Sales of Pop in years following its release

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

U2Kitten

Blue Crack Addict
Joined
Jul 28, 2001
Messages
17,927
Anyone got stats on this? I keep reading people post how much greater it is than the 2 last albums and how everyone sees this, yet all I see are ATYCLB and HTDAAB selling many more copies than Pop did even when it was new. If anyone can refute this please post the evidence.
 
I'm not sure what you are asking U2Kitten.

From its release date (March) to the end of the year, "Pop" sold 1.3M copies in the U.S. It sold about another 200,000 copies since. "Pop" sold about 347,000 copies its first week in the U.S. It debuted at #1, then slipped to #2. I forget the exact sales information, but I think it sold about 150,000 copies its second week.

ATYCLB was on the Billboard Top 200 album charts for nearly 2 years. It has sold 4.2M copies in the U.S. to date. It sold 428,000 copies its first week, and then dropped 59% its second week.
 
Are you on a crusade to dishearten all of the Pop worshipers now? :wink:

Pop was definitely their weakest selling release in the US since October.
 
U2Kitten said:
Anyone got stats on this? I keep reading people post how much greater it is than the 2 last albums and how everyone sees this, yet all I see are ATYCLB and HTDAAB selling many more copies than Pop did even when it was new. If anyone can refute this please post the evidence.

i'd just like to mention that your argument is flawed.
good music doesn't always sell.

i love death cab for cutie and their latest album, transatlanticism, is amazing. but i highly doubt that almost two years after its release it has even gone gold.

in comparison, linkin park and jay-z almost went gold their first week of release.

of course quality of music is entirely subjective, but sales really have to do with commercial appeal, especially over the past few years.
 
I do not think that U2Kitten argued anything about the quality of Pop... maybe recognition fo the album by the general public but that seems to have been it.

Pop might have been misunderstood, but also hard to swallow... :)
 
Hmmm, I somehow do not see that argument flowing...

But I agree with your point, crap music in the U.S. sells. High sales do not necessarily mean good quality.

However, if you look at the all-time list of best sellers, my sense is that good albums end up selling a lot.
 
I'm not comparing it to Britney Spears or boy bands. I'm comparing it to other U2 albums, bought mostly by U2 fans. It's clear which ones did and did not do well among the core fan base.


The reason 'crap' music sells so well is because it's almost always a part of a current fad that all kids have to have, like a toy or a Pokemon card. You can't really compare that with real music by real bands. Well, I don't even count it as music at all;)
 
Last edited:
A USA Today article had the soundscan sales for the last few albums....Pop was listed to have sold 1.5 million copies....
 
it does look kind of low.. it corresponds to less then 1,000 sales a week for the last 7 years.. of course it is more of a slanted line, so that means pop probably isnt selling any copies at all at the moment.. i wouldnt bet on that possibility. i would guess it is a bit less than 2 million, more like 1.8 or something. but thats just a guess of course.
 
doctorwho said:


Yes, that's what I wrote above.

It sold 1.3M copies - per SoundScan - in 1997. It sold another 200,000 coies after that.

Yeah, I saw that after I posted. I decided to leave my message as is in case someone else didn't get yours, so I wasn't trying to knock you or anything. You have infinitely better knowledge on this stuff than me. :wink:


But yeah, thinking about it all.......I bet this album is selling like 500 copies a week or something lately.....perhaps even less now that there's The Best of 1990-2000 out there....it'll undoubtedly remain the band's lowest selling studio work (Passengers excluded) for all time.
 
BigMacPhisto said:

it'll undoubtedly remain the band's lowest selling studio work (Passengers excluded) for all time.

Which disproves the theory set forth by some on EYKIW that people were running to Pop like crazy because ATYCLB and HTDAAB sucked so bad :huh: Of course all CDs by a band tend to pick up sales once a new one is released and people collect everything by them they didn't already have. But I think the numbers speak for themselves that among U2 fans Pop was not as popular as the last 2, or those preceeding it.

How many copies has Zooropa sold?
 
U2Kitten said:


Which disproves the theory set forth by some on EYKIW that people were running to Pop like crazy because ATYCLB and HTDAAB sucked so bad :huh: Of course all CDs by a band tend to pick up sales once a new one is released and people collect everything by them they didn't already have. But I think the numbers speak for themselves that among U2 fans Pop was not as popular as the last 2, or those preceeding it.

How many copies has Zooropa sold?

Zooropa sold aprox 2million copies in US and 7-8 worldwide. But, without normal lead-single and no US promotion.

POP sold aprox 5,5 to 6 million copies worldwide in its first year and now stands at 7-8 million with a lot of promotion during 1997, 5 singles..

Vox
 
"Zooropa" sold 2.3M in the U.S. It's total stands around 6-8M worldwide, similar to "Pop". It all depends on which source you read.

"Zooropa" debuted strongly due to AB and the tour, however, U2 didn't release any "true" singles from the album until "Stay", which came around 6 months after the album's release. "Numb" was a video only single and "Lemon" wasn't released as a single in the U.S.

Also, "Zooropa" didn't have anywhere near the promotion of "Pop". So comparatively, "Zooropa" did far better.

ATYCLB sold between 10-12M worldwide, again, depending on which source you read. What's known for sure is that it sold 4.2M copies in the U.S.

Fans aren't "running" to ATYCLB or HTDAAB because of the relative low sales of "Pop". They simply like those albums. "Beautiful Day" was one of U2's strongest lead singles. "Vetigo" was a big hit and the iTunes/iPod commercial really helped. Both are also very strong songs. In contrast, while "Discotheque" has a great guitar riff, it seems fans didn't like Bono's lyrics, didn't like the video or felt U2 just went "too far" this time. As a result, there was a backlash and despite there being some good songs on "Pop", it could never really recover.

Still, you have to realize that selling 1.5M copies is HUGE! Getting a Platinum selling album is an accomplishment. Sure, it's not up to U2's usual standards, but it's hardly a failure by any means. It's only a "failure" if you compare it to U2's other releases.
 
ponkine said:
both Pop and ATYCLB sold 10 million copies worldwide, ATYCLB a few more.

:wave:

:huh:

Band members said POP sold 8 millions. Roughly the same as Zooropa, which says a lot.

There was a recent McGuiness quote that says ATYCLB is at 13 millions.
 
Last edited:
Despite Band and managment claims, POP has not sold more than 6 million copies. The album POP is still only certified for 2 million in sales in Europe by the IFPI and Soundscan in the USA shows 1.5 million sales. Soundscan Canada has 380,000 in sales, and down under there are single platinum sales of 70,000 in Australia, and 15,000 in New Zealand. Add in another 196,560 from Japan.

Total Confirmed = 4,161,560

Now, in Europe, where the album is between passing the 2 million mark and hitting the 3 million mark is unknown, so that could obviously add 500,000 copies or more to the figure above.

South America would add 500,000 to 1 million.

All the above area's cover 90% of the global market. Obviously, when one does the math, one can see that at most, POP has sold 6 million copies. POP has been U2's worst catalog seller. Just check its rank on Amazon.com compared to other albums by U2.


Known Confirmed Exact sales for ATYCLB in the regions below are:

EUROPE (from IFPI) 4,000,000+
United States (from Soundscan) 4,200,000
Canada (from CRIA) 500,000+
Australia (from ARIA) 280,000+
New Zealand (Charts) 45,000+
Brazil (Charts) 400,000+
Japan 130,590

Total Confirmed = 9,555,590

As with POP, add around 1 to 2 million copies for the rest of the world, plus any more copies sold in Europe beyond the 4 million mark but below the 5 million mark and you get the total number of albums sold.

As one can see here, ATYCLB total album sales worldwide are more than double that of POP.
 
doctorwho said:

Fans aren't "running" to ATYCLB or HTDAAB because of the relative low sales of "Pop".

No it was the other way around, some were saying people were now running to buy Pop because ATYCLB and HTDAAB sucked :huh:

Thanks for all your info, thanks to all who posted the numbers!
 
Back
Top Bottom