Physical Singles Sales
U2 became huge all over the world at a time of relatively low singles sales, so their physical titles didn’t quite reach the heights managed by other big selling acts. This results in huge albums sales, but not so much for their physical singles.
That said, their 20 million physical singles sold overall are nothing to feel shy of. On the contrary, it is pretty strong given the circumstances.
The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and Rattle & Hum generated the most sales. From 1993 onwards, we see a natural decline.
Boy (1980) – 75,000 equivalent albums
I Will Follow – 200,000
A Day Without Me – 50,000
October (1981) – 75,000 equivalent albums
Gloria – 150,000
Fire & A Celebration – 100,000
War (1983) – 330,000 equivalent albums
New Year’s Day – 500,000
Two Heart Beat As One – 200,000
Sunday Bloody Sunday – 400,000
The Unforgettable Fire (1984) – 420,000 equivalent albums
Pride – 900,000
The Unforgettable Fire – 500,000
The Joshua Tree (1987) – 1,215,000 equivalent albums
With Or Without You – 1,750,000
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For – 1,250,000
Where The Streets Have No Name – 650,000
In God’s Country & One Tree Hill – 400,000
Rattle And Hum (1988) – 870,000 equivalent albums
Desire – 1,300,000
Angel Of Harlem – 600,000
All I Want Is You – 600,000
When Love Comes To Town – 400,000
Achtung Baby (1991) – 1,215,000 equivalent albums
The Fly – 900,000
Mysterious Ways – 1,000,000
One – 1,250,000
Even Better Than The Real Thing – 600,000
Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses – 300,000
Zooropa (1993) – 315,000 equivalent albums
Numb – 250,000
Lemon – 200,000
Stay – 600,000
Pop (1997) – 675,000 equivalent albums
Discotheque – 1,250,000
Starring At The Sun – 500,000
Last Night On Earth, Please, If God Will Send His Angels & Mofo – 500,000
All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000) – 555,000 equivalent albums
Beautiful Day – 900,000
Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of – 450,000
Walk On & Elevation – 500,000
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004) – 255,000 equivalent albums
Vertigo – 450,000
All Because Of You, Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own & City Of Blinding Lights – 400,000
No Line On The Horizon (2009) – 30,000 equivalent albums
Get On Your Boots – 50,000
Magnificent & I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight – 50,000
Songs Of Innocence (2014) – 0 equivalent albums
No physical singles
Orphan Album – 735,000 equivalent albums
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me – 1,500,000
Miss Sarajevo – 500,000
Other singles – 250,000
hey mjd,please give us Total Album (all types) Sales per Country
Songs Of Experience is 330,631 EAS, I think it must be correct
between The Joshua Tree (super deluxe) and The Joshua Tree remastered from 2007 there is an extra song that is Where The Streets Have No Name- single edit / remastered 2007 which has 3,259,433 streams: then I think that after just 5 years the article on U2 should be updated since in 2016 they released Innocence + Experience: Live in Paris (DVD) and in 2017 they released their latest album Songs of Experience, so maybe thanks to their last released material reached 200 million equivalent albums sold.
I hope you answer me !!
I am still waiting for someone from your staff to answer me, I think I have made an excellent reflection or question
What are the chances that U2 will break through the 500 ASR barrier in the near future?
This is obviously dependent on how well they are doing compared to Michael Jackson as the bench mark?
Hi Smiley!
It depends on many factors so it’s difficult to tell. They grow about 2.7 million streams a day compared to Jackson’s 4.5 million. With features, the gap is a bit higher. Since Jackson does so on the back of a shorter discography, it means both his CSPC and equivalent discography sales are climbing fairly faster, so I wouldn’t expect U2 to get closer to him on ASR, at least not without new albums.
Hi was wondering if I could please get a breakdown of the best of 1980-1990 album country by country, like it is done for the studio albums . Thanks
this needs an update with a biggest tracks page
Update U2’s CSPC with “Songs of Experience” album released 2017!
Give us CSPC for another famous irish rock star…………..VAN MORRISON!
And here i would love to see biggest tracks list. It would be great if you can do it like it is for RHCP or Metallica with Stones, Zeppelin, U2.
Hi Joe! Here is their top 20: 1. 1987 – U2 – With Or Without You [The Joshua Tree] – 23,430,000 2. 1983 – U2 – Sunday Bloody Sunday [War] – 16,800,000 3. 2000 – U2 – Beautiful Day [All That You Can’t Leave Behind] – 14,770,000 4. 1991 – U2 – One [Achtung Baby] – 14,750,000 5. 1987 – U2 – I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For [The Joshua Tree] – 13,420,000 6. 1984 – U2 – Pride (in The Name Of Love) [The Unforgettable Fire] – 7,740,000 7. 1983 – U2 – New Year’s Day [War]… Read more »
Great! Huge thx! 🙂 All I need now is Santana, Clapton, Van Halen, ZZ Top and Jimi Hendrix 😀 but I know it is a lot of work to do to get this happen. But anyway- do you think those acts are going to be included this year? Or i need to wait a little more? 🙂