France Best Selling Albums Ever: Update Part 7 (20-1)
#8 – 24,000 UNITS
Queen – Greatest Hits II (1991) : TBD
What? How come Queen album Greatest Hits II features on this list so high? As always when doing such rankings, we need to set up eligibility and management rules. Some of them aren’t as clear as water, opened to debate. Do we compile a strict, technical list by allowing only pure sales of the original package or do we use a more functional logic by factoring in deluxe editions, 2/3 CDs packs which contain the exact same record. Last year, I went with the second choice. As seen in the example of Génération Goldman, such 2CD packages are always used as a replacement purchase depending on the price. Buying one of both formats makes the purchase of the other useless, so functionally speaking the consumer is really doing the same action by getting the stand-alone CD or a 2CD pack containing it. I excluded sales of 2000 compilation The Platinum Collection from Queen individual Greatest Hits tallies due to its specific brand. Chart runs of each products make it very clear that when Platinum Collection sells well individual packages do not and vice versa though. Thus, I’m now merging their total together, as done for such releases related to various other albums from this ranking. If Greatest Hits II charted only one week this year, the 3CD set lasted 44 weeks inside the Catalog ranking, being the strongest right in time for Christmas, this brings it 24,000 units for the year.
How much it sold in total to date though? – its sales are mentioned as TBD. Previously stated at 1,52 million units sold by the individual album, its stand-alone article will soon be posted anew to take into account all packages, giving it a new total to date.
Are the French really that open to English language artist? I thought France is a really tough market to break into. But seems like they are very open indeed.
Hi Michael!
French are opened to British artists, not that much to the US ones. There is a few exceptions, the most obvious one MJ, but in general UK acts perform much better. For example, bands like Muse, Jamiroquai, Texas, Cranberries, etc. performed as well / better than supposedly much bigger acts like the Guns, Pearl Jam, Aerosmith or Van Halen. US bands big in France like Nirvana are truly rare!
Hi MJD! Love your updates on the best selling albums in France.
I want to ask whether there are new addition to the list of million selling albums in France. One example is Adele’s 25 album. Is it close to the million threshold? Other albums i remember close to that mark are AC/DC Highway to Hell, a couple of Sade albums etc. Have they surpassed 1 million copies in France?
Looking forward for your next project!
Bonjour MJD,avez-vous les chiffres de vente réactualisés sur Led Zeppelin aux USA mais aussi en G-B SVP ? Ou sinon connaissez-vous des liens vers des sites fiables ? Merci par avance.Vous faites un job extraordinaire,bonne journée.JRH06.
Bonjour Jean-Raymond!
Les chiffres de Led Zeppelin pour chaque album ont été posté dans l’article CSPC du groupe il y a quelques mois seulement 🙂
En tapant le nom du groupe dans le champ “Search”, c’est le premier résultat !
Hi Raffi!
As mentioned inside those articles, Highway to Hell is up to 975,000 units. Bob Marley album Uprising is on 980,000 copies. Michael Sardou record La Vieille shipped 990,000 units, the same tally of Louane 2015 album Chambre 12, both just ahead of the 980,000 copies from Adele last album 25. All those albums plus a few others are likely to get into the ranking within’ one to three years. No Sade album will get there soon as Diamond Life, under 950,000 units, isn’t selling too well now.
You’re doing a good job. I love reading this stuff.
But, I’n curious when IT comes to Crime of the century. how many albums was sold in France last year?
Crime entered back catalogue top-100 at least 12 times.
Hello Trond!
Crime of the Century indeed sold well in 2016, moving an estimated 9,000 units.