Japan "Idol" was an immediate commercial success in Japan. According to
Oricon and
Billboard Japan, the song became the fastest song to reach 100 million on-demand streams in Japan within five weeks, breaking the six weeks of
Official Hige Dandism's "
Subtitle" and
BTS's "
Butter". It later broke a string of records for the fastest song to accumulate 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900 million, and one billion streams within 137 weeks. The single became the first-ever song to reach one billion streams in Oricon history, and diamond for streaming, surpassing 500 million times. The latter marked the song as the fastest song to achieve diamond certification in the RIAJ history within 295 days after the single release. The
Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) reported that "Idol" was the highest earned
royalties in Japan for two consecutive years, from 2023 to 2024.
Oricon For the issue dated April 24, 2023, "Idol" entered the Oricon Digital Singles Chart at number two, earning 33,867 digital sales, behind
Man with a Mission and
Milet's "
Kizuna no Kiseki", and rose to the top the next week with 34,070 sales, making Yoasobi the most number-one song on the chart with 12 songs, tying with
Kenshi Yonezu. It spent ten non-consecutive weeks atop the chart, the fifth song to reach it in history. The song debuted atop the Streaming Chart with 10,328,178 on-demand streams, the duo's third number-one following "
Yoru ni Kakeru" and "
Kaibutsu", and topped the chart for 22 consecutive weeks, the second most weeks at number one, behind Official Hige Dandism's "
Pretender" (34), and the fifth song to reach number one on the chart for more than ten weeks. With 29,975,897 streams in the week of June 26, besting "Subtitle" (4). Moreover, "Idol" is the second song in 2023 since
Be:First's "
Boom Boom Back", and by the duo to reach number one on both the Oricon Digital Single and Streaming charts in the same week and ascended to number one in the week of May 29, as the duo's second song since "Yoru ni Kakeru", after staying in the top five for five weeks. The song returned to number one in the week dated January 22, 2024, eight months after the first top. The CD single debuted at number two on the
Oricon Singles Chart for the week of July 3, selling 49,385 copies, behind
King & Prince's "
Nanimono", while the English version peaked at number eight on the Digital Singles Chart with 6,080 units. "Idol" finished at number one on three Oricon 2023 year-end charts: Combined Singles, Digital Singles, and Streaming, earning 557,295 downloads and 570,368,238 streams.
Billboard Japan "Idol" debuted at number one on the
Billboard Japan Hot 100 for the week of April 19, 2023, scoring Yoasobi's second number-one song in the country since "Yoru ni Kakeru" in 2020. It earned 29,327 digital sales, 8,868,810 streams, and 4,334,923 video views in its first week. The song stayed at the number-one position for 21 consecutive weeks, beating "Subtitle" as the song with the most both consecutive and total weeks at number one in the chart history, which previously was eight consecutive weeks and 13 overall weeks, respectively. In the week of September 13, the song was finally unseated in the top position by
Snow Man's "
Dangerholic" and descended to number four. Four months later, the song re-peaked at number one in the week of January 17, 2024, expanding the longest number-one song record to 22 total weeks. "Idol" also topped the specific-genre
Hot Animation, the third song following "Kaibutsu" and "
Shukufuku", for 21 consecutive weeks, tying with Yonezu's "
Kick Back"; and 37 total weeks, the second longest after 39 weeks of
Lisa's "
Gurenge". During that time, it was succeeded by
King Gnu's "
Specialz" for two weeks, and the duo's "
Yūsha" for one week, and finally dethroned by Creepy Nuts' "Bling-Bang-Bang-Born" in the week of January 31, 2024. For component charts, "Idol" opened at number two on the
Download Songs, blocked from Man with a Mission and Milet's "Kizuna no Kiseki", and surged up to the top the next week with 30,505 downloads and spent ten non-consecutive weeks on the chart. On the
Streaming Songs, the song debuted at number one, and topped for 24 non-consecutive weeks. It received 25,860,696 streams in the week of May 17, giving the song the second most streams overall in a single week at that time, behind BTS's "Butter" (30 million streams). The "Idol" CD single sold 53,589 copies on its release week, landing at number two on the Top Singles Sales dated June 26, behind only King & Prince's "Nanimono". Following the 7-inch vinyl release, the single jumped from number 84 to 12 in the week of August 2 with 3,884 copies.
Billboard Japan named "Idol" the best-performing song of 2023 on the Japan Hot 100. It became the most-streamed, most-downloaded, and most-heard-on-the-radio song in the country that fiscal year, receiving 527,143,965 streams, 148,838,759 video views, and 509,751 digital sales in 2023, which topped both the year-end Streaming Songs and Download Songs.
Worldwide Music critic Motohiko Tokuriki compared the success of "Idol" to
Fujii Kaze's "
Shinunoga E-Wa", which was a hit overseas in 2022, and commented that it "has the potential to be a big step for the
Japanese music industry in that it has clearly seen the world from the beginning and has been successful." Two weeks after its release, Yoasobi's distributor
The Orchard reported that "Idol" had been streamed and viewed over 100 million times. The song first entered the
Billboard Global Excl. US at number 135 for the issue dated April 22, 2023, within two days of tracking and then surged up 130 spots to number five the next week. Following the English version release and spent the first six of seven weeks in the top ten, the song rose atop the Global Excl. US—collecting 24,000 digital sales and 45.7 million streams in that week—becoming the first-ever Japanese-language song to top the chart, and stayed on it for three non-consecutive weeks. On the
Billboard Global 200, "Idol" debuted at number 14 dated April 29, 2023, and peaked at number seven nine weeks later, setting a new record as the highest position by Japanese act on the chart at that time, surpassing Lisa's "
Homura" (8). According to
Luminate, as of June 2023, "Idol" had been streamed 722.71 million times worldwide in both audio and video platforms. In the inaugural week of September 14, 2023, the song debuted at number one on the
Billboard Japan newly launched Global Japan Songs Excl. Japan, which tracks the most streamed and digitally sold Japanese songs outside Japan in over 200 territories, and topped for 12 non-consecutive weeks. The song was the highest charted song at number 42 and 19 on the 2023 year-end Global 200 and Global Excl. US, respectively, the highest Japanese song in history. For music streaming services, the song reached number one on the global charts of both
Apple Music and
YouTube Music. On Apple Music, the song was the eighth most streamed song globally in 2023, the best-performing Japanese act, and the 291st most listened song of all time, during 2015–2025. The
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported that "Idol" was the nineteenth best-selling song in 2023, earning 1.01 billion subscription streams equivalents globally. ==Music video==