I've been thinking about that. And they do and I'm not really the kind to get butthurt or something over it.
Just wanna put it out there that.
MM's singles back in the golden era only had 2-3 editions. The tracklist didn't differ at all. There was no DVD coming with it (nor VHS ). And there were rarely events (as far as I know; at least not any "vote for your favorite" or handshakes, though I might be wrong on that). And at the most you only got a collector's card.
And even so they sold that much back then. Give that to AKB and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't sell millions their first week. They would still sell a lot, they would still linger in the charts, but they wouldn't have a million hit with every single that much I'm 100% sure of.