Queen :: Charts & Sales History

[slightlymad]

Hernan, again a wonderful post regarding Queen's UK sales, wether we will ever get Queen's UK album sales confirmed officially is another matter but I think you would be pretty close. Out of interest do you have a yearly breakdown of Queen's UK sales that reaches the 25 million you suggest as there total sales?

Another question for all you Queen experts out there, do we have sales totals for all of Queen's USA compilations, below is a list of what i know has been released so far, so any totals?

1981 - Greatest Hits 6970399 (9-6-2012)
1984 - Collection 15 of the Best
1992 - Classic Queen 3,274,000 (May 2007)
1992 - Greatest Hits (Red Cover)
1994 - Greatest Hits 1&2 886,000 (Feb 2007)
1997 - Rocks 69,000 (Dec 2007)
1999 - Greatest Hits 3 130,000 (Dec 2007)
2000 - The Platinum Collection 797773 (19-05-2012)
2004 - Greatest Hits WWRY Edition 1080007 (9-6-2012)
2006 - Stone Cold Classics 101,000 (Dec 2007)
2007 - A-Z of Queen
2009 - Absolute Greatest
2011 - Greatest Hits 2

Any updates on the above would be very interesting, also is the Greatest Hits total a combination of the 1981 and 1992 issues?

[HUR]

Thank you for the list. No "We Are The Champions", I can't believe it.

Jimmy, thank you for the comment. Not sure if I understand you, but yes, the fact that some nineties annual sales were based on the Top 1000 would have caused several albums to be excluded in the UK.

Anyway, this is I'm talking about for the rest:

In another forum, I wondered whether Queen were the real best selling album act of the nineties in the UK or not.

I know it is a tough thing to claim, but the more I look heavily into it, the more I believe Queen sold just as many albums as Oasis in the UK during that decade.

If we combine albums and music videos, I'm definitely sure Queen sold just as many, perhaps more.

I explained my position with several detailed messages, loaded with what we are all here for: sales numbers and their interpretation:

Firstly I said this:

Queen during the nineties in the UK

Is it possible that Queen were the real best selling album act during the nineties in the UK? Or if not: weren't they closer to Oasis than it is generally assumed?

I know that the crown belongs to Oasis, officially at least. Based on a ranking that was posted during early 2000 (I believe) which looked as follows:

UK Top Selling Albums Acts - January 1990 - December 1999
1 (1) Oasis – 8,170,000 (7,540,000by July 1998)
2 (2) Simply Red – 7,960,000 (7,420,000)
3 (4) Madonna – 7,470,000 (6,520,000)
4 (5) Celine Dion – 7,300,000 (6,330,000)
5 (3) Queen – 7,290,000 (6,580,000)

These numbers weren't exact, but as close as they could be and based on a ranking that had already been published in July 1998: where Oasis were listed with 7,540,000 albums sold and Queen with 6,583,000. I have also seen another list with Oasis at 8,358,000 copies sold How accurate were those numbers? No idea. But I have found some irregularities myself.

Firstly, the simplest part: I know some people disagree with me, but I personally consider "Five Live" to be an album, not a single, as opposed to the official chart compilers in the UK. For what it is worth, the mini album appeared on the albums charts in most countries (with UK and Ireland being two exceptions).

"Five Live" actually sold 379,000 during 1993 and, I think, was later upgraded to about 420,000 copies sold.

If that figure is added to what Queen were supposed to have sold by late 1999 (7,290,000 albums), we get approximately 7,710,000 total sales for Queen, a bit closer to what Oasis achieved.

Now the tricky things:

These decades sales are supposed to exclude music club sales; plus, more important, at least from 1994 to 1999 only the annual Top 1000 was used, which means that any album that failed to make it, will have been excluded from Hit Music's annual charts.

From Hit Music, these were Queen's annual sales:

1994 - 351,000
1995 - 1,403,000 (using 19 as a multiplier, instead of 18)
1996 - 380,000
1997 - 320,000
1998 - 200,000
1999 - 615,000

Total - 3,260,000 albums sold.

The thing is that when I add the rough sales for their 'main' albums during those six years, I get this:

Greatest Hits - 595,000
Greatest Hits II - 450,000
Made In Heaven - 1,330,000
Queen Rocks - 225,000
Greatest Hits III - 413,000
Greatest Hits I & II - 100,000

These six albums accounted for as many as 3,113,000 copies sold. Out of 3,260,000 achieved for that time frame. Nearly all of Queen sales. These are based on some educated sales guesses and using annual figures as a basis. I think they are spot on, if you ask me.

For example, "Made In Heaven" was listed with 1,100,000 in 1995 and a further 170,000 sold for 1996. Plus, in a decade to date chart of January 1998, it was given 1,320,000 copies. So my 1,330,000 sales would probably be correct by the end of 1999.

"Greatest Hits I & II" had retail sales of 132,000 by 2009, most of which were reached during the nineties. So, again, a total of 100,000 is fine.

"Queen Rocks" sold 170,000 in 1997 and with some further sales (not very remarkable) in 1998 and 1999, I estimated roughly 225,000.

"Greatest Hits III" was released in late 1999 and achieved sales of 413,000 units. Which is what I have listed above. And so on. I think that when it comes to these Hit Music's various rankings, my individual albums sales are reasonably fine.

The problem is that with 3,260,000 sold for that time frame and as many as 3,113,000 coming from those six albums, we are only left with a mere 147,000 for the rest of their back catalogue. Basically, all their old studio and live albums.

This can be seen when looking at some yearly sales in detail.

In 1996, Queen sold 380,000 albums, including 340,000 coming from three albums: "Made In Heaven" with 170,000 sold; "Greatest Hits" with 100,000; and "Greatest Hits II" with 70,000 (all of them made the annual Top 150). In total, only 40,000 left for their other albums. And with others, we also have to include "Greatest Hits I & II", a double box set that sold very well and charted during 5 weeks in 1996.

Even weirder in 1999. Queen sold 615,039 albums during that year, with 598,427 coming from three compilations: "Greatest Hits III" (412,487 sold), "Greatest Hits" (101,595), "Greatest Hits II" (84,345). Again, only 16,612 left for their other albums including not only all their 15 studio albums and 4 live albums, but "Greatest Hits I & II" (which charted at number 127 in 1999 and spent 2 weeks) and "Queen Rocks" (released in 1997).

Obviously, I don't need to explain much further than this to show there is absolutely no way all of the other Queen albums (14 studio albums and 4 live albums) sold only a mere 147,000 during the period between 1994 and 1999.

Part of this can be explained by the use of the Top 1000 to compile the yearly totals from 1994 to 1999, which naturally missed out any album that didn't sell enough to make those annual charts.

This isn't much of a problem for Oasis because they had only released a handful of albums by 1999 and it is very likely that none of them ever missed any Top 1000, so they don't have significant sales missing through that way.

By comparison, I have been able to collect all of Queen's net shipments figures from 1994 to 1999. This is coming from a big contributor, Tatty73, who has provided us with some of the most significative and accurate numbers ever posted on here. If you are reading this, Jimmy, thank you for all you have supplied, incredibly valuable information.

This is what the net shipments (through both shops and clubs) were between 1994 and 1999:

1994 – 573,712
1995 – 1,383,047
1996 – 908,935
1997 – 586,880
1998 – 481,539
1999 – 773,981

Total – 4,708,094

These sales include some 700,000 through music clubs, leaving a healthy 4,000,000 via shops.

Whilst their retail sales are supposed to have totalled to 3,260,000 during 1994 and 1999, their net shipments are clearly higher and not just because of the club sales; in fact, as big as 4,708,094 albums sold.

Let's compare them below:

Retail sales: 3,260,000
Net shipments to shops: 4,000,000
Net shipments to both avenues: 4,708,094

Even more: while all of of Queen studio and live albums are supposed to have reached a cumulative 147,000 sold between 1994 and 1999 (if we trust Hit Music), Tatty73's net shipments indicate that all their 19 back catalogue albums (released between 1973 and 1992) managed to sell 809,976 copies altogether (I can post a detailed breakdown of that).

A big discrepancy: 145,000 against more than 800,000 back catalogue sales.

And this is just for the 1994 to 1999 time frame, when Queen were hot but not quite as much as they were during the early part of the decade, for obvious reasons.

If we use Hit Music as our guide, Queen would appear to have sold 4,030,000 albums between 1990 and 1993 (plus at least 379,000 of "Five Live", which would represent a combined 4,409,000 sold).

But I have no idea how was that amount arrived at; and I don't know whether it is only retail sales (and what multiplier was used) or some club sales were indirectly accounted for. I have no clue, either, whether Gallup held this total during the early nineties or these numbers were retrospectively changed afterwards.

Anyway, knowing that Hit Music had a mere 3,260,000 from 1994 and 1999 despite their real sales being obviously higher, not sure what to make out of this early period: 1990 and 1993, which was a significant one for Queen in terms of sales. If retail sales were 4,409,000 during the years 1990, 1991, 1992 and 1993, the net shipments equivalents may have been higher, probably 4,500,000 to 4,750,000 copies sold.

Of course, I'm not forgetting that Oasis' net shipments will also have been bigger than what their retail sales were between 1994 and 1999. I think they easily sold 900,000 to 1,000,000 via clubs. My point is that Queen, for all I have explained above, obviously have more missing sales than Oasis. For instance, they sold 700,000 through music clubs just during the second half of the decade, which means that with the first four years added in (1990 to 1993), they are likely to have either equalled or bettered Oasis' sales via that avenue.

I'm not forgetting about Simply Red, Madonna and Celine Dion either. But they are all in a similar position to Oasis: apart from the albums released during the nineties, they had a smaller catalogue than Queen, so I don't think they have as many missing sales as them between 1994 and 1999 and I doubt they sold as many copies through Britannia (except perhaps Madonna).

If we combine albums with music videos sales, I think Queen can easily have outsold Oasis during the nineties.

Any thoughts?

Another one:

I would like to add this to the above:

Further to what I explained above, I have found other ways to look at it.

If we blindly trust these annual sales, we would have to believe that all their old studio and live albums, released between 1973 and 1992, sold only 147,000 copies altogether (give or take a few thousands).

But what happened in 2000 to 2010 for a comparison?

These were Queen's annual album sales:

2000 – 437,000
2001 – 300,000 (approximately)
2002 – 930,000
2003 – 471,000
2004 – 400,000 (approximately)
2005 – 620,000
2006 – 640,000
2007 – 408,357
2008 – 363,830
2009 – 661,468
2010 – 185,000

Total – 5,415,000

So Queen sold about 5,415,000 albums during 11 years.

Including:

Platinum Collection – 1,685,000
Absolute Greatest – 680,000
Greatest Hits – 820,000
Greatest Hits III – 253,000
Greatest Hits II – 350,000 (estimated)
Queen On Fire – 100,000 (estimated)
Return Of The Champions – 80,000 (estimated)
Queen Rock Montreal – 40,000 (estimated)
Greatest Hits I & II and Queen Rocks – 25,000 (estimated)

Total for these 10 albums – 4,033,000 copies sold

With 5,415,000 sold within those years, this leaves a healthy 1,400,000 for their rest of their back catalogue.

Does anybody believe that all these old studio and live albums pass from selling roughly 145,000 copies between 1994 and 1999 (24,000 units a year) to 1,400,000 from 2000 to 2010 (127,000 a year)?

I find it irrealistic.

Between 1984 and 1990, Queen sold about 5,155,000 albums in the UK. Including roughly 2,691,000 coming from the back catalogue (more than half), which can be broken down as follows: 1,065,000 for Greatest Hits (20%) and 1,628,000 for their studio and live albums (31%).

By periods, this is how Queen's studio and live 'back catalogue' sales looked like:

1984 to 1990 – 1,628,000
1994 to 1999 – 147,000
2000 to 2011 – 1,400,000

Am I the only who sees a problem with the second one?

And the last one:

As I do have all the net shipments figures for those six albums, between 1994 and 1999, I thought it would be great to share them and make a comparison.

As far as Jimmypages59's annual sales are concerned, this is what those albums sold within those six years:

Net shipments to shops, without club sales (except for Greatest Hits II and the double Greatest Hits I & II, which do include Britannia sales)

Greatest Hits – 654,441
Greatest Hits II – 751,147 with club sales added in
Made In Heaven – 1,241,081 (with shop sales supposed to have been 1,320,000 by January 1998, ha)
Queen Rocks – 249,447
Greatest Hits III – 413,384
Greatest Hits I & II – 176,507

Total net shipments – 3,487,007

Unfortunately, I hold no separate club sales for Greatest Hits II or Greatest Hits I & II, so the above total do include them. For what it is worth, Greatest Hits had club sales of 231,904 units between 1994 and 1999, and I would expect Greatest Hits II to have achieved more than 200,000 (perhap as high as 250,000) during that period; with Greatest Hits I & II also doing a couple of thousands.

Remove those sales via clubs, and the above total of 3,487,007 will diminish to 3,200,000 to 3,250,000 in total.

So we have estimated retail sales of 3,113,000 for those six albums, with net shipments of 3,200,000. Everything neat and somehow reasonable.

Completely different story from their studio and live 'back catalogue' albums.

Whilst shop sales are supposed to have been a dismal 147,000 copies sold between 1994 and 1999, their net shipments totals are more than 800,000 with club sales added in and nearly 700,000 without them. Too much of a big discrepancy compared to what I have shown above in relation to what their main six albums sold via retail and net shipments.

Am I the only who believes that Queen have arguably sold (way) more than 7,290,000 albums during the whole of the nineties, especially during the years between 1994 and 1999? Am I the only one who thinks that Queen were possibly closer to Oasis than they are supposed to have been? To me, it is obvious: both things are right and Queen sold clearly more than 7 million and they were up there with Oasis, if not ahead, when all is said and done.

Just some views.

[LostAvenger]

PPL REVEAL MOST PLAYED QUEEN SONGS

As Great Britain celebrates 60 years of Her Majesty’s reign, music licensing company PPL reveals which of her namesake band’s hits are the most played by the British public.

The band Queen are almost as universally loved as Queen Elizabeth herself. Formed in 1971, their style of glam stadium rock has influenced the work of many. They have had 18 number one albums and 18 number one singles making them one of the world's biggest selling bands.

Despite lead singer Freddie Mercury's untimely death in 1991, Queen have continued to perform with various guest vocalists including Paul Rogers and more recently, Adam Lambert. For the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, lead guitarist Brian May famously played the National Anthem from the rooftop of Buckingham Palace
.
The top ten most played Queen songs are:

1) A Kind Of Magic
2) Don't Stop Me Now
3) Under Pressure
4) I Want To Break Free
5) Bohemian Rhapsody
6) Killer Queen
7) Somebody To Love
8) Radio Ga Ga
9) We Will Rock You
10) You're My Best Friend

"Queen are undeniably one of the greatest bands Britain has ever produced," said Jonathan Morrish, Director of PR and Corporate Communications at PPL. "These really are classics and show how their music has been such a part of people's lives. These songs make the perfect soundtrack to a Jubilee party this week."

A Kind Of Magic was released in 1986 for the film Highlander and reached number three in the UK singles chart. The top ten tracks are compiled from PPL's exclusive data which includes TV, radio and online usage as well as songs played in bars, shops, restaurants, gyms and other public places that use music.

[jimmypages59]

Actually the answer, someone gave you about Hitmusic discounting sales, Top 1000. There is one year that does seem too far out though.

[jimmypages59]

Hur, I ******* love Queen, 2nd best band ever! Slowly coming round, too maybe the best......

[HUR]

So, if that were the case, what would you put Pink Floyd, The Beatles, U2, The Stones and so on at? would you downgrade them all by 20%?

Yes, absolutely. All those bands sold less too, in my opinion.

According to a Norwegian newspaper (Afterposten), Queen's "Absolute Greatest" ranked amongst the best selling albums of 2009 in Norway.

While not officially certified, "Absolute Greatest" sold 27,383 copies during that year alone.

Link: http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/musikk ... 37yYvs9WSo.

Courtesy of Pierpinto.

[nucleardolphin]

So, if that were the case, what would you put Pink Floyd, The Beatles, U2, The Stones and so on at? would you downgrade them all by 20%?

[HUR]

Thank you, Nucleardolphin. Yes, not too sure about those numbers on knowrb.net; I guess they are points based on charts positions (I imagine for each song or album at Top 10, 50, 100 or 400 you get a certain amount of points per country).

I think my worldwide sales totals are realistic, overall. But yes, you always have MJDangerous as an alternative source (I wouldn't trust Brian May myself). But then in that case, MJDangerous also estimated Abba at 130 million albums sold, ahead of what I gave them (100 to 105 million worldwide).

My point is that, whichever approach we use, I believe Queen have clearly sold more albums and records than Abba on a worldwide basis, even if the latter are amongst the biggest artists ever without any doubt. Just a personal opinion.

[nucleardolphin]

HUR don't you think that 140 million for Queen is pretty low? MJD put Queen at 170 several years ago. I understood Brian May recently mentioned that it was also about 170 as well. Anyway, the other thing was that link was superb, you can stick in whatever band you want and get the worldwide stats on where they are charting with whichever album or song. The only thing is I don't really understand quite what all the numbers mean! Nice to be back!!

[HUR]

Great, Loris. "Absolute Greatest" is indeed still going.

In the Abba sales topic, some members are comparing the sales of that group to Queen's (including me), I don't want to turn into an invader there so I will make some considerations in here. I said this:

I think, with due respect, that Queen have sold more records than Abba worldwide. But well, we are entitled to different views, as Zeus555 said. In my opinion, Queen's sales are like this:

Albums – 140 million
Singles – 40
Videos – 10
Digital – 25

Abba would be like this:

Albums – 110 million
Singles – 50
Videos – 5
Digital – 15

Some numbers are conservative, but for both acts.

Looking at the albums sales, I think I was kind to Abba in some way. I made a point about the largest markets: USA, UK, Japan, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Italy and Spain.

These are, in my opinion, the albums sales for Queen in those ten countries:

USA – 40,000,000
UK – 25,000,000
Japan – 5,000,000
Germany – 13,500,000
France – 7,000,000
Canada – 5,000,000
Australia – 3,000,000
Netherlands – 4,500,000
Italy – 6,000,000
Spain – 3,500,000

Total – 112,500,000

As for Abba, I think they are as follows:

USA – 17,500,000
UK – 17,000,000
Japan – 7,000,000 (?)
Germany – 11,000,000
France – 4,000,000
Canada – 3,500,000
Australia – 4,500,000
Netherlands – 3,750,000
Italy – 1,500,000
Spain – 1,250,000

Total – 72,500,000

So I honestly think that Queen will have outsold Abba by some 40,000,000 in those ten countries.

Estimated totals for Germany are conservative for boths acts. In the case of Abba, sales may look small for both Italy and Spain, but those two have never been particular great for them.

When I estimate Queen at 140,000,000 and Abba at 110,000,000, I was actually implying a worldwide gap of 30,000,000. Which means that I'm assuming that Abba are able to narrow the difference in the ten biggest markets by 10,000,000 copies sold. In other words: I'm estimating that Abba sold more albums than Queen outside of the ten largest territories.

But I'm sure that is incorrect. No Scandinavian sales help Abba, in my opinion.

For example: in Sweden, I guess Abba sold nearly 5,000,000 albums altogether, while I think Queen are likely to have sold not far more than 1,000,000. A gap of 4,000,000. So Sweden makes up for something, no doubt.

But then again, I believe Queen sold easily more albums in Latin America as a whole. In Brazil and Argentina they certainly did, for instance.

In Asia things are more complicated due to the lack of information; but in one of the few countries we have some details for both acts (South Korea) there isn't much of a big gap at all. In fact, sales look to be more favourable toward Queen. In addition, something that may not play in Abba's favour: when they were at their peak, sales in that continent were very small. No idea as to whether Queen sold more albums than Abba in Asia (outside Japan) or viceversa; but due to the above –and sales not being particularly strong for foreign acts-, the gap shouldn't really be that big either way and definitely not enough to make an impact on the biggest markets' sales results.

We also have the rest of Continental and Eastern Europe: countries like Portugal, Swtitzerland, Austria, Greece, Ireland, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic (formerly known as Czechoslovakia), Lithuania and so on.

In some of them I'm sure Queen sold easily more. In Portugal, they easily did in my opinion; and the same goes to Switzerland and especially Austria.

No idea about Africa and the Middle East. Abba were easily bigger in Zimbabwe. But I don't have many details and I doubt sales are particularly good.

Consequently, I think that much of what Abba achieved in Scandinavia is compensated with Latin America and several countries of Continental Europe. And so on.

So, on the whole, I would say that as far as albums sales are concerned, Queen may have outsold Abba by 35,000,000 to 40,000,000 copies on a worldwide basis. Just an opinion, after years of going through both bands.

On that Abba's topic there are two persons putting down Queen's singles sales too. In my opinion, Queen may have sold 40 million physical worldwide and roughly 25 million digital downloads, for a combined 65 million. Not many groups have sold more singles than Queen worldwide, from my own point of view. Either physical, digital or both combined.

Not sure why, time and time, several users like to pick on Queen. But they are entitled to it; I just wanted to share some views.

[loris39]

Thanks for the link of the website kworb.net Hernαn: it's really excellent

I see that Absolute Greatest is still obtaining fairly good results, notwithstanding the 2011 compilations remasters.

[HUR]

Thank you, Loris. "Under Pressure" being so close to their top songs is, I guess, just a 2012 thing as otherwise I don't understand how it is that far away from "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Will Rock You" in terms of cumulative sales.

More digital information. This is how Queen are doing right now on the various itunes Top 400:

Lithuania (41)

Albums:

1. The Platinum Collection
229. Absolute Greatest

Bulgaria (35)

Songs:

82. Bohemian Rhapsody
149. Too Much Love Will Kill You
166. Love of My Life
170. I Want It All
262. We Are the Champions
268. Somebody to Love
273. A Kind of Magic
296. Heaven for Everyone
302. The Show Must Go On
338. Don't Stop Me Now

Albums:

22. The Platinum Collection
220. Jazz
231. A Night At the Opera
256. Innuendo
315. Absolute Greatest

Chile (33)

Songs:

167. Bohemian Rhapsody
235. I Want to Break Free
260. We Are the Champions
326. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

9. The Platinum Collection
48. Queen: Greatest Hits
383. Absolute Greatest

Argentina (23)

Songs:

136. Bohemian Rhapsody
241. Bohemian Rhapsody
243. Don't Stop Me Now
373. Under Pressure

Albums:

22. The Platinum Collection
98. Queen: Greatest Hits
292. Greatest Hits II

Czech Republic (22)

Songs:

132. We Will Rock You
156. Bohemian Rhapsody
189. We Are the Champions
231. I Want to Break Free
235. Radio Ga Ga

Albums:

21. Absolute Greatest
228. Queen: Greatest Hits II

Colombia (20)

Songs:

181. Bohemian Rhapsody
398. We Are the Champions

Albums:

26. The Platinum Collection
88. Queen: Greatest Hits

Latvia (19)

Songs:

60. The Show Must Go On
61. I Want It All
132. Under Pressure

Albums:

139. Absolute Greatest
202. The Platinum Collection

Bolivia (18)

Songs:

118. Love of My Life

Albums:

82. Queen: Greatest Hits II
95. Queen: Greatest Hits
126. Absolute Greatest

Peru (17)

Songs:

167. Bohemian Rhapsody
250. I Want to Break Free

Albums:

36. The Platinum Collection
52. Queen: Greatest Hits
271. Live At Wembley Stadium

Malta (16)

Songs:

116. We Will Rock You
299. Don't Stop Me Now

Albums:

71. The Platinum Collection
109. Queen: Greatest Hits
223. Greatest Hits III
259. Absolute Greatest
340. Queen: Greatest Hits II

Romania (16)

Songs:

122. We Will Rock You
163. I Want to Break Free
169. We Are the Champions
194. Don't Stop Me Now
267. Another One Bites the Dust
285. Killer Queen

Albums:

233. The Platinum Collection
355. Absolute Greatest

Dominican Republic (15)

Songs:

85. Bohemian Rhapsody
120. Another One Bites the Dust
195. We Will Rock You
243. We Are the Champions

Albums:

207. The Platinum Collection
313. Queen: Greatest Hits

Ecuador (14)

Songs:

168. Somebody to Love

Albums:

19. The Platinum Collection
312. The Game

El Salvador (13)

Songs:

233. Flash
236. Killer Queen
237. A Kind of Magic
238. Crazy Little Thing Called Love
375. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

55. Absolute Greatest
264. Queen: Greatest Hits
339. The Platinum Collection

United Kingdom (11)

Songs:

294. Bohemian Rhapsody
334. Don't Stop Me Now

Albums:

74. The Platinum Collection
113. Queen: Greatest Hits

Ireland (11)

Songs:

202. Bohemian Rhapsody
261. Don't Stop Me Now

Albums:

93. The Platinum Collection
156. Queen: Greatest Hits

Italy (11)

Songs:

158. We Are the Champions
378. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

57. The Platinum Collection
234. Queen: Greatest Hits

Spain (11)

Songs:

194. I Want to Break Free
282. We Are the Champions
284. Bohemian Rhapsody
290. Don't Stop Me Now
314. We Will Rock You

Albums:

157. Queen: Greatest Hits
291. The Platinum Collection

Cyprus (10)

Songs:

68. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

110. The Platinum Collection
263. Queen: Greatest Hits

Poland (10)

Songs:

253. You Don't Fool Me

Albums:

66. The Platinum Collection
144. Absolute Greatest

Slovenia (10)

Songs:

175. Don't Stop Me Now
180. Bohemian Rhapsody
186. We Are the Champions

Albums:

209. The Platinum Collection

Hungary (10)

Albums:

19. The Platinum Collection

Slovakia (9)

Songs:

236. We Are the Champions
374. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

36. Absolute Greatest
354. A Night At the Opera

Norway (8)

Songs:

394. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

104. Absolute Greatest
107. Queen: Greatest Hits II
210. Queen: Greatest Hits

Belgium (7)

Songs:

299. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

96. The Platinum Collection

Greece (7)

Songs:

71. We Are the Champions

Albums:

308. Queen: Greatest Hits

Venezuela (7)

Albums:

54. Queen: Greatest Hits
328. Absolute Greatest

Guatemala (6)

Albums:

50. The Platinum Collection

Japan (6)

Albums:

87. Greatest Hits

Brazil (5)

Songs:

319. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

135. The Platinum Collection
337. Queen: Greatest Hits

Canada (5)

Songs:

397. We Will Rock You

Albums:

136. Queen: Greatest Hits
211. Queen: Absolute Greatest

Netherlands (5)

Songs:

176. We Are the Champions

Albums:

205. The Platinum Collection
207. Queen: Greatest Hits

New Zealand (5)

Songs:

325. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

137. The Platinum Collection
264. Queen: Greatest Hits

Costa Rica (4)

Songs:

272. Under Pressure

Albums:

152. Absolute Greatest

France (4)

Songs:

317. Bohemian Rhapsody
350. Another One Bites the Dust

Albums:

348. The Platinum Collection
365. Queen: Greatest Hits II

Mexico (4)

Songs:

229. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

173. Queen: Greatest Hits

Panama (4)

Songs:

174. We Are the Champions

Albums:

271. The Platinum Collection

Denmark (4)

Albums:

189. Queen: Greatest Hits
210. The Platinum Collection

United States (3)

Songs:

332. Bohemian Rhapsody

Albums:

205. Queen: Greatest Hits
326. The Platinum Collection

Estonia (3)

Songs:

335. Rock It

Albums:

250. The Platinum Collection
330. Absolute Greatest

Australia (3)

Albums:

139. Queen: Greatest Hits

Austria (3)

Albums:

123. Queen: Greatest Hits

Nicaragua (3)

Albums:

119. The Platinum Collection

Portugal (3)

Albums:

192. The Platinum Collection

Luxembourg (2)

Albums:

293. Queen: Greatest Hits
391. The Platinum Collection

Finland (1)

Albums:

238. The Platinum Collection

Germany (1)

Albums:

308. The Platinum Collection

Honduras (1)

Albums:

279. Queen: Greatest Hits

Paraguay (1)

Albums:

294. Queen: Greatest Hits

Sweden (1)

Albums:

335. Queen: Greatest Hits

Switzerland (1)

Albums:

293. The Platinum Collection

Link: http://kworb.net/itunes/queen.html

[loris39]

Billboard Charts Catalog from last week:

21 50 103 75 QUEEN GREATEST HITS 1963 -5 2063 6968620

6 119 121 147 QUEEN GREATEST HITS-WE WILL ROCK YOU 1502 -20 1884 1078470


Billboard Catalog Digital Albums from last week:

4 87 165 150 QUEEN PLATINUM COLLECTION 563 8 523 33271

Billboard Digital Tracks Catalog from last week:

173 65 68 63 QUEEN BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY 6645 2 6492 2454651

19 162 182 122 QUEEN WE WILL ROCK YOU 5106 13 4526 2161194

2 156 QUEEN WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS 4713 30 3623 1337843

1 173 QUEEN & DAVID BOWIE UNDER PRESSURE 4529 49 3031 752431

2 195 QUEEN ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST 4197 2 4115 1366096


Billboard Charts Catalog from this week :

22 103 75 107 QUEEN GREATEST HITS 1779 -9 1963 6970399

7 121 147 153 QUEEN GREATEST HITS-WE WILL ROCK YOU 1537 2 1502 1080007

Digital Tracks Catalog:

174 68 63 91 QUEEN BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY 6160 -7 6645 2460811

20 182 122 191 QUEEN WE WILL ROCK YOU 4622 -9 5106 2165816

Here are the figures for the digital tracks of the year 2012:

Bohemian Rhapsody: 132,000;
Another One Bites The Dust: 21,000, only counting four weeks;
We Are The Champions: 21,000, only counting four weeks;
We Will Rock You: 108,000;
Under Pressure: 83,000;
Fat Bottomed Girls: 10,356, only counting two weeks.

Total: 375,000 digital downloads.

[HUR]

Great post as usual Hernan , the only thing i can add is that it was officially stated by EMI in an advert in music week that Queen sold 1,774,991 albums in the UK in 1986 and that Live Magic sold in excess of 300,000 copies that year!!. The Official Queen Fan Club reproduced the advert on one of there magazines front cover, below is a link to that magazine.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2906921741...84.m1423.l2648[/url]

Thank you again, Lee.

I know that figure from that 1986 in the UK for years (1,774,991 copies).

From EMI's old documents, someone let know their net shipments in the UK were actually 1,800,189 as far as albums are concerned, including 379,270 for "Live Magic" and 62,402 for "A Night At The Opera".

The net shipments of "Live Magic" and "A Kind Of Magic" combined were obviously above 1,100,000 units. Which still leaves a healthy 700,000 for their back catalogue in terms of shiments 1986 (although that year may not be a good measure because they reissued all their studio albums).

[slightlymad]

Great Start for the Queen Extravaganza in Canada!!

CURRENT BOXSCORE
Rank Artist/Event Venue City/State Event Dates Gross Sales Attend/
Capacity Shows/
Sellouts Prices Promoters

49 Queen Extravaganza Theatre St-Denis
Montreal, Quebec
May 27, 2012
$89,692
2,077 / 2,077
1 / 1
$52.92, $28.65
evenko

50 Queen Extravaganza Le Grand Theatre de Quebec
Quebec City, Quebec
May 26, 2012
$84,163
1,671 / 1,671
1 / 1
$53.03, $33.57
evenko

[Play]

Wow that's also something I'm hearing for the 1st time too!

[HUR]

Just discovered a very interesting Queen sales award on ebay, Hernan is this a figure you are aware of, if so i apologise.

Basically it's an official EMI UK sales award for Greatest Hits 2 for sales of inexcess of 300,000 copies through the music club Britannia, not shop sales but music club sales up until 1993.

Here is a link to the awardhttp://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Qu...item519f1e55e9

Hello Lee,

Amazing finding. No, I had no idea about it.

But man, 300,000 music club sales (in 1993) for an album released in late 1991 is a wild total. Plus, it is the first time I hear of a especial award intended to acknowledge club sales alone, and not overall total sales. We should remember it had gone five times platinum in June 1992, after shipping 1,500,000 copies in its home country.

Definitely not something I had ever heard about myself. Although, being it a 'in house award', I guess it should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Please, keep bringing what you find. And also, if you have an account on Haven, I would be obliged if you could also post it in there too. Link: http://fatherandy2.proboards.com/index. ... 347&page=3. The more Queen fans, the better.

[slightlymad]

Just discovered a very interesting Queen sales award on ebay, Hernan is this a figure you are aware of, if so i apologise.

Basically it's an official EMI UK sales award for Greatest Hits 2 for sales of inexcess of 300,000 copies through the music club Britannia, not shop sales but music club sales up until 1993.

Here is a link to the awardhttp://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Qu...item519f1e55e9

[slightlymad]

UK Album Chart

170. (193) GREATEST HITS I II & III - THE PLATINUM COLLECTION [REMASTERED] (Queen)

[nucleardolphin]

When will IFPI ever update Queen΄s album sales in Europe??? they are ridiculous!!!!!

[slightlymad]

Top Catalog Albums - 05/05/12 Billboard chart
163 QUEEN GREATEST HITS 1653-1 1672 6956331

Top Catalog Albums - 05/12/12 Billboard chart
5 QUEEN GREATEST HITS 5860 255 1653 6962191
55 QUEEN GREATEST HITS-WWRY 2317 82 1275 1073272
66 QUEEN PLATINUM COLLECTION 2220 131 963 796324

Top Catalog Albums - 05/19/12 Billboard chart
50 QUEEN GREATEST HITS 2403 -59 5860 6964594
119 QUEEN GREATEST HITS WWRY 1812 -22 2317 1075084
167 QUEEN PLATINUM COLLECTION 1449 -35 2220 797773

[HUR]

Something I posted on Haven forum but would also be nice to have here. A nice overview of what Queen achieved during the last ten years in the UK:

By my reckoning, Queen sold more than 8,700,000 records between 2002 and 2012.

Albums sales during the past ten years in the UK

2002 – 930,000
2003 – 471,000
2004 – 465,000
2005 – 620,000
2006 – 640,000
2007 – 408,357
2008 – 363,830
2009 – 661,468
2010 – 185,000
2011 and 2012 – 300,000 (estimated)

Total – 5,044,655

The number for 2004 comes from a BPI annual reprot compiled in early 2005. I know it doesn't fit the Music's annual ranking but it is the only thing I have. Hopefully, we will know, one day, the real sales of Queen in that missing year.

Their DVDs net shipments from 2002 to 2008 were, on a yearly basis, as follows:

2003 – 393,511
2004 – 230,435
2005 – 236,745
2006 – 86,588
2007 – 32,747
2008 – 34,052

Total – 1,020,469

These include The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, Greatest Video Hits, Made In Heaven: The Films, Live At Wembley, Greatest Video Hits II, Queen On Fire, Return Of The Champions, and A Night At The Opera. And they are from 2008, which means there are more than three years of sales missing.

And we need to add (this time coming from the Official Chart Company, retail sales). Totals up to 2010:

Queen Rock Montreal – 91,150 (including 11,150 on Blu-Ray)
Live In Ukraine – 17,000

All this totals to 1,128,619 copies.

Last year, Queen reissued their Live At Wembley DVD, which will have achieved at least 25,000; and Days Of Our Lives, with no more than 5,000.

With the back cataloue sales for 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, Queen have accumulated 1,200,000.

And we still have to add some marginal VHS sales.

So combining albums and music videos, the long and physical formats, Queen have reached sales of 6,244,000 in the UK from 2002 to 2012.

Plus, as stated in the third post of this thread, Queen sold 2,090,000 digital downloads by 2011; and 16 months after that, their tally should have increased to 2,500,000 tracks (assuming the Official Chart Company was right when they reported the figure in 2011).

Overall, Queen sold:

Albums – 5,044,000
DVD – 1,200,000
Digital downloads – 2,500,000

More than 8,744,000 records in the last ten years. Perhaps nearly 8,800,000 with the marginal VHS sales I mentioned.

I can't think of any old, classic band selling that many units from 2002 to 2012. Of course, U2, Oasis and even Coldplay are 'classic bands', but they have been heavily active during this last decade (plus, I'm not even sure if U2 or Oasis sold as many records as Queen during these last ten year I'm focusing on).

It never ceases to amaze me how achievements like the above pass completely unnoticed.

[zeus555]

Classical Singer Alfie Boe, & Girls Aloud Singer,
Kimberley Walsh, have covered Queen's 1985 Single,
'One Vision', as the Team GB's Single, for the 2012
Olympic Games.

LINK:,

http://www.officialcharts.com/chart-new ... ngle-1388/

Zeus555

[jimmypages59]

let us never lose the lessons we have learned.

[HUR]

Great summary.

I invite all my Queen fellows to join my Queen sales topic on Haven: http://fatherandy2.proboards.com/index. ... read=73347. Please, add your thoughts and suggestions. It gives us a nice chance to have all we know organized on a forum page.

As for USA digital sales:

When Queen were reported to have sold 10,203,000 digital downloads in the USA by September 2009, both "Bohemian Rhapsdoy" and "We Will Rock You" had accumulated combined sales of 3,400,000 by then (33 %).

Those two songs are now on 5,250,000 copies according to your above analysis.

If arithmetics are any help, that would suggest total digital sales for Queen in excess of 15,750,000 by now. But if other tracks haven't sold that well in the meantime, it could be lower than that.

Apart from those ten songs, I wonder what other tracks are selling these days in the United States. I guess "Keep Yourself Alive", "Stone Cold Crazy", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Play The Game", "Radio Ga-Ga", "I Want To Break Free", "Who Wants To Live Forever", "I Want It All", and "The Show Must Go On" are selling in decent quantities.

Although I would love to know how many digital units have Queen sold in Japan. Their combined numbers, with all formats added in, have to be very high altogether. Probably anything from 3,000,000 to 6,000,000.