Original Compilation Sales
Gold (1992)
- America
- US – 8,800,000
- Canada – 1,600,000
- Argentina – 250,000
- Brazil – 300,000
- Mexico – 400,000
- Asia
- Japan – 875,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 1,300,000
- New Zealand – 265,000
- Europe – 17,180,000
- UK – 5,800,000
- France – 1,810,000
- Germany – 2,900,000
- Italy – 725,000
- Spain – 900,000
- Sweden – 700,000
- Netherland – 450,000
- Switzerland – 600,000
- Austria – 300,000
- Finland – 146,000
- World – 34,000,000
Here is a little surprise. I don’t like much to post breakdowns of compilation albums as it goes against the CSPC ideology. The appeal of a best of is just the cumulative tally of the appeal of all its songs, which added value came from original studio albums. Still, Gold figures is various markets is just so extraordinary that I felt the need to post those numbers. In Europe, the album is the second highest selling album ever behind Thriller by Michael Jackson. In Asia it sold a huge 3 million, in Oceania it eclipsed the unbelievable total of 1,5 million. Even in North America, where the band popularity is supposed to be much weaker, the album sold more than 10 million units.
With a new album coming this friday, maybe then it’s time
for a Abba update ?.
I would be interested to see the sales for Abba this time next year (10/22).
But those who claim that ABBA have sold over 380 million records what sources do they have ?????
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-2558702/Abba-admit-wore-ridiculous-outfits-avoid-tax-40-years-Waterloo-band-reveals-story-success-words-unseen-pictures.html
These articles just quote other articles usually. I’d imagine this figure was originally inflated for marketing or taken out of context decades ago.
I have a question: What is with the album sales in Eastern Europe? They are completly missing in your list. On Wiki it says: “Due to the Cold war, Western music was actively discouraged throughout Eastern Europe at the time. Despite this, ABBA: The Album sold an unprecedented one million copies in Poland in 1977, exhausting the country’s entire allocation of foreign currency. In Russia, only 200,000 copies were permitted to be pressed” and due to wikipedia “Arrival” has been sold 800.000 times in Poland – Abba even had a TV-Show on Polish Television to promote the album. Shouldn’t you… Read more »
Hi Bajazet! You’ll also find Billboard articles from ABBA mania years quoting very different numbers for Poland, more in the 10,000-20,000 range, so we should be careful with Wikipedia claims. It’s possible to check our receipts database to see their information, including from Poland / Russia, that we have been able to confirm. When we published this article, to avoid blindly believing the numbers available on Wikipedia-like sources, but knowing they were indeed highly popular in Eastern Europe as well as in Norway and Denmark, we used larger than usual ratio for them when estimating European countries. As for the… Read more »
Thank you for your answer, you might be right (or maybe wrong) – it is not really important, I love ABBA’s music, so “Don’t shut me down” 😉
Can you guys add their compilation sales? And maybe their sales by country too?
Sorry to be annoying but don’t you think that figures for ABBA’s first four albums + The Best of Abba reported by Rca Australia in Billboard in 1977 also include New Zealand sales? Wondering what you think of it?
What are your sales estimates for The Best of ABBA in Australia?
Hi MJD! You obviously did an awesome job with ABBA, as usual, you never disappoint! Just one thing though! For Arrival’s total in Japan, you mention “N/A”. While I realize that means you don’t have enough information to set a precise figure, wasn’t it a (late) huge seller in 1979, after some sort of Abbamania kicked out there following their promotional trip there in November 1978? I think I remember reading rather precise figures many times – including some posted by yourself – on other websites (Charts In France, UKmix or the defunct ABBA World Wide Chart Lists), in the… Read more »