MEAT LOAF CAREER CSPC RESULTS
So, after checking all the figures, how many overall equivalent album sales has each album by Meat Loaf achieved? Well, at this point we hardly need to add up all of the figures defined in this article!
In the following results table, all categories display figures in equivalent album sales. If different, pure sales are listed between parentheses.
| # | Cover | Album | Total CSPC | Sales* | Streams | Total CSPC | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio Albums | Other LPs | Physical Singles | Digital Singles | Last verified | Auto update | Daily Increase | |||||
| 1 |  | Bat Out of Hell | 35,790,000 | 27,410,000 | 6,709,000 | 870,000(2,900,000) | 336,000(2,240,000) | 115,000 (06/16/18) | 465,000 (10/01/22) | Av.: 220LD: 340 | 35,790,000 |
| 2 |  | Dead Ringer | 3,239,000 | 1,980,000 | 1,010,000 | 189,000(630,000) | 11,000(70,000) | 23,000 (06/16/18) | 49,000 (10/01/22) | Av.: 20LD: 20 | 3,239,000 |
| 3 | Midnight at the Lost and Found | 527,000 | 400,000 | 79,000 | 44,000(147,000) | 1,000(10,000) | 3,000 (06/16/18) | N/A | N/A | 527,000 | |
| 4 |  | Bad Attitude | 965,000 | 800,000 | 64,000 | 90,000(300,000) | 1,000(10,000) | 3,000 (06/16/18) | 10,000 (10/01/22) | Av.: 0LD: 0 | 965,000 |
| 5 | Blind Before I Stop | 300,000 | 260,000 | 9,000 | 30,000(100,000) | 0(0) | 1,000 (06/16/18) | N/A | N/A | 300,000 | |
| 6 |  | Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell | 16,162,000 | 12,730,000 | 1,499,000 | 1,479,000(4,930,000) | 150,000(1,000,000) | 73,000 (06/16/18) | 304,000 (10/01/22) | Av.: 150LD: 190 | 16,162,000 |
| 7 |  | Welcome to the Neighbourhood | 2,692,000 | 2,110,000 | 115,000 | 417,000(1,390,000) | 15,000(100,000) | 9,000 (06/16/18) | 35,000 (10/01/22) | Av.: 20LD: 20 | 2,692,000 |
| 8 | Couldn't Have Said It Better | 550,000 | 520,000 | 2,000 | 20,000(67,000) | 6,000(40,000) | 2,000 (06/16/18) | N/A | N/A | 550,000 | |
| 9 |  | Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose | 1,295,000 | 1,180,000 | 3,000 | 50,000(167,000) | 32,000(210,000) | 12,000 (06/16/18) | 30,000 (10/01/22) | Av.: 10LD: 10 | 1,295,000 |
| 10 | Hang Cool Teddy Bear | 288,000 | 280,000 | 0 | 0(0) | 5,000(30,000) | 3,000 (06/16/18) | N/A | N/A | 288,000 | |
| 11 | Hell in a Handbasket | 125,000 | 120,000 | 0 | 0(0) | 3,000(20,000) | 2,000 (06/16/18) | N/A | N/A | 125,000 | |
| 12 | Braver Than We Are | 113,000 | 110,000 | 0 | 0(0) | 1,000(10,000) | 2,000 (06/16/18) | N/A | N/A | 113,000 | |
| 13 | Orphan | 574,000 | 400,000 | 75,000 | 65,000(217,000) | 24,000(160,000) | 10,000 (06/16/18) | N/A | N/A | 574,000 | |
| *Pure sales figures updated on 06/16/18. 'Av.' stands for Average, 'LD' for Last Day. | |||||||||||
As a reminder:
- Studio Album: sales of the original album
- Other Releases: sales of compilations generated thanks to the album
- Physical Singles: sales of physical singles from the album (ratio 3/10)
- Download Singles: sales of digital singles from the album (ratio 1,5/10)
- Streaming: equivalent album sales of all the album tracks (ratio 1/1500 for Audio stream and 1/6750 for Video stream)
See where the artist ranks among remaining singers
Conclusions
In the music industry, some artists are one-hit wonders, others are one-album wonders. Meat Loaf is unique in that he is a one-franchise wonder. Both Bat Out Of Hell I and II have been immense successes. If sales claims often quoted on media of the former are largely inflated, it remains an insane smash. Up to 35,4 million equivalent album sales and counting, it’s among the Top 40 most successful albums of all-time. It tops classic records like Pink Floyd‘s Wish You Were Here and the Beatles‘ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The volume II is one of the most successful comebacks ever. A la Paul Simon‘s Graceland and Santana‘s Supernatural, it succeeded a very weak seller and went on to become a blockbuster. It is close to 16 million EAS to date. The 3rd chapter of the franchise is much more modest at less than 1,3 million.
Modest is also the word for remaining albums. If follow ups of his monster albums average 3 million EAS, remaining albums of Meat Loaf bombed in great fashion. Dead Ringer sold less than 10% of Bat Out Of Hell. It’s only one of his 5 albums which dropped 77% or more over their immediate predecessor. The singer has been completely unable to transform the success of his albums into a real following of his persona.
More than 40 years into his career, Meat Loaf has now sold close to 62 million EAS. Apart from back catalog sales of his two main records, this tally isn’t going to be boosted anytime soon.
To go deeper…
Thanks to our new ASR (Artist Success Rating) concept, we know that his sales represent 32.6 million times the purchase of his full catalog. Coupled with his total sales, it translates into an ASR score of 233. That puts him ahead of Cher and Green Day but behind Enya and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Additionally, the following pages list his most successful songs as well as his records and achievements. Do not forget to check our amazing cross-artists lists posted inside the CSPC: Data Collector which includes the full listing of all CSPC results compiled so far.
As usual, feel free to comment and / or ask a question!
Sources: IFPI, Spotify, YouTube, Discogs, Chartmasters.org.
RIP Meat! Here’s a look at some Spotify figures for his hits/albums. Meat Loaf’s discography hasn’t survived the streaming age well. His biggest album is obviously his debut smash “Bat Out of Hell”, but even that one has rather disappointing streaming figures. The raw figure for the BOOH album is 269.2M plays – far from the 500M mark to make it to the list of big streaming albums of 1977. A list led by “Rumours” with a whopping 3032.8M plays! Anyway, all told (incl. live vers. etc) here are the figures for the 7 tracks on his iconic debut: 2… Read more »
I was chatting with him privately, a few months ago, about something similar. My point was that the popularity of Don’t Stop Me Now, nowadays is not the same as it was back in the day (70s, 80s and 90s). It only became such a favourite and their 2nd most popular track, sometime in the 00s. I wouldn’t say it was a forgotten about track but so many of their other songs, were clearly and evidently more popular, more well known, more talked about, more played etc. IMO it gets a greater share of comps sales than it should, because… Read more »
Hi Thomas! These annual YouTube views give a quite clear reason of the share update: Dead Ringer For Love Sweden – 113k, #2 of the artist, 10% of his total views UK – 1.34m, #6 of the artist, 5% of his total views Brazil – 12.3k, #8 of the artist, 1.5% of his total views Basically, the track is way stronger on markets that had a head start on Spotify. As the platform got more global, it is going down to a more realistic position on his discography. These ‘shifts’ are always going to happen, but as streams and years… Read more »
Makes sense, thanks!
RIP
Now that you did Meatloaf how about doing Credence? C’mon guys everybody would love to see Credence!