AKB48's 35th single which features Oshima Yuko as the center "Maeshika Mukanee" (went on sale on February 26) sold 1,091,000 copies in the first week, topping Oricon's latest weekly ranking.

This marks the group's 16th consecutive million-selling single (17th in total), thus they have updated their own records for "the number of consecutive million-selling singles" and "the total number of million-selling singles."



With the sales for this single, the group's total number of copies sold for both singles and albums since their debut back in February of 2006, has reached a whopping 30,917,000 copies.

AKB48 is the 5th female artist to reach the 30 million career sales figure followed by Matsutoya Yumi, Hamasaki Ayumi, Utada Hikaru and Amuro Namie, but they are the first female group to achieve this.

Oshima who will be graduating from the group, made a comment, "While being surprised, I would like to express my gratitude toward our fans again. I realized how AKB48 is loved and raised by many fans. Please continue to support us, so AKB48 will be able to grow even more."

Oshima's graduation ceremony will be held at the group's National Olympic Stadium concert on March 29th and 30th.

Source & Image: Oricon