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The story
Hello! Project groups =LOVE and Juice=Juice are both releasing live video products (Blu-ray/DVD) on the same day, October 14, 2026. =LOVE’s release captures the finale of their 8th-anniversary tour (the Yokohama Stadium show), with bonus photo cards bundled across several editions, including a complete-production limited edition. On 5ch, the shared release date sparked an ongoing comparison of the two groups’ previous sales figures (=LOVE: 23,548 copies, Juice=Juice: 8,585 copies), whether individual two-shot photo sessions were offered as a bonus, and metrics like Spotify monthly listeners. Opinions split on whether a straight sales-count comparison is even fair.
=LOVE 8th Anniversary Tour “=LOVE 8th ANNIVERSARY PREMIUM TOUR” FINAL in Yokohama Stadium — video release announced!
Release date: Wednesday, October 14, 2026
■Complete Production Limited Edition [2-disc Blu-ray]
Source: sp.equal-love.jp / Original article here
What people said
They're doing something like an autograph session too
I'm not saying they need lottery-style sales tactics, but Juice should really do a disc bonus event too — this isn't exactly cheap merch
It's been a year and they're only bigger now, so maybe around 30k this round?
Juice will be lucky to crack 15k
15k is a stretch.
They'll probably just barely scrape into five digits, and =LOVE crushes them as expected
Juice's archive stream already ended back in June.
No idea about =LOVE
TYPE-A Complete Production Limited Edition — random 2 of 20 bonus photo cards included
■TYPE-B First-Press Limited Edition [Blu-ray] — random 1 of 10 bonus photo cards included
■TYPE-C First-Press Limited Edition [DVD] — random 1 of 10 bonus photo cards included
yeah Juice doesn't stand a chance
Yeah, this one's unwinnable
lol so the other company pads out their disc sales too.
Good on Juice=Juice for staying honest about it. I'm fine with them losing
All you can do is laugh at this point lol
It's an event held as a purchase bonus for the live video release (DVD/Blu-ray)
where you actually get a two-shot photo taken with a member.
Members show up wearing outfits from things like "the live tour" or "an MV,"
so you get up close with a member in gorgeous stage outfits you don't normally see that close.
Photo rules: one session ticket gets you 2 shots taken at once. You hand your own smartphone to staff, who take the photo.
You pick from a few staff-designated poses.
How to join: during the lottery-purchase window on forTUNE music, you apply for a "product with two-shot session entry rights," and if you win the lottery you can purchase it
Didn't realize =LOVE was still doing individual events even for the Blu-ray release.
They're selling fine already, they could just drop it
So there's fan-contact built into the Blu-ray too.
No wonder there's no beating them
They don't have time for that
Juice's EP individual-session tickets sold out in the first round, so the demand is clearly there — it's just being capped.
If they took individual-session orders all the way up to 500k, they'd probably get there
They only hit 23k even with every bonus piled on, so without the perks and events it'd actually be a fair fight
Even if only half the people who packed the Dome show bought the disc, that'd still be an easy win over the likes of Juice=Juice
Juice=Juice: 8,585 copies
=LOVE: 23,548 copies
Come on, quit rubbing it in lol
Like I said, they're not even in the same league to begin with
Wait, they run fan-contact events and only get that much?
I thought "multi-buying" culture (fans buying stacks of copies for event tickets) was supposed to be =LOVE's whole thing
Meanwhile in the stage/entertainment category, "Queen of" [=LOVE's release] is #1.
Apparently "Queen of" is still selling over 100 copies a month
Ha, we posted almost the same thing. QoH really is a long-seller.
I'd love to know the cumulative total
They're supposedly selling great, yet it's an endless grind of fan-contact work, right?
Is that really why they became idols?
Guess that one landed with the =LOVE fanboys lol.
Might as well head back to the =LOVE board — oh wait, does it even have one?
They don't do handshake events though.
Just chat sessions and two-shot photo sessions.
Not having physical contact makes a big mental difference
They're supposedly selling great, yet every metric except YouTube keeps tanking, right?
Is that really why they became idols?
Easy now — =LOVE's basically a lock for Kōhaku, aren't they? No need to get so worked up
Spotify monthly listeners
1,393,952 =LOVE
1,137,790 AKB48
1,081,531 CUTIE STREET
982,543 FRUIT ZIPPER
720,601 Nogizaka46
694,954 CANDY TUNE
588,274 NiziU
552,816 Momoiro Clover Z
531,382 iLiFE!
450,738 ME:I
436,088 Phantom Theta
417,655 Morning Musume。
398,652 Chotokimeki♡Sendenbu
333,514 ≠ME
293,816 Juice=Juice
What about BEYOOOOONDS?
≠ME (nicknamed "Noimī") is Juice's real rival
There used to be an urban legend that low Spotify numbers meant you couldn't get on TV, but Juice=Juice's been on TV nonstop lately so I've stopped caring about that
Background and key points of debate
=LOVE and Juice=Juice both belong to the Hello! Project family, but they take different approaches to selling their video releases. =LOVE offers a two-shot photo session with members as a purchase bonus, which thread posters pointed to as one reason boosting disc sales. Juice=Juice, by contrast, has no such individual meet-and-greet bonus, and their previous release sold 8,585 copies — far behind =LOVE’s 23,548. The debate centered on whether it’s fair to read this sales gap simply as a “popularity gap,” given that one side’s numbers include bonus-driven demand. Posters also brought in metrics beyond disc sales, like Spotify monthly listeners, fueling a broader argument over which figures should actually be used to judge the two groups. Since sales formats and bonus content depend on each group’s own business strategy, a simple copies-sold comparison alone can be misleading.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project) thread “[October 14] Did you know =LOVE and Juice=Juice’s live DVD/Blu-ray are dropping the same day?“
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