It was revealed on Oricon’s 2012  “Yearly Market Report,” which summarized the total sales for music and software, that AKB48 has for the second time in a row topped the “market share by artist” category with approximately ¥19,100,000,000 ($212,104,276 USD) or 5.9% of the market share in sales.

Last year, AKB48 topped the 2011 chart with ¥16,280,000,000 ($180,788,357) in sales, but this new report shows that they increased their sales by ¥ 2,800,000,000 (around $31 million).  In 2011, their sales figure was ¥2,460,000,000 in music DVDs, but this year they nearly tripled the amount of sales with DVD sales coming in at ¥7,160,000,000.

EXILE increased the sales of their albums and DVDs to move from 3rd place to 2nd place.  Mr. Children, with their 2 best-of albums released last May selling over a million copies each and their original album released last November selling 600,000 copies, lead everyone in album sales.  This increase helped the band jump from their 2011 market share rank at 29 to 4 for 2012.

Lastly, Kis-My-Ft2, who was ranked 26 last year, broke through to the Top 10 at 6.  Momoiro Clover Z jumped from 103 to 14 due to their hit singles, hit DVDs , and hit Blu-ray Disks.  This 89-place jump upwards reflects the group’s staying power.

Here are the Top 10 artists with their total earnings and market share for 2012:

1. AKB48:  ¥19,098,300,000, 5.9%
2. EXILE: ¥12,176,900,000, 3.7%
3. Arashi: ¥10,453,600,000, 3.2%
4. Mr. Children: ¥9,947,100,000, 3.1%
5. Kanjani8: ¥4,916,400,000, 1.5%
6. Kis-My-Ft2: ¥4,416,800,000, 1.4%
7. Shoujo Jidai (Girls’ Generation): ¥4,332,300,000, 1.3%
8. SMAP: ¥3,521,000,000, 1.1%
9. KARA: ¥3,417,400,000, 1.0%
10. Amuro Namie: ¥3,210,500,000, 1.0%

Source and Image: Oricon