Queen :: Charts & Sales History

[HUR]

If Queen Hits I is now selling for around £5 compared with the initial price of £11.99 (or whatever) should sales not be halved to refelect this?

It is being sold at such a reduced price?. What are you waiting to pick up a copy?. Are you crazy?.

[HUR]

Australia, this week:

38 Queen - Greatest Hits: 1 158 units sold

Selling well since several weeks...

[brian05]

Russell Ash - the 'Top Ten Of Everything',
compiler - was sent the April 2008 Top 10 UK Albums
List - with their Sales. (The OCC sent them to him).
He has rounded some of them up, & some of them down.

Thanks for your explanation.

Now to be somewhat controversial!!

Is it right to include sales of albums which originally sold at full price with those selling at greatly reduced prices?

If Queen Hits I is now selling for around £5 compared with the initial price of £11.99 (or whatever) should sales not be halved to refelect this?

I have seen Sgt Pepper on sale for anything between £10 and £16. Imagine the big jump in sales if it was on sale for just £5.

I can't think of any other major artist that does not have their CDs reduced in price. You won't see Beatles studio CDs in the bargain bin.

With differential pricing we are not comparing like with like. Sales or income produced - which is more statistically correct?

EMI must have some policy that Beatles studio CDs will not be sold under a certain value (even after 45 years). Only their Hits CDs have been discounted.

[HUR]

Brian05, Russell Ash - the 'Top Ten Of Everything',
compiler - was sent the April 2008 Top 10 UK Albums
List - with their Sales. (The OCC sent them to him).
He has rounded some of them up, & some of them down.
It was for his Book - especially for it, that The
OCC up-dated the Top 10 Albums Totals in April.
However, for some reason, he has removed 400,000
Sales from The Beatles Album, at No.2! In April
he was definitely sent a figure of 4,899,665 for
it. He should have rounded that up - to 4,900,000.
Instead he's lowered it to 4,500,000 - a stupid
thing to do!!

Queen's 'Greatest Hits' (One) has not sold 43
Million copies. The biggest estimate I've seen
for it is 27.5 Million. The 'Top Ten Of Everything'
makes many mistakes. It takes a lot of its Data
from sources that are inaccurate. In the past, it
has sometimes said that Honshu, (largest of the
Islands that make Japan), is the 7th Biggest Island
in the World, & that Great Britain is the 8th. At
other times it says that Great Britain is 7th &
Honshu is 8th! How the 2 Islands can shrink & expand,
- within a few Years - I do not know!.

Globally, I've seen estimates for 'Greatest Hits
II', by Queen, of 16 Million to 22 Million. The 43
Million claim for 'Greatest Hits' (One), looks
suspiciously like the 16 Million figure for 'GHII'
being added to the 27.5 Million figure for the 1st
Queen 'Hits' Album, to me.

Zeus555

Maybe they added the "Greatest hits 1&2" and "Platinum collection" to the "Greatest hits 1" to get as much as 43,000,000 worldwide, which is still on the high side, of course, but not so much. It is just a claim...

Still "Greatest hits 1" had sold 25 million by september 2002, and by now roughly 30,000,000 worldwide.

There is no way "Greatest hits 2" sold "only" 16 million if you count "Classic queen" as part of its sales as it is always done for it. That album had some amazing runnings. And even adding certificatons only you get nearly as much as 15 million, so 16 million overall would look very low.

Europe: 12,700,000 (estimated by me in the previous page)
USA: 3,274,000 (retail sales alone, it should be more with some sales not sampled by Soundscan)
Canada: 1,200,000 (estimated by MJD)
Australia: 560,000
New Zealand: 165,000
Argentina: 650,000
Brazil: 750,000
Mexico: 500,000
South Africa: 100,000+
Japan: 100,000
Singapore: 20,000+
Honk Kong: 20,000+

Look how strong it was every single market, notably in Latin America. In Argentina, in the top 10 in early 1992, there were 3 Queen records charting simultaneously including that one, just to show theor strong selling power...

[HUR]

Here is "Made in heaven" re-estimated in Europe:

UK: 1,400,000*
Netherlands: 300,000**
Swizerland: 200,000
Germany: 1,700,000
Spain: 350,000***
Italy: 700,000
Austria: 150,000
Sweden: 50,000
Finland: 55,000
France: 700,000

Total (estimated): 6,700,000

*UK, confirmed by Jimmypage59
**In Netherlands, it sold 243,033 until february 2004, which would denote sales of around 250,000 CDs only. Say around 300,000 overall, counting all formats (maybe a bit less).
***In Spain, it sold 281,785 CDs only as of december 2004, and roughly 290,000 copies by now. With cassettes and vinyls, it should be at about 350,000 copies up to now.


Other countries:

USA: 600,000
Canada: 100,000
Australia: 100,000 (certified platinum back in 1995)
New Zealand: 55,000
Korea: 100,000+
Honk Kong: 20,000+
Singapore: 20,000+
Argentina: 120,000
Mexico: 100,000+
South Africa: 100,000+
Japan: 600,000 (322,000 CDs in just 10 weeks while it charted and two further re-entries)

Could this album have sold 10 million worldwide as claimed in several sources?. Maybe not, but it is very close.

[HUR]

Lol, I'm not waiting much. I'm rebuilding my website, updating absolutely everything. That's not a small task!! But I'm almost ending, I need to get the correct cert levels in Belgium over years, and migrate from the old site to the new the French charts infos and all will be ended, I already rebuild all the rest. Then I will work on Queen, to put it on the new site as well, with all my estimates

Oh I see, sorry for insisting too much, but I really want to see the kind of numbers you come up with. And see if some of them fit with my own calculation. You are the expert here...If you have any doubt regarding dates of release or things like, you know eher you can ask for that information, of course.

[MJDangerous]

Lol, I'm not waiting much. I'm rebuilding my website, updating absolutely everything. That's not a small task!! But I'm almost ending, I need to get the correct cert levels in Belgium over years, and migrate from the old site to the new the French charts infos and all will be ended, I already rebuild all the rest. Then I will work on Queen, to put it on the new site as well, with all my estimates

[HUR]

Thank you, MJDangerous.

I guess both were certified on late 93. Then in 94/95/96 GHI+GHII was released and promoted, it cannabalized sales of individual albums. Probably boosted by low prices or so, they both enjoyed great sales again in 98/99 until the release of PC. Then they reappared only in 2006.

I think, instead, that both "Greatest hits 1" and "Greatest hits 2" were heavily overcertified when last updated back in 1993 (but I really mean "overcertified"). I know "Greatest hits 1&2" hurt both, but between 1996, 1997 and 1998 (while the double box set went on to become gold for sales of 250,000 copies), both "Greatest hits 1" and "Greatest hits 2" charted higher and longer (the second one made it to #19).


Thank for the update on "A kind of magic". The album was #4 in 1986, with 13 weeks top ten and 28 on charts. But then in 1992 (when it was certified platinum) it climbed back to chart, peaking at #9 in 1993 with 36 weeks inside the charts. I estimated it at 800,000 copies, so like you, I also had it at that number (which was right apparently).

I also think this:

-The miracle: 750,000 (certified platinum in 1990, while still charting)
-Innunedo: 750,000 (certified platinum in 1992, it peaked at #1 with 6 weeks at that position and 31 on the charts; and then a re-entry at #22 in 1992 spending 16 more weeks in total reach 47 overall).

MIJDangerous, just a question, what are your estimations for "A night at the opera" over Germany?. It was certified platinum back in 1993, with virtually all of its sales achieved via "catalog". It was #5 in 1976 (#29 in the year-end of that year), with a low market back in the old days. Then gold in 1980 adn platinum in 1993, so there is like a trend wich denotes rather good sales on catalog for that one. Maybe also ready for a third gold too, around 750,000?. Any opinion?.

MJD, with all new information in recent months, what are you waiting to update your Queen section on chartsinfrance?.

[MJDangerous]

From Brianmay.com:

"These award were been given in respect of over 4 million sales combined of Greatest Hits I (1,800,000 units = 7 x Gold) & Greatest Hits II (2,200,000 units = 9 x Gold) in GERMANY only. Both albums are featured on the award."

Glad they give us an updated number. But those sales are a disappointment to me.

Firstly, "Greatest hits 2" at 9 gold should be 2,250,000 in reality (maybe a typo on the site), but I thought this one had sold easily 2,500,000 (enough for a further platinum). Even onn german television, back in 2003, a figure of 2,7 M was claimed and I believed it. The album had massive runnings after its certification, even peaking at #19 in 1997 and spending loads of weeks.

"Greatest hits 1" only shipped 300,000 since 1993, even strong too, charting many weeks in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 2006.

Also "Greatest hits 1" shipped even more than "Greatest hits 2", when it is obviously below as a catalog seller...

I guess both were certified on late 93. Then in 94/95/96 GHI+GHII was released and promoted, it cannabalized sales of individual albums. Probably boosted by low prices or so, they both enjoyed great sales again in 98/99 until the release of PC. Then they reappared only in 2006.

Still, the article is not very precise on figures, they wanted clearly to put the light on the "4m copies" thing rather than on exact figures. I would not be surprised if GH2 sold 2,3m or 2,4m.

BTW, 'A Kind Of Magic' has also been updated at 3xG (750k), those 3 albums (AKOM, GH1 and GH2) where estimates were already ahead of the followup certification in Germany according to my breakdown, they all 3 got an update

[EdWood]

Greatest Hits 1 has sold at least 30 million copies worldwide - it is continously in the lower reaches of charts all over the world -its still in the top 40 UK album charts this week as well! 43 million worldwide is of course inaccurate..

Greatest Hits 2 (with sales from Classic Queen in North America) has probably sold 22m+. This has actually gone up the UK charts this week to number 65 from 67. These 2 albums have sold more then 50 million albums between them... I wonder if they will still be charting when Queen + Paul Rodgers tour the UK in mid October?

[zeus555]

Brian05, Russell Ash - the 'Top Ten Of Everything',
compiler - was sent the April 2008 Top 10 UK Albums
List - with their Sales. (The OCC sent them to him).
He has rounded some of them up, & some of them down.
It was for his Book - especially for it, that The
OCC up-dated the Top 10 Albums Totals in April.
However, for some reason, he has removed 400,000
Sales from The Beatles Album, at No.2! In April
he was definitely sent a figure of 4,899,665 for
it. He should have rounded that up - to 4,900,000.
Instead he's lowered it to 4,500,000 - a stupid
thing to do!!

Queen's 'Greatest Hits' (One) has not sold 43
Million copies. The biggest estimate I've seen
for it is 27.5 Million. The 'Top Ten Of Everything'
makes many mistakes. It takes a lot of its Data
from sources that are inaccurate. In the past, it
has sometimes said that Honshu, (largest of the
Islands that make Japan), is the 7th Biggest Island
in the World, & that Great Britain is the 8th. At
other times it says that Great Britain is 7th &
Honshu is 8th! How the 2 Islands can shrink & expand,
- within a few Years - I do not know!.

Globally, I've seen estimates for 'Greatest Hits
II', by Queen, of 16 Million to 22 Million. The 43
Million claim for 'Greatest Hits' (One), looks
suspiciously like the 16 Million figure for 'GHII'
being added to the 27.5 Million figure for the 1st
Queen 'Hits' Album, to me.

Zeus555

[borderwolf]

Italy
FIMI dvd chart, week 39

#04 LIVE AT WEMBLEY STADIUM
QUEEN

#12 GREATEST VIDEO HITS I
QUEEN

#13 GREATEST VIDEO HITS II
QUEEN

#19 QUEEN ON FIRE - LIVE AT THE BOWL
QUEEN

[HUR]

Netherlands,
Mid-price chart

#28 - Live at wembley ´86 (up from #32)

It had charted 33 weeks inside the back catalog charts over Netherlands. In that country, the album peaked #9 in 1992 spending 23 weeks, although it wasn´t that great a performance, it estimated it sold enough for a gold only in that year and 1993, which would be 50,000. Then it did 17,857 copies in the CD format only from 1994 to february 2004 (average of roughly 1,7k by year), so that makes it around 20,000 counting all formats. If we add a further copies since 2004 (as already stated it did very fine on the back catalog chart), I think it has sold easily around 75,000 overall in that country.


And it has sold consistantly well in recent yeras, nit just in that country but in other parts in Europe:

Italy: #13 (38)
Spain: #14 (18)
Belgium (mid-price): #10 (18)
France (mid price): #5

Estimated in Europe:

UK: 700,000*
France: 550,000
Italy: 500,000**
Spain: 300,000***
Germany: 300,000
Netherlands: 75,000
Switzerland: 35,000
Austria: 35,000
Finland: 15,000
Sweden: 25,000

Total (estimated): 3,000,000

*In UK, it sold 479,551 from july 1992 to december 2006, including 46,535 just for the second half of 1992. This leaves 433,016 from 2003 to december 2006 (provided by Jimmypage59, based on shipments). The reason why it did "only" 46,535 in UK in 1992 is that its initial shipments weren´t counted as the album had been released in may 1992, and charted at #2 ending up at #54 in year-end of 1992, denoting sales of 200-220k alone (retail). So say around 250,000 copies shipped just in 1992.

To sum up: 250,000 (1992) + 433,016 (from 1993 to december 2006), would be 683,016. Adding catalog sales for both 2007 and 2008 (there is still demand for the album as it charted 4 weeks in the top 200 last year, including a week at #68), I estimated at 700,000 shipped up to now.

**In italy, it was #1 during 5 weeks in 1992 and sold 300,000 copies. Counting 2005 and 2006, the album had two incursions inside the top 40 in both years (including a peak at #13 in 2006) and 38 weeks in the top 100 which shows its stong catalog sales.

***In Spain it sold 202,000 CDs up to 2004. This denotes sales of around 270,000 overall, counting all formats like cassettes and vinyls (which were still a significant share of the markets back in the 90´s). The album charted amazingly well between 2005 and 2006, peaking at #14 with 18 weeks in. Therefore my estimation of 300k.

[HUR]

They further state that world sales for Queen Hits I are 43,000,000

Wow I love that figure. Queen rule.

[brian05]

The Guinness Book has clearly made a mistake.
The OCC published the All Time UK Top 100 Albums
Chart in November 2006, & The Beatles Album was
2nd - on 4,811,966 Sales.

In November 2007 they up-dated the Top 12, &
The Beatles Album was given 4,880,000 Sales.
In April this Year, the Top 10 was up-dated
& The Beatles Album was given 4,899,665 Sales.
In August, Alan Jones, ('Music Week'), gave
it 4,896,399 Sales - an inexplicable drop of
3,266 Sales on its April figure.


Zeus555

My apologies - the source was in fact The Top Ten of Everything 2009. (I was reading both books at the same time in the shop).

The top selling UK albums.
1] Queen Hits I 5,580,000
2] Sgt. Pepper 4,500,000
3] Morning Glory 4,365,000
4] Abba Gold 4,100,000
5] Brothers in arms 4,030,000
6] Dark side of the moon 3,925,000
7] Queen Hits II 3,710,000
8] Thriller 3,615,000
9] Bad 3,570,000
10] Immmaculate collection 3,560,000

Source: OCC

Apart from Sgt Pepper these figures are close to the updated April 2008 sales, rounded up or down.

They further state that world sales for Queen Hits I are 43,000,000.

[HUR]

Thanks for asking, Jimmy, my request wasn´t that clear. Yes, that was the one I was refering to in my previous post, the Eagle Vision´s classic album series (released in 2006, if I remember correctly).

[jimmypages59]

Hur,

With regards to the A Night at the OPera DVD, is it this one that you mean http://www.musicdirect.com/product/79948

or the DVD audio one?

[HUR]

And with the new german certifications, here is "Greatest hits 2" re-estimatd in Europe:

UK: 3,000,000*
Netherlands: 700,000
Italy: 1,300,000
France: 1,500,000**
Switzerland: 325,000
Austria: 250,000
Sweden: 350,000
Finland: 140,000
Germany: 2,250,000
Spain: 800,000***

*UK is difficult because of a lot of contradictive information.
**It was at 1,300,000 by march 1993.
***It had shipped 660,606 CDs only by 2004.

Total (estimated) - 12,700,000

Argentina: 650,000
Brazil: 750,000
Mexico: 500,000

Total Latin America (estimated) - 2,300,000

Australia: 560,000
New Zealand: 165,000
South Africa: 100,000
Honk Kong: 20,000+
Singapore: 20,000
Japan: 100,000

[EdWood]

This week on UK singles charts:

116. (33) C-LEBRITY (Queen + Paul Rodgers) :x
131. (121) DON’T STOP ME NOW (Queen)

In UK album chart:

Apart from both Queens Greatest Hits and Greatest Hits 2 in the top 75....
195. (143) GREATEST HITS I II & III (Queen)

[HUR]

On Canadian Top 100 Album Chart this week:

Queen's Greatest Hits: 85 (73) 107 weeks on chart

On US Top Pop Catalog Chart:

Queen's Greatest Hits: 24 (25) 749 weeks on combined chart

I wonder if the release of The Cosmos Rocks next month in North America will affect their catalogue sales...probably not... :-?

"Greatest hits 1" sold roughly 3,400 copies in USA last week (#179 on the billboard comprehensive chart), and around 6,000 copies in UK. Combining Australia and Canada, it did (I guess) 1,000+ too.

[EdWood]

On Canadian Top 100 Album Chart this week:

Queen's Greatest Hits: 85 (73) 107 weeks on chart

On US Top Pop Catalog Chart:

Queen's Greatest Hits: 24 (25) 749 weeks on combined chart

I wonder if the release of The Cosmos Rocks next month in North America will affect their catalogue sales...probably not... :-?

[zeus555]

According to the latest Guiness Book of Records (published on 19/9/2008) the top selling albums in the UK are,

Queen Greatest Hits 5,580,000
Sgt. Pepper 4,500,000

Wonder why sales for Sgt. Pepper have been downgraded from 4,800,000?

The Guinness Book has clearly made a mistake.
The OCC published the All Time UK Top 100 Albums
Chart in November 2006, & The Beatles Album was
2nd - on 4,811,966 Sales.

In November 2007 they up-dated the Top 12, &
The Beatles Album was given 4,880,000 Sales.
In April this Year, the Top 10 was up-dated
& The Beatles Album was given 4,899,665 Sales.
In August, Alan Jones, ('Music Week'), gave
it 4,896,399 Sales - an inexplicable drop of
3,266 Sales on its April figure.

However, none of those figures show The Beatles
Album on 4,500,000 Sales. The Guinness Book is
clearly using a way out of date Total for it -
one that is almost 400,000 too low!

But - its figure for the Queen Album is correct -
going by The OCC & 'Music Week's, Sales for it since
November 2006. (The Book has clearly used The OCC's
April Total - 5,579,309 - and rounded it up).

'Greatest Hits' (One) - Queen:,

1) November 2006 - 5,407,587 (OCC Total)
2) November 2007 - 5,538,000 (OCC Total)
3) April 30th 2008 - 5,579,309 (OCC Total)
4) Mid August 2008 - 5,651,785 ('Music Week' Total)

It has sold steadily since then, (Mid August), &
is currently up from No.51 to No.31 in the UK
Top 75. So, 5,750,000 to 5,800,000 Sales is about
where it will be by December 31st this Year.

Zeus555

[HUR]

Total estimated in Spain (using oficcial shipments reported by their record company) Their early albums are difficult to gauge, but I will as much as I can:

Queen: 75,000
Queen 2: 75,000
Sheer heart attack: 100,000
A night at the opera: 350,000
A day at the races: 120,000
News of the world: 50,000
Jazz: 100,000
Live killers: 50,000
The game: 125,000
Flash Gordon: 50,000
Hot space: 125,000
The works: 200,000
A kind of magic: 300,000
Live magic: 200,000
The miracle: 250,000
Innuendo: 200,000
Greatest hits 2: 800,000
Live at wembley ´86: 300,000
Five live: 30,000
Greatest hits 1&2: 250,000
Made in heaven: 350,000
Queen rocks: 90,000
Greatest hits 3: 100,000
Platinum collection: 300,000
Queen on fire: 60,000
Return of the champions: 10,000
Queen rock montreal: 30,000

Total: 5,150,000

[HUR]

Here is "Platinum collection" re-estimated in Europe with new figure provided by Jimmypage59:

UK: 1,760,000
Netherlands: 225,000
Germany: 300,000
Spain: 300,000*
France: 300,000
Italy: 650,000**
Switzerland: 40,000
Austria: 20,000
Sweden: 80,000
Finland: 20,000

*In Spain, it had shipped 197,000 CDs by december 2004.
**In Italy, it did 420,000 copies between early january 2002 to the second week of december 2003.

Total (estimated): 4,400,000

By now, it has sold roughly 650,000 copies in USA and 50,000 in Canada.

[borderwolf]

Argentina
weekly (ending 20 september) shipments chart


#10 Greatest Hits
(QUEEN)

#20 Greatest Hits Vol III
(QUEEN)