Queen :: Charts & Sales History

[MJDangerous]

Yes of course, only MJ doesnt make any mistakes
By the way, he even doesnt prove that OCC number for GH album is fake, just shouts loud about it, no more

Hur himself proved it, the album gained like 250k+ in 2 years while we know it hasn't sold that much.

BTW, of course I make mistakes, that's exactly why my study about best selling acts ever isn't finished despite over 4 years of daily researches, and probably as much to come

[HUR]

Yes, true. And even if it didnīt sell 5,600,000+ (retail sales), I think it has now shipped roughly 5,5 M copies in total, and counting all sales from music clubs, which are 305,000 since july 1993 up to 2006.

[Lawyeris]

We should stop with this guys. Sorry, I know that I was heavily involved in this kind of debates, but what do we gain with this?. Everything related to Queen is always controversial, like that list, but who cares?. Letīs just post more chart information.

Instead of disputing, we all should go to the store and buy some Queen's studio albums, to raise up their catalog sales
Allright, peace guys, lets work on sales data (just not me, sorry:})

[MJDangerous]

Instead of disputing, we all should go to the store and buy some Queen's studio albums, to raise up their catalog sales

Funny you said that when I was aiming to pick up Sheer Heart Attack tomorrow, but since most of you consider me as a Queen hater maybe I shouldn't ?

Hur, I was checking the original message of Braca about Spanish sales :

El Grupo Británico Queen recibe el Trip le disco de Diamante when requested EMI provided the following in Dec 2004:
only CD & DVD Sales- 3,2 m Cds and counting (not mentioning Lps).

Album Title Released Highest Chart Sales To Date Award Status

1: GREATEST HITS 01-Jan-85 182,700 Platinum
2: A KIND OF MAGIC 01-May-86 1 207,695 2 x Platinum
3: LIVE MAGIC 01-Nov-86 109,418 Platinum
4: THE MIRACLE 01-May-89 1 164,969 Platinum
5: INNUENDO 01-Dec-90 1 137,861 Platinum
6: GREATEST HITS II 01-Oct-91 1 660,606 6 x Platinum
7: LIVE AT WEMBLEY 86 01-May-92 2 202,278 2 x Platinum
8: GREATEST HITS I & II 14-Oct-94 10 198,260 2 x Platinum

9: MADE IN HEAVEN 06-Nov-95 1 281,785 2 x Platinum
10: QUEEN ROCKS VOL. 1 03-Nov-97 35 74,203 Gold
11: GREATEST HITS III 08-Nov-99 85,633 Gold
12: THE PLATINUM COLLECTION 13-Nov-00 5 197,591 2 x Platinum

13: QUEEN ON FIRE - 25 - Oct - 2004 35 33,000 Almost Gold

DVD Title Released Highest Chart Sales to Date Award Status
1: GREATES VIDEO HITS 02-Dec-02 1 19,646 Gold
2: LIVE AT WEMBLEY STADIUM 09-Jun-03 1 18,510 Gold
3: GREATEST HITS VOL. 2 03-Nov-03 2 13,190 Gold
4: QUEEN ON FIRE 25-Oct-2004 2 15,000 Gold

The first thing which appears obviously is that AKOM, The Miracle and Innuendo are all mentionned as #1 albums which is wrong, none of them topped charts.

The second "big" thing is that they say "only CDs" and then "not mentionning LPs". First, they may pretty simply mean albums of the CD era, not "copies sold on the CD format". The same when they write "not mentionning LPs", LPs may refer to the format, or simply to albums released on LPs first. That's a common mis-use of those words. This is not explicit at all that those figures concern the CD format. Second, what about cassettes ?? They are for sure counted on.

Two possibilities :
- By "CDs" they mean "Albums" and then figures are comprehensive from 85 to 2004.
- The LP format is indeed excluded but both CDs and Cassettes are counted (elsewhere figures of 80's albums are simply impossible). If that case is the good one some LP sales are missing on figures of GH, LM, AKOM and The Miracle. Since their figures don't look high this is likely.

What do you think ?

[HUR]

Two possibilities :
- By "CDs" they mean "Albums" and then figures are comprehensive from 85 to 2004.
- The LP format is indeed excluded but both CDs and Cassettes are counted (elsewhere figures of 80's albums are simply impossible). If that case is the good one some LP sales are missing on figures of GH, LM, AKOM and The Miracle. Since their figures don't look high this is likely.

What do you think ?

I think that those sales figures are CDs only, as I said...

Nah seriously, I have no idea what to think, but sounds like a good theory, but it is difficult to know really. Firstly, there were several charts compiled back in the old days, so I donīt know which one was employed to compile that book by Salaberri for each year (not sure if thatīs the correct spelling though), which is the source you are actually using when you cite peaks and weeks in. For instance, on the "Superventas" (one of several charts compiled back then) "Innuendo" was actually #1 during two weeks, although it only made it to #3 on the AFYVE chart. Yes, there was a number one album before "Made in heaven". "Platinum collection" is shown as a #6 album on the book, while it actually peaked at #5 on the AFYVE chart...

But yes, maybe youīre right, Iīm not close-minded so if you researched so much and there is no way those albums sold so much then maybe it is true what you wrote.

Another important fact is that all those albums shown above account for as much as 2,534,000 copies altogether (according to you counting all formats, not just CDs). Yet there are at least 664,000 to add coming from their previous albums, that is, all of their releases from 1973 to 1984 ("Queen" to "The works"). And thatīs the way you get 3,2 M claimed by EMI Spain. And those sales are supposed to be for the period between 1985/1986 to december 2004. Is that true according to you?. Or you also dispute that?. Do you believe it?. That would mean that many of their older albums (notably "A night at the opera", I would suppose) did fine on catalog. And with "fine" I just mean that, Iīm not saying that "A day at the races" sold 300k and "Queen 2" more than "The dark side of the moon".

Look what a mess, and we are just talking about Spain. Queen are a difficult task, arenīt they?. Thatīs the reason why I asked you to update them, because if there is someone capable to do it, that one is you. Anyone could work on Madonna with all the information available, but Queen can only be "gauged" by an expert with a lot of experience.

By the way, did you notice that their albums sold relatively well in the last few years:

- Live at wembley ī86: #14 (18)
- A night at the opera: #77 (3)
- Innuendo: #65 (2)
- Live magic: #87 (2)
- A kind of magic: #91 (3)
- Platinum collection: #62 (16)

Funny you said that when I was aiming to pick up Sheer Heart Attack tomorrow, but since most of you consider me as a Queen hater maybe I shouldn't ?

If you are talking about me, really, but I have never said that, believe me. What I may have said is that you probably donīt think of Queen as super big act in terms of sales because that was what you suggested at one point. But I never disputed your tastes and such. Have you listened to that album and you decided to buy it after that?. If so, you should buy it. If not, I think you will be more impressed by "Queen 2", "A day at the races" and "Innuendo", assuming you have none of them, of course. By the way, "Sheer heart attack" is the first ever CD I bought. What a great album, "In the lap of the gods", simply amazing.

[MJDangerous]

Lol Hur nope I wasn't talking about you

About Spain : to be honest I'm pretty much sure sales aren't CD only. I mean, if really they are, then AKOM sold 200k+ on catalog sales with CD only, so 300k+ on catalog alone, plus sales at release... I think you see what I mean, those figures can't be real. But still, they of course sold loads. I just estimate again their Spanish sales, that way it will be easier to discuss about it

Here we go (in 000's) :

Queen 40
Queen 2 40
Sheer Heart Attack 70
A Night At The Opera 320
A Day At Races 80
News Of The World 60
Jazz 60
Live Killers 100
The Game 140
Flash Gordon 50
Greatest Hits 410
Hot Space 100
The Works 175
A Kind Of Magic 220
Live Magic 120
The Miracle 170
Innuendo 200
Greatest Hits 2 680
Live At Wembley '86 240
Five Live 100
Greatest Hits 1&2 205
Made In Heaven 290
Queen Rocks 75
Greatest Hits 3 90
The Platinum Collection 240
Queen On Fire 40
Return Of The Champions 10


Comments:
- The total is over 4,3 million. With missing albums, let round to 4,4 million.
- I assumed figures revealed by EMI were comprehensive. I will try to get the share of Vinyls to see if those are missing.
- Their 70's albums are harder to estimate, they sold mainly on catalog, since sales back then were rather low. They are 2 albums which hasn't charted and sold well on catalog in USA, News Of The World and Live Killers. They are the 2 hardest to gauge. NOTW may be very low, just like in UK were it sold very badly on catalog, or rather well, if it sold just like in the US. I assumed it sold just OK (not bad, not good) since it pretty much flopped at release (not charted). I assumed also that Live Killers sold better, that's a safer bet I think. As their first Live album, and it sold well on both UK and US.

[jimmypages59]

Queen - Greatest Hits
1992 --- 152,652 (July Onwards)
1993 --- 150,682
1994 --- 174,173
1995 --- 147,638
1996 --- 173,316
1997 --- 113,397
1998 --- 122,610
1999 --- 156,211
2000 --- 135,813
2001 --- 101,514
2002 --- 67,318
2003 --- 46,653
2004 --- 28,971
2005 --- 79,127
2006 --- 173,360
2007 --- 63,873
2008 --- 3,883 (Until June)
Total --- 1,891,191

Queen - Greatest Hits II
1992 --- 518,472 (July Onwards)
1993 --- 168,070
1994 --- 171,741
1995 --- 161,760
1996 --- 147,219
1997 --- 92,892
1998 --- 77,739
1999 --- 99,796
2000 --- 87,524
2001 --- 56,647
2002 --- 40,814
2003 --- 24,438
2004 --- 11,147
2005 --- 37,616
2006 --- 76,764
2007 --- 18,674
2008 --- 3,545 (Until June)
Total --- 1,794,858

Queen - Greatest Hits III (Retail)
1999 --- 244,673
2000 --- 168,711
2001 --- 26,625
2002 --- 29,363
2003 --- 14,642
2004 --- 3,329
2005 --- 10,210
2006 --- 33,057
2007 --- 8,930
Total --- 539,540

Queen - Greatest Hits III (Club)
2000 --- 49,968
2001 --- 12,462
2002 --- 3,445
2003 --- 440
2004 --- 241
2005 --- 365
2006 --- 125
2007 --- 47
Total --- 67,093

Has Greatest Hits III, been discontinued as a product in it's own right, as no copies seem to have been shipped in 2008, or is it just not selling because of the Platinum Collection?

GH I & II have club sales included into totals.

There are no surviving Music Clubs in UK (that I'm aware of) as Britannia Music went bust last year.

[MJDangerous]

Wow, thanks a lot Jimmypages59

BTW, have you shipment of "Thriller" (both original and 25th edition) in 2008 up to June ?

[MJDangerous]

Jimmy, what are the sales of Live Killers in UK since 92 ? I know you already posted them but there was a mix between that album and Live Magic and I'm not sure which figure concerns Killers. Thanks in advance

[MJDangerous]

Trying to put a bit of order in Greatest Hits sales in UK :

1981
#2 album of the year. Music Week reported a figure of 424k. Other albums charted lower were close to 600k yet. Also, that figure of 424k in 1981 is way to low to pretend be at #2 of the year. Yes, the first ambiguous figure of Greatest Hits came out as soon as 1981 !
The fact is that MW revealed most of their figures after the last chart of the year, which was delayed by 2 weeks (the chart of 28 Dec concerns in reality sales from 8 to 14 Dec for example). So 15-20 days are missing on that figure of 424k, during which the Christmas period when GH was #1/#2.
I assume a figure of 650k for that year, considering others are all under 600k.

1982
It ranked at #27 on the year end chart, around 275k sold.

1983
It ranked at #84 on the year end chart, around 95k sold. (note: figures calculated. The #84 album of 1984 sold around 105k, sales in 1983 were 10% lower, then the estimate of 95k, I worked the same for each year).

1984
It ranked at #47 on the year end chart, around 175k sold.

1985
It ranked at #43 on the year end chart, around 200k sold.
Certified 3xPlatinum in May 1985. By that time it sold 650 + 275 + 95 + 175 + 50 (early 85 sales) = 1245k, enough for 4xPlatinum - But remember the highest possible award back then was 3xP.

1986
It ranked at #35 on the year end chart, around 310k sold. Albums sales climbed almost 20% in that year btw.
Total of 1705k up to the end of this year. EMI reported the figure of 1,828,375 at that time, which looks very good with shipment/club sales added.

1987
It ranked at #95 on the year end chart, around 170k sold.
Certified 6xPlatinum in May 1987. By that time it sold 650 + 275 + 95 + 175 + 200 + 310 + 50 (early 87 sales) = 1755k, that fits pretty well with the shipment certification, with EMI claim a few months before and with Radio 1's 20th Birthday chart of best selling albums in UK (it was #8). It ended the year with around 1875k sold (shop sales) and just over 2 million copies shipped (1828K + 170K + club sales in 87).

1988
Not charted on the year end chart, it charted well though selling around 120k.

1989-1990
It charted some weeks missing year end charts. Let assume around 100k sold per year, 200k in total.

1991
The album started that year as the previous ones, selling pretty well for a catalog album. At the end of the year it exploded due to Freddy's death.
Certifications of that year are very interesting :

- 8xP in July 91. By that time : 1875 + 120 + 200 + 50 (first half of 91) = 2245k sold. It was probably as high as 2,6m in shipment when certified (wasn't updated in years).
- 9xP in October. It was on about 2270k sold. That's maybe the most meaningfull certification of the album. In fact, Freddy's death happened after that certification, so the shipment was close to copies really sold, in opposition to late 1991 certifications which include loads of copies just shipped with the ressurgence of the album. So by October 91, the album sold around 2270k and shipped 2700k, that leaves 400k+ sold by Music Clubs.
- 11xP by the end of the year (actualy, 1rst Jan 92). They shipped 600k between October and the end of the year, after Freddy's death. The album ranked at #25 of the year, selling around 350k in the entire year, close to 300k after the 9xP award. That means a lot of copies were always on shelves.
We can safely think that almost none copy was shipped in the first half of 92, copies sold were the ones shipped at Christmas 91 (which happens almost always with big Christmas sellers).

Then, as Jimmypages posted :
1992 --- 152,652 (July Onwards)
1993 --- 150,682
1994 --- 174,173
1995 --- 147,638
1996 --- 173,316
1997 --- 113,397
1998 --- 122,610
1999 --- 156,211
2000 --- 135,813
2001 --- 101,514
2002 --- 67,318
2003 --- 46,653
2004 --- 28,971
2005 --- 79,127
2006 --- 173,360
2007 --- 63,873
2008 --- 3,883 (Until June)
Total --- 1,891,191

That leaves us with 3,3 million copies shipped + 1,89 million, with only a few copies not counted (the rare copies shipped in early 92 and from july 2008 to now).

The album shipped around 5,25 million copies up to now. That include around 750,000 copies sold by Music Clubs (which is huge!) and 4,25m copies sold on shops (2,1m during the 80's, 1,5m during the 90's and 650k in the 00's), the rest is shipment/difference due to rounded figures.

[HUR]

Jimmypage59, great sales figures, mate. Just unbelievable. Two massive sellers.

MJDangerous, thank you for the explanation. Not to over-estimate sales, but I would have expected albums like "Sheer heart attack", "A day at the races", "Jazz" to be close to 100k by now in Spain. I mean, just with their inital chart performances (even if it was rather moderate), they all sold probably 30-40k. Then to assume they did like 100,000 by now would make sense. Donīt you think?.

As for "Greatest hits 1", I think you are missing club sales for the period during 1992 (entire year) and the first half of 1993, that were probably huge.

Also, what do you think about "Greatest hits 2"?. It was certified 5 platinum in june 1992, and has shipped (not sold to costumers) a further 1,790,000 copies since july 1992. Yet it was only certified 8 times platinum back in march 2000. Very strange.

All these problem would have an end if EMI re-certified them all.

[MJDangerous]

I just updated GHII at 3,4m in UK. Club sales of GHI missing made up likely something like 100k.
Their early albums in Spain are hard to estimate. I estimated most of them at around 30k too on early times then doubled the figure, since they basicaly doubled their sales with catalog in both UK and US. But 40k, 60k, 80k or 100k we really can't know.

One very important thing, about Japan this time, is that I think Mario posted sales of the main format only for all Queen albums. I haven't think at this when I first estimate their sales, but Mario posted their breakdown in 2004, 4 years ago his breakdown covered only one format (LP until mid80's then CD) while know he gives all 3 formats. That's loads of sales missing. I adjusted figures taking that into account (consequently some albums double or triple their sales), waiting for a confirmation by Mario (I sent him a PM) though.

I updated their figures for Spain, US, UK, JP and Germany. We haven't get new info about other European countries yet. I corrected almost all figures of AKOM, since they were all rather low considering its catalog sales (the same about Live Magic).

[HUR]

MJD, thank for the work and effort. Just to further help you, I see you have "Five live" at 100k in Spain. Well, the one that was number one is the single version of "Somebody to love" with George Michael and "Dear friends" (taken from "Sheer heart attack"). However, the mini-album "Five live", with 6 songs on it (including the two ones I mentioned) only charted at #18 in 1993 with a couple of weeks inside the top 30/40 in Spain. So, I would assume it sold 25-30k over there, no way it sold 100,000. The single was successful, but the album was moderate.

[MJDangerous]

Thanks Hur, I fixed that mistake. I updated their estimates, they are now just over 170 million, enough to climb ahead of the Rolling Stones, U2 and Led Zeppelin. I haven't updated Stones figures in years though.

Important changes include A Night At The Opera at over 10m (even 10.7m), A Kind Of Magic now close to 4 million in Europe and Live Magic over 2 million in that area. I will post a little summary of sales per country in a few minutes.

[MJDangerous]

Queen Album Sales per Country

USA : 42,420,000
Canada : 6,630,000
Japan : 8,165,000*

Europe : 80,735,000
- UK : 24,405,000
- Germany : 14,805,000
- France : 7,875,000
- Italy : 6,215,000
- Spain : 4,255,000
- Netherlands : 4,430,000
- Sweden : 1,470,000
- Switzerland : 2,180,000
- Austria : 1,495,000
- Finland : 635,000

*That is assuming Mario figures cover only the main format, still waiting for his confirmation.

Note : Some minor releases (like Rock Montreal) haven't been included.

[HUR]

Thank you, MJDangerous, great work and neatly researched as always. Great total. I have taken a quick look at your post in chartsinfrance. Tomorrow, with more time, I will make a more in-depth look at it. Not sure if you will post it but those who want to see it, go here:

http://www.chartsinfrance.net/communaut ... ntry567219

MJD, when I add your UK estimatd totals, I get, overall, roughly 24,5 over there (in your previous post, it is one million less than that, maybe a typo?).


Queen total records sales (based on estimations):

-Albums: 170,000,000
-Singles: 60,000,000
-Digital tracks: 9,000,000
-Home videos: 10,000,000

Overall total: 240-250m

MJDangerousīs total sales makes sense with what was always claimed for the band over the years (except for crappy claims like 200m albums or so):

Timeline:
December 1980: 45,000,000
March 1990: 80,000,000
November 1995: 130,000,000
2002: 150,000,000

And then the band sold roghly 20 million albums in the last 6 or 7 years overall.

Thank you again.

[MJDangerous]

I entered 100k instead of 1000k for The Works in the excel document, I have now fixed the typo and yes Queen are up to 24,4 million albums shipped in UK.

[EdWood]

Good work MJD!

Will you be adding The Cosmos Rocks to this total eventually as well?

[HUR]

I entered 100k instead of 1000k for The Works in the excel document, I have now fixed the typo and yes Queen are up to 24,4 million albums shipped in UK.

Thank you. Good total for Canada too, so Queen were slighly bigger there in USA proportionately, of course.

[MJDangerous]

Mario confirmed me that sales figures weren't complete. Here is the complete breakdown of Queen in Japan, huge thanks dedicated to Mario

LP
1974/03/25 Queen # 52 , 14 wks, 23,620
1974/06/25 Queen 2 # 26 , 27 wks, 56,210
1974/12/21 Sheer Heart Attack # 23 , 37 wks, 103,730
1975/12/21 A Night At The Opera # 9 , 57 wks, 147,990
1977/01/09 A Day At The Races # 1 , 28 wks, 127,480
1977/11/25 News Of The World # 3 , 20 wks, 84,290
1978/11/25 Jazz # 5 , 30 wks, 106,140
1979/06/25 Queen Live Killers # 9 , 15 wks, 55,710
1980/07/21 The Game # 5 , 17 wks, 74,810
1980/12/21 Flash Gordon [Soundtrack] # 12 , 19 wks, 68,340
1981/11/10 Greatest Hits # 9 , 23 wks, 102,120
1982/05/11 Hot Space # 6 , 11 wks, 60,760
1984/03/16 The Works # 7 , 11 wks, 67,030
1986/06/25 A Kind Of Magic # 25 , 5 wks, 13,830
1986/12/20 Live Magic # 74 , 4 wks, 2,840

CT
1976/06/25 Queen Best16 # 28 , 6 wks, 3,380
1977/01/09 A Day At The Races # 24 , 5 wks, 2,700
1978/12/10 Jazz # 82 , 11 wks, 10,890
1980/07/25 The Game # 38 , 11 wks, 17,640
1980/12/27 Flash Gordon [Soundtrack] # 33 , 10 wks, 16,360
1981/11/10 Greatest Hits # 32 , 18 wks, 38,050
1982/05/11 Hot Space # 31 , 8 wks, 17,910
1984/03/16 The Works # 24 , 9 wks, 22,830
1986/06/25 A Kind Of Magic # 56 , 4 wks, 4,970
1989/06/09 The Miracle # 59 , 3 wks, 2,440

CD
1986/09/03 A Kind Of Magic # 34 , 5 wks, 7,360
1987/02/04 Live Magic # 49 , 3 wks, 4,660
1987/04/22 Greatest Hits # 95 , 1 wk, 2,700
1989/06/09 The Miracle # 20 , 5 wks, 18,530
1991/01/30 Innuendo # 13 , 5 wks, 41,670
1991/11/06 Greatest Hits II # 65 , 4 wks, 19,780
1992/01/29 CD Single Box # 97 , 1 wk, 2,510
1992/06/24 Live At Wembley '86 # 80 , 2 wks, 7,640
1994/06/22 Greatest Hits I & II # 65 , 2 wks, 8,690
1995/03/29 Greatest Hits I & II # 62 , 3 wks, 18,920
1995/11/17 Made In Heaven # 10 , 25 wks, 326,330
1997/11/19 Queen Rocks # 22 , 4 wks, 34,960
1999/11/18 Greatest Hits III # 25 , 16 wks, 49,625
2000/06/28 In Vision [Limited Edition] # 7 , 18 wks, 166,880
2001/10/24 Made In Heaven # 124 , 6 wks, 8,432
2001/11/21 Greatest Hits # 39 , 24 wks, 41,727
2001/11/21 Greatest Hits II # 192 , 7 wks, 6,850
2004/01/28 Jewels # 1 , 129 wks, 1,343,228
2004/02/11 Queen [2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 197 , 1 wk, 1,137
2004/02/11 Queen 2[2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 164 , 1 wk, 1,332
2004/02/11 Sheer Heart Attack [2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 170 , 1 wk, 1,296
2004/02/11 A Night At The Opera[2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 171 , 2 wks, 2,711
2004/02/11 A Day At The Races [2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 176 , 1 wk, 1,261
2004/02/11 News Of The World [2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 183 , 1 wk, 1,218
2004/02/11 Jazz[2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 189 , 1 wk, 1,187
2004/02/12 The Game [2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 204 , 1 wk, 1,077
2004/02/25 Flash Gordon [2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 225 , 1 wk, 1,115
2004/02/25 Hot Space [2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 201 , 1 wk, 1,252
2004/02/25 The Works[2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 199 , 1 wk, 1,273
2004/02/25 A Kind Of Magic [2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 208 , 1 wk, 1,221
2004/02/25 The Miracle [2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 187 , 1 wk, 1,344
2004/02/25 Innuendo [2001 Digital Re-Mastering disc] # 178 , 1 wk, 1,413
2004/03/31 Made In Heaven [Design version] # 275 , 1 wk, 824
2004/03/31 Made In Heaven [2004.3version] # 198 , 1 wk, 1,196
2004/10/27 Queen On Fire - Live At The Bowl # 97 , 3 wks, 4,436
2005/01/26 Jewels2 # 9 , 15 wks, 65,371
2005/11/23 A Night At The Opera[30th Anniversary edition] # 67 , 3 wks, 6,114
2007/10/31 Rock Montreal # 70 , 3 wks, 3,454
2008/02/27 In Vision 2008 # 51 , 7 wks, 14,793

[HUR]

Thank you Mario and MJDangerous. "A night at the opera" re-entered at #67 in 2005 with its re-issue, not bad. So do your estimations still stand?. Or will you change them?. I donīt know much about imports and such either.

[MJDangerous]

Estimates as they are now fits well, maybe a few 80's album is a bit high, but considering infos we have that's ok.

BTW, if they are people interested, here some details of my estimates in UK, read album / sales in 000's (year of those sales) :

Sheer Heart Attack 215 (75)
A Night At The Opera 150 (75) 525 (76)
A Day At Races 50 (76) 175 (77)
News Of The World 195 (77) 80 (78)
Jazz 160 (78) 90 (79)
Live Killers 200 (79)
The Game 180 (80)
Hot Space 150 (82)
The Works 580 (84)
A Kind Of Magic 670 (86)
Live Magic 295 (86) 260 (87)
The Miracle 480 (89)

[HUR]

Estimates as they are now fits well, maybe a few 80's album is a bit high, but considering infos we have that's ok.

BTW, if they are people interested, here some details of my estimates in UK, read album / sales in 000's (year of those sales) :

Sheer Heart Attack 215 (75)
A Night At The Opera 150 (75) 525 (76)
A Day At Races 50 (76) 175 (77)
News Of The World 195 (77) 80 (78)
Jazz 160 (78) 90 (79)
Live Killers 200 (79)
The Game 180 (80)
Hot Space 150 (82)
The Works 580 (84)
A Kind Of Magic 670 (86)
Live Magic 295 (86) 260 (87)
The Miracle 480 (89)

Wow good information. I take those are supposed to be retail sales, no?. Any idea about "Innuendo" in 1991/1992?. Something interesting is that their "catalog" sales (for their old studio albums and others like "A kind of magic" and "Live at wembley ī86") were important for the band in the end. Of course, other classic albums did better than them, but altogether Queen total sales wouldnīt be the same if they hadnīt achieved some "decent" catalog sales as the time went by.

MJDangerous, just a question about Japan. I donīt know much about the market and which acts sold in huge numbers except for a couple of acts like Michael Jackson, Madonna and Led Zeppelin. I see you have something like 8 million for Queen (maybe a bit less if you adjust their 80īs albums), is that good compared to other acts?. Normal?. I donīt ask to start a discussion, but just to know how the band stands in front of other successful international acts and have a good perspective of how big they are or not (no way we can compare them with local acts).

Last week in DVD UK chart

26 (24) Queen - Live At Wembley Stadium '86 (178 weeks)

[nucleardolphin]

Hi, MJ dangerous, I was wondering if you might know much about Queens catalogue sales globally and how they are fairing up as the years go by. Cheers.

[HUR]

Hi, MJ dangerous, I was wondering if you might know much about Queens catalogue sales globally and how they are fairing up as the years go by. Cheers.

Hello. I donīt know what you mean by "catalogue", as it isnīt the same for all people. Queenīs back catalog ussually suffer from the fact that new compilations are continually being released each year and, therefore, they are regarded as "new" sales. But the focus is always in their old stuff. Obviously, to many people, those sales have no value because they reject acts that released many compilations and the like.

Here are annual sales for USA since 2004 (provided by Hanboo who uses Nielsen Soundscan as a source):

2004: 942,000
2005: 986,000
2006: 993,000
2007: 757,000

Total for USA: 3,678,000

UK (from Musicweek):

2005: 620,000
2006: 640,000
2007: 408,357

Total for UK (2005-2007): 1,668,357

In Japan, they sold 1,781,001 in 2004, mainly thanks to their new compilation "Queen Jewels" released in that year.

In a country like Belgium, to cite an example, this is how the mid-price chart looked like april 2005:

#1 - A night at the opera
#2 - A day at the races
#3 - News of the world
#5 - The works
#6 - The miracle
#8 - Queen 2
#9 - Made in heaven
#10 – A kind of magic
#11 – Hot space

According to codes from Brazil, their albums are still being shipped to stores which means there is still popular demand for them (even if it is in small quantities).

So they do still well worldwide.