I guess I am in the minority, but I think that TBT and SOE have done as well as can be expected. TBT is now up to #15 on HAC (all stations), or "Adult Top 40/Pop", and it's still rising. It also hit #1 on Adult Alternative, extending U2's own record to 13 #1 songs on that format, topping the likes of Coldplay, Beck, The Killers, etc.
TBT is no where near the best song on SOE, and GOOYOW is already up to 27 on Adult Alternative. IMHO, TBT is U2's biggest hit since Vertigo, and several of the songs from SOE have much more potential to outperform TBT on the radio.
HAC is the 3rd largest demographic now...and "AC" as well as "Rock" have seemingly been absorbed into other genres. Spent another day in the car today and Sirius XM's "The Spectrum" was playing the whole album and playing snippets of album and song reviews about every 20 minutes. DJ said "We are in our second day of dissecting and listening to the brand new U2 album."
I switched back from my own personal playing of the album, and then The Spectrum's take, and forth for about 4 hours. I personally love SOE and everything I heard from Sirius was very positive. As for lack of promotion outside the U.S., now that I've heard the album several times on a good stereo system, it just feels like U2 targeted the U.S. with SOE, not unlike what they did with JT, and at first I thought the jabs at Trump and U.S. politics was going to be over the top. Now I don't think that...nor do I hate American Soul like I thought I did on first listen.
Even though the relative sales numbers for all music have all but evaporated. it's still the metric to measure musical success, and SOE is #1 in the world. It is still #1 on I-tunes WW, too, so I'm not so sure it is going to plummet as far as some think it will in week #2. At least not on the Global Chart. Just the news of U2 having the #1 album in the world should help spread the word to casual fans that U2 has a new album. It should debut at #1 in at least 30 countries.
If "Love is bigger" catches on as a single, and I think that's possible, that could be a game changer. I'm obviously biased, as I really, really like SOE. It reminds me of AB in that I went out and bought the CD and kept listening to the whole album. Not skipping songs or replaying others...just the entire album. It flows nicely for me, and the last U2 album that made me feel that way was AB. Not saying SOE is better...it's just a damn good record imho.
So, yes, imho, U2 has over achieved by getting to #1 in the world with a new album. The bad press with the Apple thing, tax evasion, paradise papers, ET AL, not to mention them all being senior citizens & card carrying members of AARP, were issues that I figured had ended U2's relevance, especially in the U.S. market. I could not have been more wrong. And glad for them. SOE is a great album that gets better with each listen.