Reverb, the world's biggest online marketplace for new and used musical instruments, have revealed their best-seller lists for 2022, and - perhaps unsurprisingly - the Teenage Engineering OP-1 has snagged the top spot for the fourth year in a row.
TE's iconic hybrid synth/sampler topped the list of best-selling electronic gear released in 2022, a category that includes synths, drum machines, samplers, and Eurorack modules. Reverb note that this may be due to the fact that the average used price of an OP-1 has been decreasing since early 2021, a decrease spurred on by the announcement of the new OP-1 field earlier this year. Though the OP-1 field is absent from Reverb's top 20, they claim that it's also been selling well, observing that "despite its high price tag, the feature-rich mini workstation has outsold more limited, budget-friendly gear like Roland's AIRA compacts (the J-6, T-8, and E-4) and Behringer's "Modded Out" TD-3."
Following the OP-1 in second place is the Elektron Digitakt drum machine and sampler, followed by Ableton's Push 2 controller, Native Instruments MKIII Maschine, and the Arturia MicroFreak. Coming up in sixth place is a new entry to the list, the Roland SP-404MKII drum machine, the manufacturer's successor to the legendary SP-404. Released late last year, it's reportedly been "a consistent best-seller month after month ever since", placing in second on the list of best-selling drum machines and samplers.
Reverb have also shared a list of the best-selling gear released in 2022, in which the OP-1 field places fourth. Taking the top spot is the Syntakt, Elektron's drum machine/synth announced in April, followed by the Polyend Play, Korg Volca FM2, and 1010 Music Nanobox Lemondrop. It's a strong year for Elektron, as they top the list of best-selling drum machines and samplers with the enduringly popular Digitakt.
In the modular (and semi-modular) world, last year's champions - Make Noise Maths and ALM/Busy Circuits Pamela's New Workout - have landed in first and second place for the second year in a row. Make Noise have thoroughly dominated this year, with four bits of gear in the modular top ten, and the Maths module coming in at seventh place in the overall list of best-selling gear.
One final observation to note is that while the best-seller lists are dominated largely by products released over the past decade, Korg's affordable and vocoder-equipped Microkorg synth - released 20 years ago - has demonstrated some serious staying power, as the only instrument on the overall best-seller list to predate 2010.
