking/karaoke/total/weekly.htm → 11th (2012/10/01~07)

http://www.oricon.co.jp/rank/ko/w/2012-09-17/ → 18th (2012/9/17 Weekly)

↑Obviously In the Oricon ranking, it’s surpassed by Flying Get and Everyday Katyucha again….. lol

And it’s actually amazing that these old songs are still ranked in long after the release.

Actually this is more serious problem…

Both went sale on 12/09/05

54,897 Momoiro Clover  Momoiro Clover Z/ ももクロ春の一大事2012~見渡せば大パノラマ地獄~
55,192 AKB48   Maeda Atsuko – Declaration of Graduation in Saitama Super Arena

Election Single / Election Ticket Single

Iiwake Maybe < Namida Surprise

Heavy Rotation > Ponytail to ChouChou

Flying Get > Katyucha

Gingham < Manatsu

I think though the first year, Namida sold more than Iiwake, this result represents a sort of downfall of the popularity of AKB48.

More precise analysis

Election Ticket Single → Election Single

Namida              Iiwake

168,826→145,776 (15.8% down) 

Ponytail               Heavy Rotation

740,291→877,740(18.6% Up) 

Everyday Katyucha     Flying Get

1,607,987→1,625,079(1.1% Up)

Manatsu            Gingham

1,817,910→1,279,151(42.1% Down)

I think thanks to Gingham Check that set a bar quite low, UZA will at least surpass the sales of Gingham.

Even though UZA contains a voting ticket for Request Hour setlist best 100, it won’t sell that much?

That’s impossible.

While the number of members are increasing, sales are decreasing….

↑Even though the number of members increase, it doesn’t mean the number of Ota will increase.

There is a certain limit that one person can afford to buy CDs, so when new members become popular, some of veteran members will decrease their popularity. The total won’T change that much.

The number of sole out slots of theater versions

After the 5th application

1005.0 slots sold out – Uekara Mariko
*826.6 slots sold out – Gingham Check

If it were Moeno or Iwa, the Janken single would definitely be unable to reach one million…

It’s been 3 years since RIVER, and it’s about time.

Unfortunately, to keep this level  of popularity forever is impossible.

Some say Ota can’t afford money anymore but it’s more like everybody has started somewhat getting bored of AKB48.

I wonder whether the quality of the song affects the sales or not.

I think even if it does, it will only make a small difference….

↑If the song is nice, ont Ota but ordinary people buy it, which will contribute the sales after the first week.

And that’s what we saw in DVD sales. Momokuro’s DVD sold only a half of AKB’s DVD for the first week, but Momokuro sold far more copies for it’s 2nd week than AKB because of the word of mouth, because of it’s quality.


↑x2 Do you know how much Heavy Rotation sell one year after it’s released?


Don’t underestimate Akimoto. He always state business is all about how to sell more expensive product.  Even if the sales will decrease, AKB48 will surely launch something that can make far more money than selling tons of cheap CDs.

Anyway, I think he will definitely make Yuko Center of Christmas song for Seven Eleven so that Yuko-Oshi have no choice but buy Janken Single.


And it’s partly because their established image that Maeda Atsuko is an absolute Center of AKB48. Once she graduated, many people, including her Ota and light fans have stopped buying AKB’s CDs.


↑If so, they will buy Maeda Atsuko’s graduation DVD lol


↑x2 And why 1830m isn’t selling that much?

↑I think it sold pretty well, especially right before Tokyo Dome concert, it insanely sold well.


↑But it can’t be said a good sales as it has 2 shot event lottery tickets.

↑x2 It did, but overall, it’s thanks to 2 shot event that the album sold well, and considering how huge 2 shot photo means to fans, we can’t say the album sold fairy well.


↑x3 Plus the album has some of SKE and NMB members.