ARMYs Call Out Hanteo For Alleged Sales Manipulation With BTS Jimin’s “Face”

Many are suspecting a conspiracy.

Within the first few hours of its release, BTS Jimin’s album Face became a million-seller on Hanteo, a first for any Korean soloist.

As media outlets reported on the achievement, ARMYs celebrated the pathbreaking beginning of Jimin’s solo career. However, things started to go south when fans noticed that the site was not recording any new sales for almost six hours. They also noted that around 30,000 sales were removed within an hour, leading to more speculations.

When ARMYs started enquiring about this discrepancy, Hanteo released a statement saying they had reviewed the sales data, and Face apparently sold 991,437 copies by March 24, 23:35 KST.

But fans caught the statement differing from the data on Hanteo’s website, which showed 1.75 million recorded sales within the mentioned time frame. It was the chart’s app version that reflected the smaller number.

While fans kept calling out the platform, asking for more clarity since the notice clearly negated the data provided by their own website, Hanteo, in an unprecedented decision, hid their real-time chart and graphs on the website. As suspicions of manipulation continued, the platform put out a second notice stating that they were conducting a complete survey and would get back to fans’ inquiries again.

The situation has upset fans, who are seeing it as a continued effort to sabotage BTS’s commercial success. Some fans even suspect Kakao M to be the source of the foul play since the company acquired most of Hanteo in 2018.

While waiting for Hanteo’s clarification, ARMYs are pulling hard to ensure that Jimin gets his million-seller record even with the updated numbers. If they manage to make it happen, it would be the fourth time the album will hit 1 million sales within a day.

Looks like this album is seeing all kinds of firsts within a day of its existence!

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