Queen :: Charts & Sales History

[nucleardolphin]

Basil, in the third post of this very topic (page one), you posted anual sales taken from Musicweek year-end charts. This goes up to the end of 2004. Since then, Queen have added further sales that could include:

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

Basil, the post abut european sales (outside UK) still remains empty, and knowing what a monster selling band Queen are there, don´t you think yu could add their german certifications there as a start?. Three of their albums have been recently certified again, and their total shipments add up 11,250,000, which is huge. DVDs at 475,000 overall. They are big all over Europe. If you need me to send you the information, no problem, I can do it.

Hi, HUR, I wanted to ask you the figure of 11, 250,000 that you have of shipments for Queen, over what period of time if this and where abouts. Also where do you find all this information? Im just curious since I would love to know. Thanks.

[HUR]

Hello Nucleardlphin, how are you?.

Here you have a link to the german IFPI site:

http://www.musikindustrie.de/gold_platin_datenbank.html

As you can see, there is a searcheable detabase, where you can type any name you want. A search on Queen, adding all their gold and platinum albums, will account for as much as 11,250,000.

Before october 1999, a platinum was 500,000 (250,000 for a gold), from october 1999 to the end of 2002 a platinum was 300,000 (150,000 for a gold), and since 2003 up to now, you need to ship 200,000 copies for a platinum (100,000 for a gold).

In my figure above, I included "Queen dance traxx 1", which was given to both Brian and Roger back august 1997.

Their DVDs add up 475,000 copies shipped too.

[HUR]

United Arab Emirates
dvd chart

1 Queen - Queen Live At Wembley (ne)
2 Queen - Queen On Fire Live At The Bowl (ne)
3 Avril Lavigne - Best Damn Tour Live In Toronto (ne)
4 Genesis - When In Rome 2007 (5)
5 Il Divo - Encore (ne)
6 Queen - Queen Collectors Box (ne)
7 Rihanna - Good Girl Gone Bad Live (ne)
8 Yusuf Islam - Yusufs Cafe Session (ne)
9 Hip Hop The Collection Volume 5 (ne)
10 Queen - Greatest Video Hits Volume 1 (ne)

Amazing.

[nucleardolphin]

hi HUR, thankyou so much for the quick reply. How realistic do you think that figure is though? MJD said that maybe Queen had done around 15 million in Germany. Do you think they require some new certifications? Thanks

[EdWood]

I think 15 million album sales in Germany is very plausible given their undercertification in this country especially their earlier albums when less data was available...

According to Haven.com. Queen's 'The Platinum Collection' is currently the 98th best selling album in the UK with 105,500 sales estimated...

Queens Greatest Hits should also be around this figure by year end...

[HUR]

hi HUR, thankyou so much for the quick reply. How realistic do you think that figure is though? MJD said that maybe Queen had done around 15 million in Germany. Do you think they require some new certifications? Thanks

You´re welcome. Well, the 11,300,000 isn´t realistic, it is a fact. Queen have actually shipped no less than that overall.

There are many albums that may not have sold enough for a further certification, but have all sold well above what is suggested by their gold or platinum awards.

Most of them were certified within a few months of release and never updated ("Jazz" in 1978, "Live killers" in 1980, "The game" in 1982, "The works" in 1984 and so on).

"Flash" was #2 in 1981, with 9 weeks in top ten and 33 inside the top 100. It was #15 on the year-end chart of 1981. Yet it wasn´t even certified gold. "Hot space" also had a good performance, but not awards either. Their first three albums were never certified.

Queen had actually sold 15 million by about the time of their musical back in december 2004, so what MJDangerous estimated for them is certainly correct. It does make sense: 11,250,000 certified, with estimated totals at 15 million overall.

Obviously, nobody is aware of this because Queen simply have no press and therefore lack of recognition when it comes to how much they sold and how big they are...

[HUR]

I think 15 million album sales in Germany is very plausible given their undercertification in this country especially their earlier albums when less data was available...

According to Haven.com. Queen's 'The Platinum Collection' is currently the 98th best selling album in the UK with 105,500 sales estimated...

Queens Greatest Hits should also be around this figure by year end...

That´s great, the combine sales of their two lead albums (I estimated "Greatest hits 1" at about 80,000 copies so far thi year, which means that it may end up selling about 100,000 by the end of 2008) have achieved more or less the same as other high profile albums released this year and just on catalog. They both have outsold "The cosmos rocks" too.

Yesterday, the guys arrived to Argentina. One of the main news channels claimed "they have sold in excess of 300 million records worldwide" and "they are the best selling band ever after The Beatles".

Wait for the abuse.

[Wayne]

I think 15 million album sales in Germany is very plausible given their undercertification in this country especially their earlier albums when less data was available...

According to Haven.com. Queen's 'The Platinum Collection' is currently the 98th best selling album in the UK with 105,500 sales estimated...

Queens Greatest Hits should also be around this figure by year end...

That´s great, the combine sales of their two lead albums (I estimated "Greatest hits 1" at about 80,000 copies so far thi year, which means that it may end up selling about 100,000 by the end of 2008) has sold more or less the same as other high profile albums releases this year and just on catalog. They both have outsold "The cosmos rocks" too.

Yesterday, the guys arrived to Argentina. One of the main news channels claimed "they have sold in excess of 300 million records worldwide" and "they are the best selling band ever after The Beatles".

Wait for the abuse.

[HUR]

Dear Wayne, can you name the bands that have sold more albums and records than Queen?.

[Wayne]

Dear Wayne, can you name the bands that have sold more albums and recrds than Queen?.

The Beatles! U2 have sold a similar amount of albums according to MJDangerous Pink Floyd have sold more albums, Led Zeppelin about 3 million less than Queen. All according to MJ

[innocenteyes]

Here's how Queen's Greatest Hits has performed on the Australian albums chart in the past 5 weeks:

59-61-74-63-70

It has now spent 102 weeks in the Top 100.

Bohemian Rhapsody also re entered the singles chart at #96 on November 10th.

[HUR]

Dear Wayne, can you name the bands that have sold more albums and recrds than Queen?.

The Beatles! U2 have sold a similar amount of albums according to MJDangerous Pink Floyd have sold more albums, Led Zeppelin about 3 million less than Queen. All according to MJ

Yes, agreed on that. Obviously, MJD is the absolute god of charts...but I was talking about records sales.

[HUR]

Here's how Queen's Greatest Hits has performed on the Australian albums chart in the past 5 weeks:

59-61-74-63-70

It has now spent 102 weeks in the Top 100.

Bohemian Rhapsody also re entered the singles chart at #96 on November 10th.

Thank you, Romain, great information. Their comilation has beendoing amazingly well since early august up to now.

[EdWood]

The Beatles are and will always be the number 1 selling band in the world both singles and albums.

However, if you add all singles and album sales together, Queen will easily be the next best selling BAND worldwide. Pink Floyd and Led Zepellin will drop down an overall combined sales chart as they didnt release singles (yes I know Pink Floyd released a few but their sales are nothing compared to their album sales). Queen have sold more singles/albums worldwide then U2, Dire Straits, The Eagles, The Bee Gees, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, Abba, etc...

[nucleardolphin]

Thanks Ed Wood, your clearly as much of a fan as me! I always loved the fact that Queen were disliked by the critics but adored by the public, I cant bare the music press.
How many albums a year do you think they are shifting worldwide these days? I mean US and UK combined would be close to one million? then the rest, not sure.
Its true what you said about actual record sales, incredible, and also the fact that some of their songs are massively popular as downloads today.

[HUR]

Oh no, no, no. Stop claiming they are the second best selling band. MJDangerous will beat you both up.

[EdWood]

Thanks Ed Wood, your clearly as much of a fan as me! I always loved the fact that Queen were disliked by the critics but adored by the public, I cant bare the music press.
How many albums a year do you think they are shifting worldwide these days? I mean US and UK combined would be close to one million? then the rest, not sure.
Its true what you said about actual record sales, incredible, and also the fact that some of their songs are massively popular as downloads today.

Well last year, in quite year for Queen (only the very low selling Queen Rock Montreal was released - live albums dont usually sell very well) they sold over 420,000 albums in the UK and were in the top 50 album acts for most albums sold. Not bad for purely catalogue sales. In the US, they sold nearly 3/4 of a million albums according to soundscan - more then U2 and Michael Jackson I think - once again all on Catalogue. Their catalogue over there, especially their hits albums are continuing to sell very well.

With the new data from Basil, Queens Platinum Collection should probably now be 2X Platinum as its on 632,000 sales according to Soundscan which is great for a triple CD. Queens Greatest Hits should be nearly Diamond by now. And the We Will Rock You Edition of Greatest Hits released in 2004, is on 770,000 sales - which should be enough for platinum if you count all shipments and missing sales..... They are in need of a huge update in certifications in both the UK and the USA.

[nucleardolphin]

Well thanks Ed Wood and HUR for all your information. How about their sales in Latin America, continental europe and Asia these days? Im trying to get some kind of an idea of their global sales each year. What I find amazing is the fact that they seem to have sold a similar amount of records since Freddie died than when he was alive. They had sold around 90 million as of 1991. Now its 170 million. Does anyone think that there is any likelihood of any new releases in the future of unreleased material or a box set which Queen have never done.

[borderwolf]

Switzerland

Rock Montreal & Live Aid [DVD]
certified Gold

[HUR]

Nucleardolphin, here you have anual sales of both USA and UK for Queen in the last three years:

2005: 1,606,000
2006: 1,633,000
2007: 1,165,357

So I guess they probably sold over 3 million in both 2005 and 2006 and maybe 1,5+m in 2007.

I don´t know much about Asia, but in Latin America, they are still shifting a great amount of records, notably in Argentina, their biggest market of the region. This year, they had a number one album in Brail during at least 5 weeks (counting local acts), which has now sold or shipped about 100,000 copies so far, while it looks like a god share of their studio albums have shipped roughly 15,000+ copies since about june 2003 up to now (thanks to Lostprphet who found the information).

It is interesting your observation about their sales since 1991 up to now. And actually, I think that 90m by november that year is probably on the high side. Their sales were estimated at 80m albums by early 1990 and about 50m singles up to that point...

However, they have sold like hot cakes since then because, when Freddie sadly passed away, they reached a new audience.

As I said, I estimated the sales of their "Greatest hits 1" to be at 22,000,000 copies worldwide for the last 20 years, just like "Greatest hits 2" had already sold roughly 15,000,000 by the end of 1992. And then you have "Made in heven" which was a record breaker in many european countries upon release, like in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and many more. And obviously, countless charts achievements during that time.

Overall, just counting 1991 and 1992, they sold well over 30 million albums. Besides, during the period between 1991 and december 1996 (once the effect of "Made in heaven" was over), they sold over 60 million worldwide. Besides, they did around 110m since 1988, that is, in the last 20 years.

Since april 2002 (with their musical "We will rock you"), they have sold very well too: easily over 20 million albums and around 6 million DVDs.

[nucleardolphin]

thanks HUR for all that information, truelly incredible numbers, and 6 million dvds is a huge amount. I heard that Live at Wembley is one of the biggest selling music dvds worldwide, is that true? When I mentioned the 90 million figure, it was because I remember reading a couple of articles at the time of his death and it said that, but yes the figure could be different.
How do you think their catalogue sales each year worldwide compare to other artists? I think the Beatles sell a huge amount and so does AC/DC. Thanks for all your help on this.

[HUR]

I have the feeling that since about 5 years or so, the biggest catalog selling bands worldwide are The Beatles, Pink Floyd (usual suspect) and AC/DC...with groups like The Rolling Stones, U2, Metallica, Queen, The Eagles and others being slightly below them. But you could ask Basil or MJDangerous, who know much more than me about this.

Yes, "Live at wembley ´86" has to be one of the best selling DVDs worldwide. I know The Eagles have two titles that sold over 2 million, pretty much like Led Zeppelin (their DVD released in 2003) and Pink Floyd with their DVD (2006). Also Céline and Michael Jackson had two strong DVDs.

Here my brekdown on "Live at wembley ´86":

- Live At Wembley ´86 (2003)

Europe: 1,200,000
UK: 330,000
Germany: 200,000
Netherlands: 200,000
Italy: 110,000
France: 130,000
Portugal: 60,000
Sweden: 20,000
Poland: 20,000
Spain: 40,000
Denmark: 4,000+
Greece: #2
Austria: 5,000 #1

USA: 350,000
Canada: 25,000

Australia: 60,000+
New Zealand: 20,000

Japan: 50,000

Brazil: 50,000*
Mexico: 20,000
Argentina: 4,000+

South Africa: 25,000+


Total worldwide: 1,900,000

*Brazil is difficult to calculate.

I think that in Europe it is one of the very best (if not the very best) selling DVDs ever. Sadly, we are missing a sales number for Italy, where the DVD had charted 130+ weeks overall since september 2003 (it was release three months before that), reaching #1 during 9 weeks. All what we know is that it sold 15,000 copies in 2006, which was one of its poorest years.

There are re-certifications needed in Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Portugal.

It was #1 in at least 11 countries.

[HUR]

And here a breakdown on the DVD "Queen rock montreal" (released in 2007):


Europe: 220,000
UK: 65,000
Germany: 40,000
Italy: 25,000
France: 20,000
Sweden: #1
Switzerland: 3,000
Portugal: 8,000
Poland: 10,000
Netherlands: #1

In Netherlands, it should easily be at about 20,000+, maybe more than that, actually. UK may very well be underestimated too.

USA: 70,000
Canada: 15,000
Japan: 15,000
Australia: 10,000
New Zealand: #2
Argentina: 2,000
Mexico: 10,000

In USA, it was certified the double version for sales of 50,000 which charted #6. However, the single version also peaked at #17 in that same week.

Worldwide etimations: 400,000

No doubt that "Live at wembley ´86" has been much bigger than this DVD. Back in the days of VHSs, they both had similar sales though.

The old version of Montreal, called "We will rock you" (released in 1984) was #1 in UK and re-entered at the top 10 in 1986 in july where it stayed until the end of the year. In 1992, it was #3 on the year-end charts. In USA, it was #1 during 8 weeks in 1992 and sold 132,000 copies. In Germany, it was #2 on the charts and spent 54+ weeks in the top 20 in 1992 (charts started in march 1991).

[Lawyeris]

So if we count all Live at Wembley video sales, including DVDs and VHSs, it would have good chances to be the best selling live album on earth through time and space:} 'cause it was a huge seller in 1990 and 1992 as well, and was selling very well 'till DVD was released.
I just cant imagine what VHS's sales numbers could be all around the world???

And what about other Queen's VHS releases???

[MJDangerous]

So if we count all Live at Wembley video sales, including DVDs and VHSs, it would have good chances to be the best selling live album on earth through time and space:}

Do you mean adding the album to the VHS and the DVD, or the best selling video (VHS+DVD) ?