Are the version numbers getting out of hand?

If it seems like the number of versions of K-Pop albums just keeps increasing in recent years, you wouldn’t really be wrong. Not every artist is following this trend, but it has gotten to the point where having a dozen or more versions of a single album isn’t uncommon anymore.

Many years ago, it was much more common for there to only be a couple versions if there was even more than one, but as the industry has become more competitive and K-Pop companies strive to break sales records and make a higher profit, the practice of creating as many versions of an album as possible has just become “normal”.

At this point most K-Pop fans probably know the numerous issues that come from multiple versions (as well as the increasing numbers of photocards that come with them): Mass waste caused by overconsumption of albums and heavily inflated sales numbers. Sadly, though, as long as Korean entertainment companies continue to make money through this practice, it’s likely not going to change anytime soon.

And indeed, most of the best-selling K-Pop boy group albums that have been released so far in 2024 have had 10 or more versions. It can be argued what is considered a “version” of an album, but the data that was shared online shows that just two of the seven best-selling albums had less than 10 versions.

The best-selling album, SEVENTEEN‘s 17 IS RIGHT HERE, is one of the two albums with less than 10 versions. With five versions, their first-week sales numbers were 2.96 million.

On the other hand, the second best-selling album, NCT DREAM‘s Dream()scape, had 11 versions. With these, they made 2.46 million sales in the first week.

The album with the third highest sales in the first week also had 11 versions: Minisode 3: Tomorrow by TXT. It made 1.54 million sales in the first seven days after release.

In contrast, the fourth best-selling album by a boy group in 2024 so far is GOLDEN HOUR : PART. 1 by ATEEZ, and it had the second-least number of versions with six. It made an impressive 1.51 million first-week sales despite the smaller number of versions available, and despite the group not being from a “Big Four” label like most of the other artists on the list.

The fifth best-selling album is ZEROBASEONE‘s You Had Me At Hello. With the most versions of their album — 20 in total — the rookie boy group made 1.35 million sales in the first week.

Fellow rookie group RIIZE also has one of the best-selling boy group albums of 2024, coming in sixth with RIIZING. It had 16 versions, and made 1.27 million sales in the first week.

Finally, finishing off the list in seventh is BOYNEXTDOOR with their latest album, How?. With 11 versions of this album, the rookies made 530k first-week sales.

You can see the data for yourself below.

Here’s how people are reacting to this information.

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