PURPLE KISS debuted with the album Into Violet and title track “Ponzona” in March 2021 under RBW, which had become a more well-known company after MAMAMOO‘s career took off. The anticipation for a younger sister to the vocally powerful girl group was pretty high at the time, and the members of PURPLE KISS didn’t disappoint — each of them are incredibly talented, and with a unique concept and the right timing, they did pretty well for themselves as a new girl group in a mid-tier company.
Their first comeback with the album Hide & Seek and accompanying title track “Zombie” did even better, and the album tripled in sales from their debut one. They seemed to set a pretty solid niche for themselves with their beautiful vocals and dark, enchanting concepts, and at the time, their future seemed bright.
Sadly, however, Hide & Seek has become the peak of their career up to this point. When they released memeM in March 2022, the jarring switch in their aesthetic seemed to negatively impact their sales, which sold about 5,000 fewer than the previous one. And sadly, it appears that the downward trend in sales has only continued since then.
Recently, a post was made on Reddit where fans are discussing the unfortunate and frustrating direction that PURPLE KISS has taken, and how it has led to almost every album making drastically fewer sales than the last. Their most recent comeback, BXX, came out on March 19, and it has first-week sales numbers at just 11,000 and to date has only sold around 17,000 copies total.
Netizens have suggested a couple of different theories as to why the girl group’s sales have been declining, not the least of which is the concept switch mentioned earlier. Another possibility, though, is that the K-Pop market has now become over-saturated with girl groups, especially those from bigger labels (such as IVE, LE SSERAFIM, and NewJeans), and now mid-tier girl groups are struggling to keep up.
Hopefully PURPLE KISS will find their footing and make a more triumphant comeback in the future, since the girls definitely have the talent, beauty, and likeability to keep up with larger-scale groups!