Official HIGE DANdism‘s “I LOVE…” jumps to No. 1 on this week’s Billboard Japan Hot 100, dated Feb. 3 to 9, rising from No. 6 a week before the physical version goes on sale.
The band is currently promoting the new single and performed it on TV last week, boosting its consumption: weekly downloads increased from 25,307 to 31,194 units, streaming from 4,974,277 to 5,800,595 streams, and video views from 2,474,480 to 3,338,750 plays.
The differences in total points for each of the top four songs came within 1,100 points on this week’s tally. “I LOVE…” managed to take the top spot without leading any of the metrics of the chart’s methodology, but by steadily accumulating enough points in each. The CD dropped Wednesday (Feb. 12), so how this affects the positions of the top songs on next week’s chart is something to keep an eye on.
HIGE DAN currently has eight songs charting on the Japan Hot 100, and they all climbed the list this week. “Pretender” returned to No. 2, with figures for downloads (from 16,615 to 15,448 units), streaming (from 6,483,403 to 6,258,440 streams), and video views (from 6,435,159 to 6,290,477 plays) all tapering off but only slightly.
Physical sales were slow this week, so the songs strong in the digital front climbed the chart for the most part, and HIGE DAN’s numbers — besides “I LOVE…,” which is on the upswing — are slowing down at a milder rate than the other artists currently on the list.
Hitmaker Kenshi Yonezu‘s own rendition of Foorin‘s “Paprika” was released for download this week, but didn’t start off as well as expected, probably because it’s not really a “new” song at this point. His previous single “Uma to Shika” sold 172,594 units in its first week, while “Paprika” sold 74,100; it didn’t even compare to his single before that, “Spirits of the Sea,” which started off with 134,911 units.
Still, the song is going relatively strong in video views (No. 26 for the metric with 1,346,709 plays), which is Yonezu’s forte, so it remains to be seen whether it will become another lasting hit for the singer-songwriter whose songs garner massive points in these two metrics.
The Billboard Japan Hot 100 combines physical and digital sales, radio airplay, Twitter mentions, YouTube and GYAO! video views, Gracenote look-ups, audio streams from Amazon Music Unlimited, Apple Music, AWA, Google Play Music, KKBOX, LINE MUSIC, Rakuten Music, RecMusic provided by Gfk Japan, dHits, Uta Pass and Spotify, plus karaoke data from Daiichikosho and XING.
Billboard Japan Hot 100 Top 10 (dated Feb. 3 to 9)
1. [6] I LOVE… / Official HIGE DANdism (none / 31,194 downloads / 5,800,595 streams)
2. [3] Pretender / Official HIGE DANdism (none / 15,448 downloads / 6,258,440 streams)
3. [2] Hakujitsu / King Gnu (none / 14,024 downloads / 6,218,979 streams)
4. [-] Paprika / Kenshi Yonezu (none / 74,100 downloads / none)
5. [8] Gurenge / LiSA (2,117 copies / 18,417 downloads / 3,965,503 streams)
6. [4] D.D. / Snow Man (26,946 copies / none / none)
7. [7] bad guy / Billie Eilish (none / 11,456 downloads / 3,414,975 streams)
8. [5] Imitation Rain / SixTONES (19,818 copies / none / none)
9. [9] Machigaisagashi / Masaki Suda (none / 8,879 downloads / 3,181,216 streams)
10. [11] Shukumei / Official HIGE DANdism (none / 7,182 downloads / 3,827,556 streams)
[ ]: Position last week
( ): Physical sales / downloads / streams (Top 50 only)