U2 Chart/Sales Statistics

[edge3]

Well, here’s some more up to date US Soundscan figures as at Dec 2005, i believe (thx again to Hanboo at UKMIX for the info) :

Boy - 371,000
October - 349,000
War - 1,406,000
Under A Blood Red Sky - 622,000
The Unforgettable Fire - 864,000
Wide Awake In America - 192,000
The Joshua Tree - 3,036,000
Rattle And Hum - 1,182,000
Achtung Baby - 5,414,000
Zooropa - 2,327,000
Pop - 1,493,000
All That You Can't Leave Behind - 4,253,000

ps - as at 1st Jan 2006 U2 were the 14th best selling album artist of the Soundscan era (1991-2005) with total Soundscanned album sales of 30,026,000

 

[STING2]

Well, here’s some more up to date US Soundscan figures as at Dec 2005, i believe (thx again to Hanboo at UKMIX for the info) :

Boy - 371,000
October - 349,000
War - 1,406,000
Under A Blood Red Sky - 622,000
The Unforgettable Fire - 864,000
Wide Awake In America - 192,000
The Joshua Tree - 3,036,000
Rattle And Hum - 1,182,000
Achtung Baby - 5,414,000
Zooropa - 2,327,000
Pop - 1,493,000
All That You Can't Leave Behind - 4,253,000

ps - as at 1st Jan 2006 U2 were the 14th best selling album artist of the Soundscan era (1991-2005) with total Soundscanned album sales of 30,026,000

Great UPDATE EDGE3!

When dealing with soundscan figures everyone needs to remember that soundscan started off only covering 40% of retail sales in 1991, and did not reach the current level of coverage until the end of 1995. Also, Soundscan even now does not cover 100% of the market and shipments are obviously not included.

Still this new update gives us the opportunity to see how much old U2 albums have been selling over the past couple of years on a average weekly basis.

As of January 11, 2004 this is where these U2 albums stood on soundscan:


The Joshua Tree = 2,801,705
Achtung Baby = 5,336,562
Pop = 1,479,901
Best of U2 ('80-'90) = 2,121,922
All That You Can't... = 4,132,538


As of November 2003:

WAR = 1,311,000

As of May 2005:

Rattle And Hum 1,114,000



Average weekly sales based on the above information/ the average for the past 2 years except Rattle and Hum past 7 months:

WAR = 950

Joshua Tree = 2,343

Rattle And Hum = 2,267

Achtung Baby = 775

POP = 131

All That You Can't Leave.... = 1,205



Rattle And Hum's figures are a bit high compared to the other albums because the weeks involved are only the last half of 2005 with U2 on tour and promoting a new album. The figures for the other albums involve a time period that starts 8 to 10 months prior to the BOMB promotion period and tour and then goes through that up until now.

What I found really interesting is that over the last 2 years, WAR has been outselling Achtung Baby here in the United States. "All That You Can't Leave Behind" has yet to loose its sales steem relative to other U2 albums more than 5 years after its release. Only the Joshua Tree has sold more consistently over the past 2 years for U2. Who would have thought 5 years ago that All That You Can't Leave Behind would turn into the 2nd best selling catalog U2 album 5 years later on a weekly basis.

People still go out and buy the POP album. A little over 13,000 people in the USA have purchased POP over the past 2 years.

 

[doctorwho]

Sting, I'm not sure I follow your R&H average.

Per the information I'm seeing in your above post, as of November 2003, R&H sold 1,114,000 copies in the SoundScan era. By December 2005, R&H sold 1,182,000 copies in the SoundScan era. This indicates that in 2 years and one month, R&H only sold a scant 68,000 copies. If we divide 68,000 by 106 (the number of weeks in 2 years and one month) we get 641 copies sold per week. This seems right to me. I'm not sure where you get your number from based on the data provided.

When I used to get SoundScan data, JT was usually floating around 2000 copies/week, so that looks correct. It's good to see JT at least keeping up its weekly average.

Again, when I got SoundScan data, AB would pop in the Top 200 on the Catalog charts periodically, but usually it would be off. Still, I'm surprised it is this low. One interesting thing about AB is that despite the overall SoundScan numbers, it is certified as 8x Platinum, making it U2's second best seller in the U.S. This suggests to me that SoundScan has not counted a lot of copies. These extra copies could be items sold via music clubs - which I don't think SoundScan counts.

Lastly, I know you and I disagree on this, but I feel that I must present the opposing view. Per my understanding of SoundScan, while you are correct in that in the early days SoundScan only monitored 40% of the country, they would then extrapolate their data to account for the ENTIRE country. In other words, if they saw 90,000 copies sold - and that 118,000 represented the sales in 40% of the available music stores that were monitored - then they would estimate sales of 295,000 for the entire country. This is exactly what happened with AB in its first week. That 295,000 copies does NOT represent sales in only 40% of the stores, but rather for the whole country. It was calculated based on the SoundScan data gathered and then extrapolated. Yes, this is still not very accurate, but far better than having "estimates" based on music retailers, who were often biased and could be bought.

 

[doctorwho]

I forgot to add...

Although "Pop" has sold 13,000 copies over the past 2 years, it really seems that both "Zooropa" and "Pop" have barely changed in their total sales since their respective first years. I recall reading 2.3M copies sold for "Zooropa" and 1.5M copies of "Pop" sold since 1998. It's a shame these two excellent albums haven't seen any significant boost in sales since that time.

 

[doctorwho]

ps - as at 1st Jan 2006 U2 were the 14th best selling album artist of the Soundscan era (1991-2005) with total Soundscanned album sales of 30,026,000

Based on the numbers you provided, the sum is 21.5M. So does this 30M number include sales from HTDAAB? If so, then that means 5.5M in sales must be from the two "Best Of" albums. Based on RIAA certifications, this seems right, but just wanted to clarify. Thanks!

 

[Popmartijn]

Sting, I'm not sure I follow your R&H average.

Per the information I'm seeing in your above post, as of November 2003, R&H sold 1,114,000 copies in the SoundScan era.

Doc, Sting says in his post that the R&H figure is from May 2005.

As of November 2003:

WAR = 1,311,000

As of May 2005:

Rattle And Hum 1,114,000

 

[ChargedVT]

Austria:

U2 How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb Platin UNIVERSAL 10-01-2005
U2 Best of 1990-2000 Platin UNIVERSAL 13-11-2002
U2 All you Can Leave Behind PLATIN UNIVERSAL 23-10-2000
U2 Best Of 1980-1990 2xPLATIN POL 14-01-1999
U2 Best Of 1980-1990 PLATIN POL 17-11-1998
U2 Pop PLATIN POL 20-03-1997
U2 Zooropa GOLD BMG 27-07-1993
U2 The Joshua Tree 2xPLATIN BMG 17-06-1993
U2 Achtung Baby PLATIN BMG 27-11-1991
U2 Achtung Baby GOLD BMG 19-11-1991
U2 Joshua Tree 3xGOLD BMG 11-12-1990

Platin 30.000 units
Gold 15.000 units

Rattle and Hum is missing but I'm sure it would have been at least platinum, and this site only lists certifications given since 1990.
You're right when you say its 30k for platinum and 15k for Gold but it wasn't always this way.
Until the end of 2000 it was Gold - 25k Plat 50k
Then from Jan 2001 to Dec 2002 it was Gold 20k and Plat 40k
Then it changed to 30k

I'm going to take a stab at some estimated sales here...

Joshua Tree - 130k
Rattle and Hum - 90k?
Achtung Baby - 80k
Zooropa - 40k
Pop - 60k
Best of 80-90 - 130k
ATYCLB - 85k
Best of 90-00 - 60k
HTDAAB - 60k

 

[ChargedVT]

There has been a bit of talk about French sales for U2 albums in recent months. Well, I dug up this old article from early 1999, it concerns the Best of 1980-1990...



Source : YouTwo.net

Thanks to Al Leclerc who is reporting the following information on the French Charts :

The album scored as belows in the french albums chart (which combines albums & compilation charts) : 1-1-4-3-3-3-3-3-6-4

The single Sweetest thing peaked at no. 18 in his first week of release and is this week at no. 99

The three formats of the album (double CD/B-sides, CD & K7) sold a cumulative 732 000 so far (which largelly outsold the George Michael and Mariah Carey best of).

These figures make The Best of 1980-90 one of the fastest selling international album of the recent french chart history. During the period it was only devanced by 2 albums of the french musical ’Notre Dame de Paris’(studio and live set).

This make the ’Best of’ the best selling U2 album of the 90s (Achtung Baby sold 629 000, Zooropa sold 450 000 and Pop sold 322 000 in France).

 

[fitz]

So, Joshua Tree's last certification was 1995. 10 years later, about 530 weeks with average sales of ca. 2,300, means, that about additional 1,2 M should be sold, or?

 

[mosquito]

Lastly, I know you and I disagree on this, but I feel that I must present the opposing view. Per my understanding of SoundScan, while you are correct in that in the early days SoundScan only monitored 40% of the country, they would then extrapolate their data to account for the ENTIRE country. In other words, if they saw 90,000 copies sold - and that 118,000 represented the sales in 40% of the available music stores that were monitored - then they would estimate sales of 295,000 for the entire country. This is exactly what happened with AB in its first week. That 295,000 copies does NOT represent sales in only 40% of the stores, but rather for the whole country. It was calculated based on the SoundScan data gathered and then extrapolated. Yes, this is still not very accurate, but far better than having "estimates" based on music retailers, who were often biased and could be bought.

Then, Why achtung baby was certified 8 times platinum years ago?If had sold 5,4 million copies, it must be 5 platinum.

 

[STING2]

Then, Why achtung baby was certified 8 times platinum years ago?If had sold 5,4 million copies, it must be 5 platinum.

Because Soundscan only covered part of the market back in the early 1990s and did not have full coverage like it does today until the end of 1995. The point here is that Soundscan did not count all the copies that were sold. In addition, record clubs sold a lot of albums in the early to mid 1990s and were never tracked by soundscan.

Soundscan figures are only an accurate reflection of total sales from 1996 onward.

 

[doctorwho]

Doc, Sting says in his post that the R&H figure is from May 2005.

Gotcha - I completely misread that.

In that case - wow! Why on earth is R&H selling so well in this recent tour era, while AB and the remaining albums are not?

 

[04072511]

Even during 1995-1997 only 75%-85% was being counted by soundscan.

 

[STING2]

Gotcha - I completely misread that.

In that case - wow! Why on earth is R&H selling so well in this recent tour era, while AB and the remaining albums are not?

The sales of the other albums are over a two year period including a time period when U2 was not heavily in the news prior to the release of HTDAAB.

In contrast, the sales of Rattle And Hum are only from the period of May to December of 2005 when U2 was on a major tour and being promoted on all sorts of formats.

Sales for the Joshua Tree over the same May to December period averaged about 3,000 copies per week.

 

[STING2]

Even during 1995-1997 only 75%-85% was being counted by soundscan.

Soundscan was covering 75% by mid 1993. The 85% level of coverage was reached by mid 1995.

 

[fedeu2]

The question still remains. Does soundscan extrapolate its data to 100% or not??

Soundscan was covering 75% by mid 1993. The 85% level of coverage was reached by mid 1995.

 

[edge3]

Based on the numbers you provided, the sum is 21.5M. So does this 30M number include sales from HTDAAB? If so, then that means 5.5M in sales must be from the two "Best Of" albums. Based on RIAA certifications, this seems right, but just wanted to clarify. Thanks!

Yes, it does include HTDAAB so the other 5.5m should be from Best Of's... possibly something like :

80-90 : 2.7m (1CD) + 1.4m (2CD) = 4.1m
90-00 : 600k (1CD) + 800k (2CD) = 1.4m

Btw, Hanboo actually only said that those JT & R&H numbers are from Dec 2005. For those other figures i've only really assumed that they're also from Dec 2005 because he's also updated them in the same place at the same time.

 

[edge3]

The question still remains. Does soundscan extrapolate its data to 100% or not??

I'm sure they didn't do this for albums released back in the early to mid 90's : there are quite few albums from this period where SS sales are quite a bit less than shipments. Best Example ? Nirvana's Nevermind definitely had SS sales of under 7m when it was certified 10m. Just like AB's 5m vrs 8m... & both were released around the time SS started.

 

[mosquito]

The soundscan total numbers are since january 1, 1991 or since may 91 when billboard started to use soundscan for their charts?
Thank you.

 

[edge3]

There has been a bit of talk about French sales for U2 albums in recent months. Well, I dug up this old article from early 1999, it concerns the Best of 1980-1990...



Source : YouTwo.net

Thanks to Al Leclerc who is reporting the following information on the French Charts :

The album scored as belows in the french albums chart (which combines albums & compilation charts) : 1-1-4-3-3-3-3-3-6-4

The single Sweetest thing peaked at no. 18 in his first week of release and is this week at no. 99

The three formats of the album (double CD/B-sides, CD & K7) sold a cumulative 732 000 so far (which largelly outsold the George Michael and Mariah Carey best of).

These figures make The Best of 1980-90 one of the fastest selling international album of the recent french chart history. During the period it was only devanced by 2 albums of the french musical ’Notre Dame de Paris’(studio and live set).

This make the ’Best of’ the best selling U2 album of the 90s (Achtung Baby sold 629 000, Zooropa sold 450 000 and Pop sold 322 000 in France).

Interesting... i think those AB & Pop figures are too low though : i believe the current 1m figure for AB (certainly above 800k anyway) & Pop sold 350k in '97 alone (16th on EOY best seller list).

 

[edge3]

I'm sure they didn't do this for albums released back in the early to mid 90's : there are quite few albums from this period where SS sales are quite a bit less than shipments. Best Example ? Nirvana's Nevermind definitely had SS sales of under 7m when it was certified 10m. Just like AB's 5m vrs 8m... & both were released around the time SS started.

Correction : i missed the 'a' there, so what i actually meant was that "...there are quite a few albums from this period where SS sales are quite a bit less than shipments..."

 

[STING2]

The question still remains. Does soundscan extrapolate its data to 100% or not??

No, I don't believe they do. Soundscan gives exact figures. If it was extrapolating, they would not be giving exact figures and would be rounding to the nearest thousand or so.

 

[fedeu2]

You´ve got a point here.
So the only exact sale figures are obtained from Billboard?

No, I don't believe they do. Soundscan gives exact figures. If it was extrapolating, they would not be giving exact figures and would be rounding to the nearest thousand or so.

 

[STING2]

You´ve got a point here.
So the only exact sale figures are obtained from Billboard?

They come from Soundscan and sometimes they are reprinted in Billboard.

 

[fedeu2]

That´s what I suspected.
So basically, there are no means to get completely accurate numbers in regards sales to consumers. There´s always RIAA but they deal with shipped copies.

They come from Soundscan and sometimes they are reprinted in Billboard.

 

[Popmartijn]

Nowadays, Soundscan numbers are accurate.

 

[fedeu2]

I meant inaccurate in the sense that they don´t account for 100% of sales to consumers.

Nowadays, Soundscan numbers are accurate.

 

[Popmartijn]

With products like this, it's never possible to get 100% accurate sales. So 95%+ accuracy is good enough.

 

[fedeu2]

I would agree with that.
But then, the most significant commercial parameter is shipped copies. Unless the record companies make mistakes when counting the units

With products like this, it's never possible to get 100% accurate sales. So 95%+ accuracy is good enough.

 

[edge3]

Well, it now seems to me that a couple of the chart experts at UKMIX.com are saying the same as what Dr Who said : that they do, & always have, extrapolated the figures. This would mean that the current 5,414,000 total for AB is more or less the exact number of over the counter sales to date.

However what this doesn't include is the extra number of copies sold through Music Clubs & such like (such as BMG). So, basically, for it to have been certified 8xPlat in Aug ' 97 AB must have sold another approx 3 million through the Music Clubs & such like, up to this point.

Unfortunatley UKMIX.com doesn't have any available sales for AB through the Music Clubs & such like although they do for other top selling albums, incl. JT.

So surely the figures do exist... anyone got them ? If so please post them here. Thx in advance.