Physical Singles Sales – Part 1
Even if Mariah Carey got extensive airplay during the entire 90s, largely boosting her US Singles Hot 100 results, she still sold her share of units, in the US but also abroad too. How much? It is time to found out!
As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.
Mariah Carey (1990) – 1,025,000 equivalent albums
Vision of Love – 1,380,000
There’s Got to Be a Way – 15,000
I Don’t Wanna Cry – 370,000
Someday – 740,000
Love Takes Time – 910,000
Emotions (1991) – 591,000 equivalent albums
Emotions – 860,000
Can’t Let Go – 580,000
Make It Happen – 520,000
If It’s Over – 10,000
Music Box (1993) – 1,941,000 equivalent albums
Dreamlover – 1,370,000
Hero – 1,930,000
Anytime You Need a Friend – 750,000
Without You – 2,420,000
Merry Christmas (1994) – 651,000 equivalent albums
All I Want for Christmas Is You – 2,160,000
Joy to the World – 10,000
The Mariah Carey album was huge in North America, but failed to be as big elsewhere. This is well represented in its singles sales with figures around 800,000 units a piece, a common figure for a US smash that failed to do so well in Europe.
Continuing that way with the Emotions era, the diva then stepped up, reaching a whole new dimension with Music Box. Dreamlover, Hero and Without You were Top 10 hits in most relevant markets with the latter topping charts in several countries. With well past 6 million singles sold this era was definitely huge.
The era of Merry Christmas was naturally short, but still noteworthy. As All I Want for Christmas Is You smashed past the 2 million units mark in spite of not being released in the US. This was made possible by an incredible 1,4 million units shifted in Japan alone!
why isnt i know what you want isnt counted to charmbracelet streams since its present on the international version of the album? https://open.spotify.com/album/60uzoZyNIXRVhhxTMHxe7P?si=-S9k9cm5TkGW420AJ0Gzqg
RIAA just recertify The Emancipation of Mimi as 7 millions copies in the USA and We belong together at 6 millions
Please update Mariah’s – she may have surpassed 200M mark by now. Thank you in advance!!!
Don’t think so, acts like Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin, Abba and Rolling Stones were updated longer ago and would probably have a bigger leap as streaming is already updated
She is pretty up to date, as her streaming figures are regularly updated, which is every artists main source of “sales” these days. While she will obviously have added some physical sales since her last update, they will not be very significant.
wasn’t the formula used to update her streams outdated? She’s also updated several of her certifications lately, I’d think she’d be well over 180m with an update.
Since the 2017 Mariah Carey analysis on this website, the RIAA alone has certified an additional 44 million units (37 million singles plus 7 million albums sold), along with more updates in the UK, Australia and elsewhere. The figures reported on this site’s analysis for Mariah are wildly out of date and/or were always incorrect. One glaring example is that “We Belong Together” is certified in the US alone for 6 million and is actually her second biggest single when combining her Universal and Sony catalogs, but it’s reported ranking here is #10 with 5.22 million globally. Sony Music’s Certified… Read more »
Hi usernameneeded!
You are mixing apples and oranges in this comment. For example, you compare equivalent album sales worldwide (5.22m) with equivalent single sales in the US (6m) for AIWFCIY, obviously numbers won’t match. You also confuse TEA+SEA (downloads plus streams converted) with pure sales alone.
Most of the examples you list are already accounted for on automatic streaming numbers updates which are done daily. Her certs updates reflect nothing else than these ongoing streams. When you read a sales figure, it’s always very important to understand what it really is about.
I believe he said We Belong Together was certified 6 million not AIWFCIY. And it seems like what he said is legit, because on RIAA website We Belong Together is certified 6x platinum.
Yes but he is mixing EAS (5.2m) with single sales (6m in the US)…
She may be at 180m in a few months
https://www.facebook.com/mariahcarey/photos/p.10151549954392766/10151549954392766/?type=3&theater
Why does her Spotify Tool not include the “Big Energy Remix”?