TVXQ #2 in overall Japanese sales despite controversy and non promotions

Japanese statistics and music information company Oricon recently released an article titled “Idols and K-POP bring the sparkle to music industry with new movement.” The article contains sales data from December 28th, 2009 to November 22nd, 2010 and talks about how expectations for singles sales in Japan was expected to go down. Despite the negative projections, singles sales actually went up due to Arashi, K-Pop groups such as TVXQ and the girls groups (KARA, SNSD), along with the surge of AKB48.

What was surprising in the article was the sales figure chart which showed that TVXQ was 2nd in overall sales for 2010, only behind Arashi despite the lack of promotions and controversy the group faced in 2010.

The group had controversy with the JYJ / SM Entertainment conflict and the halting of activities through Rhythm Zone / Avex. Despite this they had a astounding total sales amount of 9,411,500,000 yen (over $112 million). Single album sales amounted to 777,200,000 yen, Album sales amounted to 1,690,000,000 yen, DVD sales amounted to 4,604,500,000 yen, and Blu-Ray sales amounted to 43,700,000 yen.
source: Oricon