Top 5 best-selling 4th generation K-pop boy groups in 2021 according to Gaon charts

Album sales play an important role in K-pop. A group’s popularity, potential growth, and fandom power are directly proportional to the group's physical album sales.

BTS’ multiple million-selling albums sometimes make selling a couple of million albums look ordinary. But deep down, it isn’t easy to do so. However, fourth-generation K-pop groups slowly rose to the one million sales mark in 2021 on Gaon charts, surprising every K-pop enthusiast.

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Stray Kids, ENHYPEN and more: Five best-selling 4th generation K-pop boy group albums in 2021

Gaon and Hanteo are the two biggest K-pop music charts that calculate the physical and digital sales and streaming on a weekly, monthly, half-yearly and yearly basis. Both charts often confuse new K-pop fans, but there is an easy way to understand them.

Gaon chart counts albums distributed to stores in simple terms. This does not mean the group has sold the actual number of albums but is rather based on market predictions by stores (keeping the present demand of the audience in mind) who request reorders, restock their shelves, etc.

Take a look at the growing fourth generation K-pop group’s highest album sales in 2021, as per Gaon charts.

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5) ATEEZ’s ZERO: FEVER Part.3 - 732,923 copies

ATEEZ’s growth has been one of the most talked-about subjects in the K-pop industry. As a small group from a small company no one ever heard of, KQ Entertainment, the eight members have made ATEEZ a powerful, prominent fourth-generation K-pop group that continues rising higher every day.

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4) ENHYPEN’s BORDER: CARNIVAL - 772,311 copies

Created through the survival show I-Land, ENHYPEN rose to stardom pre-debut. After debuting as the seven-member group, it quickly glued its loyal fans and attracted new fans with its goofy friendships, catchy songs, and lesser-seen before dark vampire concept. The title track of BORDER: CARNIVAL, Drunk-Dazed remains the group’s most-watched music video, which sits at 61.189 million views on YouTube.

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3) TXT’s The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE - 859,153 copies

Clocking in nearly 860k sales is TXT with its album The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE. The second boy group from BIGHIT MUSIC debuted under immense industry pressure for stepping into the shoes of its seniors, the Grammy-nominated BTS, but is soon finding its own path. The hybrid pop-rock album’s lead single 0X1=LOVESONG (I Know I Love You) was applauded and loved by many fans for its uniqueness.

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2) ENHYPEN’s DIMENSION: DILEMMA - 1,181,961 copies

ENHYPEN is the only fourth-generation K-pop boy group to have two best-selling albums in the top 5 list. It’s also the second boy group to have become a million-seller. ENHYPEN surprised many in the industry as its latest album DIMENSION: DILEMMA surpassed one million sales just a day before the members’ first debut anniversary, showcasing their phenomenal growth.

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1) Stray Kids’ NOEASY - 1,285,799 copies

The first fourth-generation K-pop idol group and the first fourth-generation boy group to surpass one million sales is Stray Kids. The eight-member group’s fandom skyrocketed with their smash hits God’s Menu and Back Door but were unknown to the fandom's power.

After winning Mnet’s Kingdom: Legendary War in June 2021, the group released a 14-track full-length album NOEASY - a comeback after nearly nine months. The comeback made many realize Stray Kids’ explosive growth. NOEASY sold one million copies, making them even JYP Entertainment’s first-ever group to achieve a million sales through one album only.