ILLIT’s Impressive Album Sales Hit With Backlash Because Of HYBE
Rookie girl group ILLIT achieved an impressive milestone with their latest mini-album, I’LL LIKE YOU, selling over 350,000 copies within just five days. The achievement is particularly remarkable as it marks the group’s first major comeback since they debuted with their viral TikTok hit “Magnetic.”
However, what could have been celebrated as a strong achievement has instead been met with widespread skepticism among netizens, largely because of growing distrust toward HYBE’s reported sales figures.
Earlier this year, during a legal dispute involving former ADOR executive Min Hee Jin, allegations surfaced that HYBE was inflating album sales. The claims suggested HYBE would strategically buy large volumes of albums from retailers to artificially boost first-week sales figures, only to later return them.
Deals were reportedly struck for fan sign events with these retailers, which led to many of these albums being sold in bulk but not truly reflecting organic sales in the first week. Fan signs, typically scheduled later in promotions to increase album sales, were supposedly being manipulated to benefit first-week numbers — figures often seen as critical for establishing a group’s popularity.
These claims were inadvertently substantiated during a recent audit before the National Assembly, when HYBE’s COO Kim Tae Ho allegedly acknowledged that similar practices had been used. His unexpected admission has fueled ongoing distrust among fans and netizens, making them hesitant to accept sales numbers from the company at face value.
HYBE Allegedly Accidentally Admits To Sajaegi For Album Sales
When a post highlighting ILLIT’s impressive album sales went viral, it quickly attracted doubt and backlash.
- “How can we trust this company’s sales figures?”
- “Are they just listening to physical albums and not streaming? Watch the streaming chart start climbing gradually now, LOL.”
- “Nope, don’t believe it”
- “How can anyone trust figures from a company where everything is a complete lie?”
- “They’ve really flopped, huh…? But I guess they’ll magically pump up 200,000 sales on the final day like LE SSERAFIM did?”
- “How can anyone trust that company’s numbers, though?”
- “At this rate, they’ll be performing at Gocheok [Sky Dome] soon, pfft…”
