Oricon counts only
physical CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray. This is gross revenue.
http://www.tokyohive.com/2011/12/ori...t-total-sales/
Quote:
Oricon has stamped the end of 2011 with the release of their yearly ranking for “Artist Total Sales”. The ranking is based on the gross total sales of CDs (both singles and albums), DVDs, and Blu-Ray Discs.
We’ve got the list of the ‘top 5′ artists with the highest record of sales down below!
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01 – AKB48 # 16,282,000,000 Yen (approx. 209,126,008 USD)
02 – Arashi # 15,369,000,000 Yen (approx. 197,399,436 USD)
03 – EXILE # 5,603,000,000 Yen (approx. 71,964,932 USD)
04 – KARA # 4,926,000,000 Yen (approx. 63,269,544 USD)
05 – Shoujo Jidai # 4,049,000,000 Yen (approx. 52,005,356 USD)
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(Shoujo Jidai is also known as Girls' Generation)
Oricon 2009 best selling artists:
1. Arashi 14,641 billion yen (188 million USD)
2. EXILE 12,932 billion yen (166.1 million USD)
3 Tohoshinki 6,895 billion yen (88.6 million USD)
4. B'z 5,374 billion yen (69 million USD)
5. The Beatles 5,200 billion yen (66.8 million USD)
Oricon 2010 best selling artists:
1. Arashi 17,163 billion yen (220.5 million USD)
2. Tohoshinki 9,431 billion yen (121.2 million USD)
3. AKB48 7,092 billion yen ( 91.1 million USD)
4. EXILE 6,015 billion yen (77.3 million USD)
5. Ikimono Gakari 5,618 billion yen (72.2 million USD)
I don't think Adele sold this much in 2011 worldwide.
For example,
12 million albums at $12 = $144 mil
+ 30 million singles at $1 = $30 mil
in 2001 alone her sales exceeded 320 million USD in revenues 
