U2 Chart/Sales Statistics

[STING2]

Hi Sting2

presently i don't agree with those numbers you talked about. In my researches (in the last 9 years) i have a figure of 12 MILLION worldwide at the time of release of "Rattle and Hum", what means roughly 7 million outside USA.
Other figure appeared in the press when "Achtung Baby" was released in 1991, it was 14 MILLION worldwide.
The sales figures on the UKMix thread are all of almost 8 years after the initial release so they give accurate sales after all that time.
In my opinion "The Joshua Tree" sold more than 20 MILLION, how much more i still don't have an definite estimation, i will analyse that in some weeks time in the UKMix forum.
Take a look at the thread there if you are interested in this kind of stuff (sales).

Estimating the Joshua Tree's sales levels without the precise information for all of Europe and other regions of the world can be difficult. But, one should pay attention to the earliest sales figures which were mentioned in 1987 first, because often what happens is that further reports do not accurately update the sales information. They simply use the old figures from the first year of release. This appears to be what happened with the figures you listed above.

Even using your figure for the time of release for Rattle And Hum of 12 million, the Joshua Tree sold a further 5 million copies in the United States alone by September 1995 which would put total global sales well beyond 17 million copies by September 1995 once sales outside the United States after October 1988 are considered.

I believe the true figure for the Joshua Tree is very close to 30 million, probably around 28 million to be exact based on sales figures and reports I have seen. I have seen what is listed at the UKMIX Forum.

 

[edge3]

Some more great sales info from last Monday's UK Music Week (28th Dec 2006) :

'U2’s 18 Singles album debuts at number four on sales of 101,083. It’s U2’s 18th chart album, and their first single disc compilation, though Best Of 1980-1990 (available as a two disc regular edition, and three disc set including B sides) has sold 1,919,678 copies since 1998, and Best Of 1990-2000 (ditto) has sold 871,765 since 2002.'

The guy writing this (Alan Jones) obviously made a mistake here saying there was a 3 disc set. Anyway those combined UK sales for the two versions of the two Best Of's are for up to end of Sat 25th Dec 2006.

 

[edge3]

Some more great sales info from last Monday's UK Music Week (28th Dec 2006) :

'U2’s 18 Singles album debuts at number four on sales of 101,083. It’s U2’s 18th chart album, and their first single disc compilation, though Best Of 1980-1990 (available as a two disc regular edition, and three disc set including B sides) has sold 1,919,678 copies since 1998, and Best Of 1990-2000 (ditto) has sold 871,765 since 2002.'

The guy writing this (Alan Jones) obviously made a mistake here saying they were available as a 3 disc set. Anyway those combined UK sales for the two versions of the two Best Of's are for up to end of Sat 25th Dec 2006.

 

[doctorwho]

Some more great sales info from last Monday's UK Music Week (28th Dec 2006) :

'U2’s 18 Singles album debuts at number four on sales of 101,083. It’s U2’s 18th chart album, and their first single disc compilation, though Best Of 1980-1990 (available as a two disc regular edition, and three disc set including B sides) has sold 1,919,678 copies since 1998, and Best Of 1990-2000 (ditto) has sold 871,765 since 2002.'

The guy writing this (Alan Jones) obviously made a mistake here saying they were available as a 3 disc set. Anyway those combined UK sales for the two versions of the two Best Of's are for up to end of Sat 25th Dec 2006.

I think he meant to say that the one-disc 1980-1990 "Best Of" sold 1.92 M copies. The two-disc set is also double platinum, but may have sold closer to 1 M copies as the RIAA counts it as double.

What I don't get is whether the 1990-2000 "Best Of" sold 871K copies as a 2-disc set or 1-disc set???

 

[04072511]

Some more great sales info from last Monday's UK Music Week (28th Dec 2006) :

'U2’s 18 Singles album debuts at number four on sales of 101,083. It’s U2’s 18th chart album, and their first single disc compilation, though Best Of 1980-1990 (available as a two disc regular edition, and three disc set including B sides) has sold 1,919,678 copies since 1998, and Best Of 1990-2000 (ditto) has sold 871,765 since 2002.'

The guy writing this (Alan Jones) obviously made a mistake here saying they were available as a 3 disc set. Anyway those combined UK sales for the two versions of the two Best Of's are for up to end of Sat 25th Dec 2006.

Its a pity the sales of The best of 1980-1990 and 1980-1990 & B-Sides werent combined when complileing the UK Best Selling Albums of ALL Time. It would have placed in the top 100 at #69.

 

[04072511]

I think he meant to say that the one-disc 1980-1990 "Best Of" sold 1.92 M copies. The two-disc set is also double platinum, but may have sold closer to 1 M copies as the RIAA counts it as double.

What I don't get is whether the 1990-2000 "Best Of" sold 871K copies as a 2-disc set or 1-disc set???

This article is referring to the UK, not the US.

 

[edge3]

Yes UK sales & yes pretty unfair they didn't add the sales together for the all-time list considering they did just that for the two Queen Greatest Hits (by including sales of The Platinum Collection etc).

Anyway, the approx breakdown in sales for the two versions of the two Best Of's are as follows :

Best Of 1980-1990 (1-cd version) = 1,420,000
Best Of 1980-1990 (2-cd version) = 500,000

Best Of 1990-2000 (1-cd version) = 320,000
Best Of 1990-2000 (2-cd version) = 552,000

 

[04072511]

I dont think they included sales of the platinum collection for the 2 greatest hits, but I could be very wrong!

 

[doctorwho]

This article is referring to the UK, not the US.

In that case, never mind.

 

[04072511]

Yes UK sales & yes pretty unfair they didn't add the sales together for the all-time list considering they did just that for the two Queen Greatest Hits (by including sales of The Platinum Collection etc).

Where did you hear that sales of the Platinum Collection were included in Queens 2 greatest hits sales? I thought it was a seperate release to the greatest hits albums! This Top 100 album list is from the most reliable source possible so I couldnt imagine that they would have made such a big mistake! Having said that i was surprised that the Queen albums had sold so much!

 

[Val]

how many albums have u2 sold to date? What is your source? thanks

 

[edge3]

Total UK album sales up to end of 2006 based on real official sales info & estimates (& yes, sorry, UABRS now goes up to ~1.3m) :

1. The Joshua Tree : ~2,670,000 (2,665,553 as at 22nd Oct 2006)
2. Best of 80-90 (both versions) : ~1,925,000 (1,919,678 as at Sat 25th Nov 2006)
3. Rattle & Hum : ~1,400,000 (~1.23m by Oct '94)
4. Achtung Baby : ~1,350,000 (1.13m by Jan '98)
5. UABRS : ~1,300,000 (3xP by April 1987 & ~1.1m by end of '80's)
6. HTDAAB : ~1,240,000 (1.2m by end of 2005)
7. ATYCLB : ~1,130,000 (March 12th 2005 edition of Musicweek said 1,083,169 & has since done ok in top 100/200)
8. The Unforgettable Fire : ~890,000 (~810k by end of '80's)
9. War : ~830,000 (~750k by end of '80's)
10. Best of 90-00 (both versions) : ~875,000 (871,765 as at Sat 25th Nov 2006)
11. U218 Singles : ~620,000
12. Zooropa : ~600,000 (~500k in '93)
13. Pop : ~450,000 (370k in '97)
14. October : ~400,000
15. Boy : ~300,000
16. WAIA : ~150,000

Total = ~16,130,000 (1984-2005 total = ~14.583m)

Now multiply this by 9-10 & you've pretty much got their worldwide total. So 145-160m.

Some recent reports though have been saying 170m but i think this is most likely to be a shipment figure...& shipments are always slghtly above actual sales.

 

[edge3]

21st best selling albums artist of 2006 in UK with a total of 785-800,000 albums sold (source : last weeks MusicWeek). This means their back catalogue (incl. Atomic Bomb & minus the 600-615,000 for U218 Singles) sold around 185,000...which is about 70k more than i estimated in my above, overall, figure of 16.130m.

 

[edge3]

1.330m albums sold (SoundScanned) in total in US in 2006 :

500,691 for U218 Singles
~200k for Atomic Bomb
47k for (1 version only of) ATYCLB (total now up to 4.300m & 199th best selling album of the SoundScan era)

So rest of Back Catalogue sold around 582,000

& whole of Back Catalogue (every album minus U218 Singles) sold 830,000

So U2 are now up 1 spot to 13th on the US all-time best selling album artists of the SoundScan era (1991-2006) with 31.358m albums SoundScanned.

Thx again to Hanboo at UKMIX for the figures.

 

[edge3]

& not so surprisingly they do even better in Canada, coming in 4th with 3.250m albums SoundScanned from just 1995-2006 :

Canada : Best-Selling Album Artists Of Soundscan Era (1995-2006)

01. Celine Dion 6,225,022
02. Shania Twain 4,176,983
03. Backstreet Boys 4,035,368
04. U2 3,250,254
05. Sarah McLachlan 2,920,084
06. Eminem 2,850,796
07. The Beatles 2,664,824
08. Andrea Bocelli 2,545,278
09. Diana Krall 2,485,971
10. Britney Spears 2,371,993

 

[vaz02]

wow so how many albums from their back Catalogue did u2 sell last year in total ?

 

[edge3]

wow so how many albums from their back Catalogue did u2 sell last year in total ?

1.015m in US & UK so i'd say about 2.2m in total worldwide (with Atomic Bomb doing about another 450k).

 

[ybird3k]

is that good? for the back catalogue sales.

also whats bomb's total now, must be over 10M for sure?

 

[vaz02]

Omg thats fucking awesome, great sales from bomb too.

 

[edge3]

Yeah that's pretty solid Back Catalogue sales - not as good as last year though but they did most of their touring then so that's to be expected. Here's the figures for the last 3 years :

2004 : 758k US + 240k UK = 998k (worldwide total ~2m)
2005 : 922k US + 372k UK = 1.294m (worldwide total ~2.8m)
2006 : 830k US + 185k UK = 1.015m (worldwide total ~2.2m)

 

[Val]

so to say 170 million total record sales is accurate?

 

[vaz02]

lets me like mariah carey fans and inflate the sales by double.

u2 have sold around 300mill albums world wide

 

[ybird3k]

haha

does anyone know what back catalogue sales are like for other artists?, i'd imagine the beatles would be the highest by far.

 

[edge3]

haha

does anyone know what back catalogue sales are like for other artists?, i'd imagine the beatles would be the highest by far.

It's inevitably safe to say The Beatles are always at the very the top. Their comparative 2006 Back Catalogue album sales were :

1.716m US + 308k UK = 2.024m (worldwide total ~4.5m)

 

[vaz02]

that is mammoth, i think pink floyd are 2nd with back catalogue sales..

 

[Mirrorball06]

Can someome post the weekly sales for HTDAAB for the Mediatraffic charts one more time?

Thanks.

 

[edge3]

Can someome post the weekly sales for HTDAAB for the Mediatraffic charts one more time?

Thanks.

Bomb’s full MediaTraffic chart run :
key : week, position, sales increase/decrease, sales (actual & estimates)

wk 1 # 39 -- 84,129 (Japan only)
wk 2 # 1 ↑ 1.854m
wk 3 # 2 ↓ 862k
wk 4 # 1 ↓ 840k
wk 5 # 1 ↓ 820k
wk 6 # 1 ↑ 827k (5.289m sold for 2004 - 8th best selling album of 2004)
wk 7 # 2 ↓ 317k
wk 8 # 3 ↓ 212k
wk 9 # 3 ↓ 186k (overall update : 6.004m sold - 27th on all-time best selling albums chart)
wk 10 # 5 ↓ 144k
wk 11 # 6 ↓ 125k
wk 12 # 7 ↓ 124k
wk 13 # 10 ↑ 141k (overall update : 6.538m sold - 21st on all-time best selling albums chart)
wk 14 # 5 ↑ 162k
wk 15 # 9 ↓ ~112k
wk 16 # 16 ↓ ~88k
wk 17 # 15 ↓ ~85k
wk 18 # 14 ↓ ~82k
wk 19 # 13 ↑ ~85k
wk 20 # 16 ↓ ~70k (overall update : 7.224m – 17th on all-time best selling albums chart)
wk 21 # 17 ↓ 64k
wk 22 # 16 ↓ 63k
wk 23 # 18 ↓ 60k (overall update : 7.411m – 18th on all-time best selling albums chart)
wk 24 # 23 ↓ ~55k
wk 25 # 20 ↓ ~54k
wk 26 # 25 ↓ ~48k
wk 27 # 32 ↓ ~40k
wk 28 # 35 ↓ ~37k
wk 29 # 34 ↓ ~35k
wk 30 # 37 ↑ ~36k
wk 31 # 33 ↑ ~50k
wk 32 # 34 ↓ ~38k (overall update : 7.802m - 17th on all-time best selling albums chart)
wk 33 # 34 ↓ ~37k
wk 34 # 36 ↑ ~42k
wk 35 # 32 ↑ ~50k
wk 36 # 31 ↓ ~48k
wk 37 # 31 ↓ ~47k
wk 38 # 29 ↓ ~45k
wk 39 # 28 ↑ ~46k
wk 40 # 35 ↓ ~40k (overall update : 8.157m - 13th on all-time best selling albums chart)
wk 41 # 40 ↓ 31k (total = 8.188m)

 

[edge3]

Some more great sales info from last Monday's UK Music Week (28th Dec 2006) :

'U2’s 18 Singles album debuts at number four on sales of 101,083. It’s U2’s 18th chart album, and their first single disc compilation, though Best Of 1980-1990 (available as a two disc regular edition, and three disc set including B sides) has sold 1,919,678 copies since 1998, and Best Of 1990-2000 (ditto) has sold 871,765 since 2002.'

The guy writing this (Alan Jones) obviously made a mistake here saying they were available as a 3 disc set. Anyway those combined UK sales for the two versions of the two Best Of's are for up to end of Sat 25th Dec 2006.

Oops, just noticed the above dates i posted are wrong. Should be MusicWeek Mon 27th Nov 2006 so sales are for up to end of Sat 25th Nov 2006.

 

[edge3]

Chart run/info for Best Of 90-00 at MediaTraffic (released in UK, etc, Mon Nov 4th 2002) :

1-1-2-4-5-5-*6 (*EOY 2.060m sold - 31st Best selling album)-7 (red triangle = certified for 2m copies sold)-8-9-10-15-18-28-29-32 (3.063m sold - but on other world chart 19th Best selling album of 2003 w/ 4.064.000)-x (out of top 40)...

Shipments outside the UK were 5.2m by Jan 2003 (source : MusicWeek)
Shipments in the UK must now be around 950k as sales for both versions were 871,765 by 25th Nov 2006 (source : MusicWeek)

So total Shipments must now be around 6.3m with total sales around 5-5.5m.

 

[edge3]

The new edition of Record Collector magazine says The Joshua Tree 'sold 12 million in it's first 12 months of release & over double that since'.