Full Length related records Sales
In more than three decades as an active group, it is no surprise and no secret that U2 have released a lot of other full length records, in multiple formats. They haven’t flooded the market with many compilations -although they released no less than three ones in 8 years, from 1998 to 2006-, while they did put out plenty of live stuff, mainly in music video format.
Full Length Migration Part 1 – Compilations, Lives, EPs
By the look of the above figures, their eighties songs are the most enduring and widely regarded by the general public, with not just The Joshua Tree but also War and The Unforgettable Fire generating the most sales out of their discography.
As an example, The Joshua Tree generated a gigantic 12 million of The Best Of 1980-1990 sales, 3 million for War and 2 million for The Unforgettable Fire.
The second compilation, Best Of 1990-2000, focused on later material. We notice a bit of a surprise: Achtung Baby is overshadowed by All That You Can’t Leave Behind, which gets more than half of its sales. Beautiful Day is a bigger hit than any track on their 1991’s album and that paid for it in the end.
18 Singles, from 2006, showed a similar pattern albeit in the form of just one album.
Last but not least, we find another sign of what is coming. War gets a massive 7,8 million from Under A Blood Red Sky, their live album released during 1984. This latter release managed 9,6 million as an album, with additional sales coming from the music video on next page.
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? 🙂