A wave. That's pretty much the easiest way to define the popularity of most artists. Some acts have a bigger wave than others, but they still go up, and then after reaching their peak, inevitably slow down more and more as the years pass by. Among groups not fitting this description belongs Green Day.

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An underground punk act in the early 90s, Billie Joe Armstrong's band suddenly became hugely popular in 1994 thanks to a trio of chart topping hits on the Modern Rock Tracks ranking. With their popularity quickly vanishing after that streak, the band managed an impressive return to form a decade later with the American Idiot album. Maybe even more incredibly, that seventh album was their first to truly break a global audience.

Initial reception isn't the be-all and end-all of popularity. A song like Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) came out during difficult years for Green Day and failed to change that trend. Still, it is undoubtedly one of their most famous songs to date.

So, which song and album are the most popular among the modern age classic rock band's catalog? How big are Green Day? How is their 2016 output Revolution Radio performing? It is time to answer all those questions!

Original Albums Sales

NB: N/A means no specific number is available. Sales from the country are still accounted for in the Worldwide estimate by using figure patterns of both the artist and the country market. Countries not displayed in this fixed panel are also factored in.

39/Smooth (1990)

Kerplunk (1991)

Dookie (1994)

Insomniac (1995)

Nimrod (1997)

Warning (2000)

American Idiot (2004)

21st Century Breakdown (2009)

¡Uno! (2012)

¡Dos! (2012)

¡Tré! (2012)

Revolution Radio (2016)

Original Album Sales - Comments

1990 39/Smooth - 100,000
1991 Kerplunk - 1,950,000
1994 Dookie - 19,750,000
1995 Insomniac - 5,800,000
1997 Nimrod - 5,200,000
2000 Warning - 3,450,000
2004 American Idiot - 15,250,000
2009 21st Century Breakdown - 3,800,000
2012 ¡Uno! - 1,050,000
2012 ¡Dos! - 650,000
2012 ¡Tré! - 550,000
2016 Revolution Radio - 700,000

Green Day's sales summed it in one word?... irregular. Green Day have sold a combined 58,25 million studio albums spread across 12 outputs, an average close to 6 million units per set. Two of them though, Dookie and American Idiot, shifted 35 million units combined, leaving a mere 23,25 million for the remaining 10 LPs.

Chronologically speaking, they started with two albums from a minor label selling a only a few thousand units. 39/Smooth is on 100,000 copies sold while their second album, Kerplunk, is close to 2 million. This is because 39/Smooth was deleted when the band became big, being replaced instead by 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, a compilation of the album plus early EPs. This set's figures will come in the Compilation Category later on in the article.

Both Dookie and American Idiot were immense successes, but both were followed by strong disappointments. In-between, they retained some decent sales though. In recent years the band has been struggling a lot and isn't looking likely to get back on track anytime soon.

Physical Singles Sales

Despite amassing as many as 11 US #1 hits on the Alternative Songs list, which is based on radio airplay on themed stations, Green Day hardly sold anything in the physical singles format in their home country due to the absence of such releases.

Indeed, in the US at least, they never had a proper single issued. In Europe, they exploded later when that market was already vanishing. All in all, that's not really good indicators. This situation concludes on a mere 3 million physical singles sold to date.

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between one album and one physical single.

Dookie (1994) - 276,000 equivalent albums

Longview - 100,000
Welcome to Paradise - 120,000
Basket Case - 400,000
She - 100,000
When I Come Around - 200,000

Insomniac (1995) - 55,500 equivalent albums

Stuck with Me - 60,000
Geek Stink Breath - 75,000
Brain Stew / Jaded - 50,000

Nimrod (1997) - 168,000 equivalent albums

Hitchin' a Ride - 100,000
Redundant - 60,000
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - 400,000

Warning (2000) - 78,000 equivalent albums

Warning - 125,000
Waiting - 60,000
Minority - 75,000

American Idiot (2004) - 255,000 equivalent albums

American Idiot - 200,000
Jesus of Suburbia - 50,000
Holiday - 100,000
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - 300,000
Wake Me Up When September Ends - 200,000

21st Century Breakdown (2009) - 21,000 equivalent albums

Know Your Enemy - 25,000
21 Guns - 25,000
Remaining Singles - 20,000

Orphan - 60,000 equivalent albums

The Saints Are Coming - 150,000
Remaining Singles - 50,000

Digital Singles Sales

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between one album and one digital single.

Part 1

If some still doubt the monster status of Dookie among Green Day's earlier albums, here are some more figures establishing its status. Tracks from 39/Smooth, Kerplunk and Insomniac haven't sold much in download singles format, with sales standing at just 1,4 million. However, it's a totally different story for hits from Dookie which combine for 6,8 million units sold. The biggest song from the album is easily Basket Case which is responsible for nearly half of that total.

39/Smooth (1990) - 30,000 equivalent albums

Remaining tracks - 200,000

Kerplunk (1991) - 60,000 equivalent albums

Remaining tracks - 400,000

Dookie (1994) - 1,020,000 equivalent albums

Longview - 400,000
Welcome to Paradise - 600,000
Basket Case - 3,300,000
She - 300,000
When I Come Around - 1,600,000
Remaining tracks - 600,000

Insomniac (1995) - 120,000 equivalent albums

Brain Stew - 400,000
Remaining tracks - 400,000

Part 2

The interesting thing about these albums is that they came out in fundamentally distinct eras, in spite of following each other in Green Day's release history. Both Nimrod and Warning came out before legal downloads arrived. The former still holds the monster track Good Riddance which has over 5 million sales thanks to its strong catalog appeal.

American Idiot was succeeding at the very start of the digital boom. In fact, Boulevard of Broken Dreams was #1 in the first ever Hot Digital Songs as published in January 2005 by Billboard. Roughly 30,000 units were enough to dominate the ranking at the time. Other big hits from American Idiot have racked up millions of sales in this format over the last 13 years. The four main ones are all in the 3-5 million range, building a huge total of more than 17 million sales for the album.

21st Century Breakdown came out during a time when a #1 US hit was routinely moving over 200,000 units per week, not even accounting for ringtones. The situation was similar in most countries where digital sales were getting bigger and bigger too. The environment helped the hit 21 Guns  in achieving over 4 million units sold Worldwide. Adding to this, the cumulative tally of the album's songs top 8 million, despite being overall much less successful than its predecessor.

Nimrod (1997) - 885,000 equivalent albums

Nice Guys Finish Last - 100,000
Hitchin' a Ride - 150,000
Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) - 5,300,000
Remaining tracks - 350,000

Warning (2000) - 135,000 equivalent albums

Warning - 100,000
Waiting - 100,000
Minority - 400,000
Macy's Day Parade - 100,000
Remaining tracks - 200,000

American Idiot (2004) - 2,655,000 equivalent albums

American Idiot - 3,600,000
Jesus of Suburbia - 700,000
Holiday - 3,000,000
Boulevard of Broken Dreams - 4,800,000
Wake Me Up When September Ends - 3,800,000
Remaining tracks - 1,800,000

21st Century Breakdown (2009) - 1,260,000 equivalent albums

Know Your Enemy - 1,900,000
21 Guns - 4,500,000
Remaining tracks - 2,000,000

Part 3

There's not much to comment on in regards to these albums. While the market started to reduce, it was Green Day's popularity collapsing among the general public which caused the most damage. Thus concluding on these abysmal results.

In total, the band sold a healthy number of 44,6 million downloads and ringtones.

¡Uno! (2012) - 150,000 equivalent albums

Remaining tracks - 1,000,000

¡Dos! (2012) - 90,000 equivalent albums

Remaining tracks - 600,000

¡Tré! (2012) - 105,000 equivalent albums

Remaining tracks - 700,000

Revolution Radio (2016) - 60,000 equivalent albums

Remaining tracks - 400,000

Orphan - 120,000 equivalent albums

Remaining tracks - 800,000

Streaming Sales

As seen with the example of the Beatles, today the weight of Spotify is steadily increasing, representing as much as 63,5% of overall streams on their example. The Swedish giant recently announced they broke the 50-million barrier of paid subscribers.

We will keep that ratio Spotify-All Audio Streaming services updated as much as possible, especially when the next IFPI RIN comes out next month covering the 2016 Global market. For now, we will be sticking with this 63,5% rate.

What is this section about? Here we will be reviewing streams from all songs and all albums of Green Day, converting each of them into equivalent album sales. The equivalent album sales is the division of the comprehensive streaming figure by 1500, as is now the norm in the new industry model.

Streaming Part 1 - pre-fame Recordings

Streaming numbers for Green Day's first two albums aren't that bad. Given they sold as catalog items exclusively, neither had no hit back in the day. This is still the weakness of those records which contain no song reaching even 2 million plays. Obviously, it negatively impacts their potential in terms of equivalent album sales, ending on 8,000 and 15,000 units respectively.

Streaming Part 2 - mid-90s hits

With Dookie, Green Day's dimension completely changed. That situation remains true in the streaming world. All the songs from the album top 3 million, a tremendous showing for a 15-track 1994 album. Its 5 singles from the original era are all on 14 million or more. The leading force is easily Basket Case at an impressive 142 million plays. Such solid results are reflected with 309,000 equivalent album sales.

Insomniac is nowhere near its predecessors. In spite of a good overall showing, only Brain Stew stood the test of time at 16 million streams. Overall, the LP registers 39,000 equivalent album sales.

Streaming Part 3 - Calm before the Storm

Both Nimrod and Warning had similar receptions to Insomniac when they were first released, all of them selling pretty much the same number of copies in their first 12 months.

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) started to be used as some kind of celebration tune. One that you will air at funerals or when completing your university degree. This raised its status over the years, climbing now to the huge 100 million mark. That song alone gets nearly as many streams as all the other tracks from Insomniac, Nimrod and Warning combined. Home of this hit, Nimrod, is the album enjoying these results with 144,000 equivalent album sales.

Streaming Part 4 - Successful holidays

The unexpected and terrific return to form of Green Day with the American Idiot album wasn't the result of luck. The record contains as many as 4 massively loved songs. The title track, Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Wake Me Up When September Ends all crack the magical 100-million threshold. With nearly 1 billion comprehensive streams, the album is up to 658,000 equivalent album sales.

While nowhere near as big, 21st Century Breakdown performs respectably. With most album tracks around 3 million and singles topping 10 million, it is close to Dookie. It also has one mega-smash hit with 21 Guns, a 120 million streams song. The album amasses 234,000 equivalent album sales.

Streaming Part 5 - Triple flop

The issue with the release of a trio of albums themed after each other is that, once the first one bombs you will be unlikely to bring additional visitors to the boat with volumes 2 and 3. Add to that people feeling ripped off by the idea of paying for 3 records, even before buying the first one, and you get an awful atmosphere in which to try and be successful.

Streaming was seriously starting to increase in 2012 / 2013. Still all these albums perform rather poorly on this format. All the songs are over 1 million thanks to this favorable market, but the biggest track of all is Oh Love at 14 million only. Equivalent album sales of Uno, Dos and Tré are respectively on 73,000, 40,000 and 45,000 units.

Streaming Part 6 - No Revolution

Looking at just streaming figures for Revolution Radio, it looks stronger than previous albums. However, it must be noted that it is enjoying a streaming market far bigger than a few years ago. Both #1 Alternative Songs on US radio are on 15-20 million, yet for this day and age these are truly unimpressive numbers. In fact, out of all 16 #1s of 2016 on the Billboard Alternative Songs ranking, Green Day's Bang Bang is the 14th worst performer ahead only of Trip Switch by Nothing But Thieves and Mess Around by Cage the Elephant, both of which are very close anyway on 18-20 million. On the other end of the spectrum, the Top 4  out of those 16 tracks, all by Twenty One Pilots and Coldplay, register at least 350 million streams each.

Those figures highlight an obvious lack of crossover appeal outside of the Rock box from new singles by Green Day. All told, Revolution Radio is on 79,000 equivalent album sales, while all non-album tracks listed within the Orphan Album folder add for 48,000 units.

Full Length related records Sales

It sounds fairly logical to add together weighted sales of one era - studio album, physical single, downloads and streams - to get the full picture of an album's popularity. For older releases though, they also generate sales of various live, music videos and compilation albums.

All those packaging-only records do not create value, they exploit the one originated from the parent studio album of each of its tracks instead. Inevitably, when such compilations are issued this downgrades catalog sales of the original LP. Thus, to perfectly gauge how worthy this latter is, we need to re-assign sales proportionally to its contribution of all compilations which feature its songs. The following table explains this..

Remaining Long Format Part 1 - Compilations & More

How to understand the table from the picture? For each compilation, we first define its sales. Sticking to our example, International Superhits! sold 5,65 million units in the few countries it got released. Its tracks combine for 428,6 million streams on Spotify. Those tracks got initially released from various distinct studio albums which are the ones listed in the fourth column. Then, we learn that songs first issued on Dookie are responsible for 58% of International Superhits! total streams, meaning it created 58% of its appeal which is the equivalent of 3,305,000 sales. We apply the same logic to all sales creators of that best of and then to all compilations.

Logically, Dookie is very precisely the main provider of attractiveness for their earlier compilations. International Superhits! sold very well during American Idiot hype, being mainly driven by those 1994 songs. Green Day has yet to release a career-spanning compilation with hits of all their eras.

Remaining Long Format Part 2 - Live Albums

Both Dookie and Insomniac have one 100m+ streams song, Basket Case and Good Riddance, while American Idiot has four. Those biggest songs have a overwhelming weight on all live packages of the band. Naturally, American Idiot ends up as the main provider of sales at 49-65%, while the other two are in the 10-20% range. Remaining albums have close to no impact on those live sets.

It must be noted that Foot In Mouth wasn't a global release but instead a Japanese one.

Remaining Long Format Part 3 - EPs

Real EPs with less than 6 songs are weighted as half an album only, while others are weighted on par with an album. All those records came out with no promotion or with limited release, selling low amounts as a whole.

Remaining Long Format Part 4 - Music Videos

Music videos of Green Day came out mostly themed after compilation or live albums. Thus, we can see the same distribution patterns among their original studio albums than the said compilation and live albums.

Remaining Long Format Part 5 - Box Sets

In 2012, two box sets, one pre-Uno/Dos/Tré trilogy and one containing exactly that one. Each shipped roughly 35,000 units which get rewarded to each album part of them.

Full Length related records Sales - Summary

Here is the most underestimated indicator of an album success - the amount of compilation sales of all kinds it generated. Due to the dependency of the own studio album sales on those releases, they are a key piece of the jigsaw.

The expected contenders amass the highest number of sales generated through all compilations. Dookie is the leading force having contributed in pretty much every such package released since two decades. American Idiot obviously started later but already moved a high number of live sets and music videos.

Green Day Career CSPC Results

So, after checking all figures, how many overall equivalent album sales each Green Day album achieved? Well, at this point we barely need to do the addition of all figures defined all over this article!

[xyz-ips snippet="updatedCSPCalbums"]

If the domination of both Dookie and American Idiot isn't a surprise, their overall tally of over 25 million and over 21 million respectively is pretty impressive. One may try to point out how much they failed to reproduce such figures but in any case those two albums alone are responsible for more equivalent album sales than full discographies of various popular artists.

Their supposedly weaker albums are far from being ridiculous too. Nimrod is up to a solid 8 million total figure while all Insomniac, Warning and 21st Century Breakdown are in a respectable 4-6 million range.

Each of their last three albums failed to break the million milestone, but hope isn't lost yet as Revolution Radio is still being promoted and should hit that mark at some point, possibly during 2017.

The cumulative total of Green Day climbs up to 81,15 million equivalent albums. This figure puts them in the same league as the likes Shania Twain and Adele. Among rock bands of the last 30 years, they are way below the Guns N' Roses at 117 million, close to both Nirvana at 90 million and Coldplay at 83 million, while topping Linkin Park 74 million figure. Additional bands including Oasis and Radiohead still need to be studied but will appear nowhere near to Green Day, which proves the strong universal appeal of the latter band. Following pages list their most successful songs.

As usual, feel free to comment and / or ask a question!

Sources: IFPI, Spotify, Chartmasters.org.

BIGGEST TRACKS - Green Day

The list of most successful songs is compiled in album equivalent sales generated by each of them. It includes the song own physical singles sales with a 0,3 weighting, its download and streaming sales with appropriate weighting too plus its share among sales of all albums on which it is featured.

1. 1994 - Basket Case [Dookie] - 12,960,000
2. 1997 - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) [Nimrod] - 6,690,000
3. 2004 - Boulevard of Broken Dreams [American Idiot] - 5,510,000
4. 1994 - When I Come Around [Dookie] - 4,930,000
5. 2004 - American Idiot [American Idiot] - 4,230,000
6. 2004 - Wake Me Up When September Ends [American Idiot] - 3,890,000
7. 2004 - Holiday [American Idiot] - 3,710,000
8. 2009 - 21 Guns [21st Century Breakdown] - 3,020,000
9. 1995 - Brain Stew [Insomniac] - 2,850,000
10. 1994 - Welcome to Paradise [Dookie] - 1,980,000
11. 1994 - Longview [Dookie] - 1,580,000
12. 2000 - Minority [Warning] - 1,350,000
13. 1994 - She [Dookie] - 1,250,000
14. 2004 - Jesus of Suburbia [American Idiot] - 1,140,000
15. 2009 - Know Your Enemy [21st Century Breakdown] - 730,000
16. 2000 - Warning [Warning] - 690,000
17. 1995 - Geek Stink Breath [Insomniac] - 680,000
18. 2000 - Waiting [Warning] - 570,000
19. 1994 - Burnout [Dookie] - 570,000
20. 1995 - Walking Contradiction [Insomniac] - 560,000

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