“Someone really triggered”: Netizens defend RIIZE over SM Entertainment’s ‘sajaegi’ by inflating physical album sales of the band on Circle Chart

Suspects of "sajaegi" have been directed at SM Entertainment's rookie boy group RIIZE, one of two K-pop acts that made their debut in 2023 and sold one million copies of their first album in addition to ZEROBASEONE. "Sajaegi" is a Korean term that denotes faking or inflating the sales number of a certain product to manipulate the actual result in front of the consumers. SM Entertainment was accused of doing the same on January 11, 2024.

However, several fans have come forward to defend the rookie boy group from the alleged sajaegi charges. They are of the strong opinion that RIIZE is being charged with baseless accusations.

SM Entertainment's RIIZE is comprised of seven individuals: Shotaro, Eunseok, Sungchan, Wonbin, Seunghan, Sohee, and Anton. Due to several scandals, Seunghan is currently on an extended hiatus.

Notably, the debut single album Get a Guitar by the group was released on September 4, 2023.

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"Do you hear how ridiculous it sounds?": Netizens baffled by the allegations against RIIZE

With 1.01 million copies sold in its first week of release (September 4–September 10), RIIZE's debut single album Get A Guitar became a Million-Selling album in September 2023. The overall sales after September 2023 were the equivalent of 1,039,600 copies, according to Circle Chart's monthly album sales chart.

Nonetheless, since September, Get A Guitar sales have decreased, according to recent findings made by online users. The Circle Chart, which also shows yearly sales, was updated in December 2023 and showed that the total number of copies sold of Get A Guitar had dropped to 1,038,084 since its debut.

For the unversed, K-Pop musicians and their record labels, together with record distributors, frequently 'put orders of CDs in anticipation' with specific occasions in mind. This practice is not uncommon nor unlawful. The albums may not be physically handed out until a future date.

However, this enables record distributors and sellers to place orders for more inventory than they would normally anticipate selling, to advertise in advance fan signings or lucky-dip events, and to have fans buy in bulk during the first week (or first few weeks) of an album's release.

However, internet users observed several issues with RIIZE and elaborated on them on a South Korean online forum TheQoo, as reported by Allkpop. In the first effect, the boy band's inability to meet their targeted quota led to a decline in overall album sales as recorded by the Circle Chart.

Second, the group is starting to promote new songs and organize events around those new promos, which are linked to the previous album, Get A Guitar. Additionally, the group takes pride in being called "Million-Sellers," although it is hard to demonstrate that they would have sold a million copies of their first album in first-week sales had they not used the advance order tactic.

This further emphasizes the aforementioned strategies where K-pop performers usually ensure they have filled the mark before concluding the album's promotional campaign. They achieve this by making sure that the CDs that are purchased and sold ahead of time appropriately represent the actual sales and by hosting the required number of special occasions.

Furthermore, netizens were perplexed to see that RIIZE had planned more than 60 events since their debut, all of which required record purchases for attendees to get exclusive rights or advantages, such as in-person fan signings, fan calls, and lucky draw events.

Interestingly, these activities carried on even after RIIZE finished their Get A Guitar promotion and dropped new tracks including Talk Saxy and Love 119. Instead of helping RIIZE break its annual album sales record, these events appeared to be hurting the group's overall sales figures, which was unexpected.

Nevertheless, several fans came forward and defended RIIZE on social media platforms stating that they are "one of the few boy groups whose digitals surpass their physicals."

To avoid such mishaps, Billboard has introduced new regulations globally, specifically aimed at the Billboard Hot 100, in an effort to combat fan-orchestrated chart tampering. The revised regulation states that tracks and albums will only be tallied toward one digital sale per client each week. In an attempt to preserve the authenticity of the charts, purchase quantities of two or more won't be accepted.

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This is not the first time, RIIZE has found itself in hot waters. Earlier, one of the group members, Seunghan, got embroiled in a nasty controversy where several pictures of the 20-year-old idol surfaced online.

The images showed him in the embrace of a girl and kissing her cheeks or forehead, most probably his alleged girlfriend. In addition, several other video clips made their way to the internet showcasing the idol smoking on the streets of Japan.

This led to a heated discussion online where several netizens condemned Seunghan for his behavior and lifestyle choices and asked SM Entertainment to remove him from the group. However, on the contrary, international fans came in defense of Seunghan and called out Korean netizens for being extreme with their judgments. The international fans of the group and Seunghan stated that it is no crime to have a relationship.