With the Hallyu wave sweeping the globe amid the COVID19 pandemic, the year 2021 has indeed become one of the most successful years for K-Pop.

The year 2021 was the most successful for the K-pop business, with numerous K-pop performers attaining worldwide fame. It's probably safe to say that 2021 was the best year for K-pop to date.

Despite the constraints of tours and concerts, numerous K-pop musicians have set sales records for albums. Many idol groups have sold a huge number of albums this year as their fan bases have grown.

So here are the top 30 K-pop idol albums in terms of cumulative sales in 2021.

1st place - NCT (debut: 2016) - 10.8 million copies

2nd place - BTS (debut: 2013) - 8.53 million copies

3rd place - Seventeen (debut: 2015) - 4.39 million copies

4th place - EXO (debut: 2012) - 3.21 million copies

5th place - Stray Kids (debut: 2018) - 2.70 million copies

6th place - ENHYPEN (debut: 2020) - 2.44 million copies

7th place - TXT (debut: 2019) - 2.36 million copies

8th place - ATEEZ (debut: 2018) - 1.88 million copies

9th place - TWICE (debut: 2015) - 1.83 million copies

10th place - BLACKPINK (debut: 2016) - 1.74 million copies

11th place - The Boyz (debut: 2017) - 1.45 million copies

12th place - ITZY (debut: 2019) - 955,345 copies

13th place - MONSTA X (debut: 2015) - 900,774 copies

14th place - Super Junior (debut: 2005) - 858,633 copies

15th place - SHINee (debut: 2008) - 817,880 copies

16th place - Red Velvet (debut: 2014) - 744,843 copies

17th place - ASTRO (debut: 2016) - 727,334 copies

18th place - Aespa (debut: 2020) - 574,445 copies

19th place - IU (debut: 2008) - 434,141 copies

20th place - TREASURE (debut: 2020) - 429,157 copies

21st place - SF9 (debut: 2016) - 412,533 copies

22nd place - ONEUS (debut: 2019) - 396,337 copies

23rd place - ONF (debut: 2017) - 392,352 copies

24th place - Cravity (debut: 2020) - 357,802 copies

25th place - MAMAMOO (debut: 2014) - 356,910 copies

26th place - Kang Daniel (debut: 2019) - 320,129 copies

27th place - Golden Child (debut: 2017) - 304,402 copies

28th place - STAYC (debut: 2020) - 291,300 copies

29th place - IVE (debut: 2021) - 268,396 copies

30th place - AB6IX (debut: 2019) - 266,399 copies

* In addition to album sales from unit groups and solo promotions, each group's album count includes album sales from unit groups and solo promotions.

* The album count is a combination of Gaon and Oricon chart numbers.