Multi-Million Seller’s Albums Found In Trash, Other “Signs” Spark Fake Sales Suspicions

Some pushed back against the allegations.

Recently, HYBE boy group CORTIS made their comeback with “Redred,” the title track from their second mini album, GREENGREEN.

May 10th marked the final day of album sales for the group’s first week, and it was reported that the group sold 2.313 million copies. This is the first highest sales of any fifth generation group, and ranking amongst some of the highest first week sales across all of K-Pop.

| Hanteo Chart

However, this achievement has been met with some pushback.

A viral post on a popular forum brought up the group’s sales with suspicion, mentioning “proof” that the group’s popularity did not match. Open reservations for their pop-up, which for many groups are hard to get, and the group being beaten out on a vote by groups with lower sales.

Additionally, a video showing the group’s albums being removed from near a trash bin, an indicator of bulk buying for benefits, went viral on X. This practice has been brought up on other occasions involving album sales and seen as a negative.

Omg are those Cortis albums on the ground 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/leqBtOl8hb

— . (@ohyulvoicee) May 9, 2026

Reactions have varied, with some mentioning HYBE’s alleged sajaegi admission and accusing the sales of being inflated.

• Ugh, trash… do they think they own the planet or something?
• But are there really people who still believe their digital and album sales numbers…? The company literally received court rulings over chart manipulation and album sales issues??
• If their fandom were really big enough to sell that many albums, people wouldn’t be reacting like “huh?” over it lol.

On the other hand, some commenters shared other metrics, including the group’s YouTube streams and discussions surrounding them as proof of their popularity.

• That voting result feels way too forced… I’m not even really a Cortis fan, but I do think they’re probably the most popular group these days.
• Looking at YouTube, they definitely seem to have the most buzz and reactions lately.