According to data produced by South Korean music chart tracker Gaon Chart, the K-pop music business has maintained its upward pace this year with a jump in physical album sales in January.

Last month, the top 400 albums sold more than 4.05 million copies in the United States and abroad, an increase of 66.9 percent over the same time the previous year. The figure, on the other hand, fell by 5.4 percentage points from December, according to the report.

With sales of 723,478 copies of "Dimension: Answer," the boy band Enhypen topped the list of the top 400 albums. The album is a repackaging of the group's million-selling debut studio album "Dimension: Dilemma," which was published on Jan. 10.

S.M. Entertainment's winter special album, "2021 Winter SMTOWN: SMCU Express," and girl group Kep1er's first album, "First Impact," were the next two best-selling albums of the year with sales of 347,434 and 300,99 copies, respectively.

The huge gain, according to Gaon Chart's lead researcher Kim Jin-woo, was a "quite excellent conclusion," given that January is typically a sluggish month for the company. It was revealed by him that the growth was mostly due to the fast-expanding K-pop physical album market.

Meanwhile, digital music sales in the same month were almost constant from the same month the previous year, according to Nielsen Music.

The total aggregate sales of the top 400 songs in January witnessed a tiny year-over-year gain, up by 0.4 percent compared to the same month the previous year. However, when compared to the prior month, it indicated a decrease of 7.1 percent month on month.

Kim Min-Seok of MeloMance's "DrunKen Confession" took the top place on the list, followed by rapper Sokodomo's "MERRY-GO-ROUND (Feat. Zion.T Wonstein)" and rapper-songwriter Be'O's "Counting Stars." MeloMance's Kim Min-Seok took the top spot on the list.

"It's probable that digital music sales in the first half of this year will follow a similar path to last year," Kim said. 'If the chance of COVID-19 becoming endemic in the second part of the year grows, the market will almost certainly bounce once or twice,' says the author.