Beatles:over 1 billion of records sold?!

[Bastian]

I read on a magazine that EMI estimated Beatles' sales over 1 billion!If it's true that's incredible
I think that no singer or band can come even close to the half of these numbers.
Anyone can tell me if these figures are true?

 

[Vox02]

I read several times that Elvis Presley and The Beatles has both surpased de 1000 million mark in terms of worldwide sales. Around 10-15% of this sales are from US market only ( 86 million copies sold by Elvis, 164 by The Beatles ).

The sales of U2 stand at 110-120 million or something.

Vox

 

[STING2]

Correction! When they say 1 BILLION records they mean singles as well. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Singles were a more popular format than albums. Singles sold more than albums as well. The 1 Billion figure is mainly singles, about 60%. The Beatles have sold about 400 Million albums worldwide.