Pretty sure that means that claim was BS and they don't relate. IU was already selling well before her scandal erupted. T-ara had a worse scandal and Day by Day still charted well going into the scandal.
Saying "IU still sold a bunch" doesn't mean the public wasn't disliking her at the time.
IU is on a consistent streak of hits and not even the pedophile claims and stealing music can stop her
from making her annual payroll
23 did cross the 1M mark, unlike some of the biggest girl groups' releases of 2015
A real mess is that the bonus track Heart sold more than 23, the lead single OST their power!
Park Bom could've gone solo and ditched 2NE1 to be the reigning queen of digital sales alongside IU when you think about how big she is back then when 2NE1 debuted.
You And I still remains their 2nd best selling single with 4.4M copies sold and has sold more than the rest of their non single tracks from their first album combined