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People actually think Queen is on his level?
With updates he's at least 70 million units ahead.
His biotopic is coming out and if it will be as successful as Queens, then Elvis and Queen are never catching up.
AkhilJackson keeps track of all Michael's record sales and sends them to the Estate, he's the only reliable source & i'm in frequent contact with him. Michael has sold at least 510 million, The Beatles sold as high as 550 million. They made be ahead, but Michael is by far the most influential and greatest artist in history, so it really means nothing at the end of the day, nobody will ever be on his level.
Nobody on his level, there's literally never been anyone in history more popular or revered as Michael Jackson.
AkhilJackson is the only reliable source regarding sales for Michael. He's around 500-515 million, whereas the Beatles have as high as 550 million. But most of that comes from compilations, they aren't in the same stratosphere as Michael who is by far the greatest of all time
I don't understand the intention of this comment. Do you feel so incredibly powerful by having started another absolutely pointless and childish discussion about Michael Jackson vs. Queen?
Someone named KB50MJ, who most people on the MJJCommunity seemed to trust as a credible source, cited sales figures of this before his death & later updated it on March of 2010.
Studio Albums sales - 206,772,158
Compilation / Remix albums - 49,115,714
Singles Sold - 113,098,700
Video / DVD Sales - 26,750,000
Total Sales = 410,687,572 (March 2010)
Before death = 392,000,000
Billboard reported their formula for tracking his worldwide sales
https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/the-kings-coffers-behind-the-earnings-of-michael-jacksons-estate-5785629/
Jackson sold almost 819,000 album units in the United States and 2.8 million tracks in 2012, The estate has said that his U.S. album sales are 30% of global album sales, and Billboard estimates the artist’s U.S. track sales at 48% of global sales. Which results in global album sales of 2.7 million units and 5.8 million track sales for the year.
(Formula - 3.3 x US Album Sales = Global Album sales, 2.07 x US Single sales = Global Single sales)
Billboard says he sold this much in the 10 year period since his death, using their own estimates you'd get (this)
https://www.billboard.com/pro/michael-jackson-10th-anniversary-death-by-the-numbers/
16.9 Million albums sold in the US from 2009-2019 (53.4 Million worldwide)
31.4 Million song downloads in the US from 2009-2019 (64.9 Million worldwide)
117.9 million estimated global sales from 2009 to 2019
In 2009 alone he sold roughly 64 million, so subtract that and you get 53 Million
So now just add the 53 Million to the number of sales he had a year after his death
410,687,572 (March 2010) + 53 Million (2010-2019) = 463,687,572
Currently he's at 463.1 Million, which is literally 0.5 off, meaning Billboard's report & the user above were accurate.
Now if we taken to account the reported sales unaccounted
https://twitter.com/AkhilJaxxn/status/1697665293336842413 ,
Michael Jackson is now eligible for 51 Million units of song certifications and 8.5 Million units of albums in the United States (September 2023)
59.5 Million + 463.1 Million = 523 Million (Estimated sales incl. all formats)
The Beatles have 80% of their sales accounted for and up to date, they are at
Studio Album sales = 160,650,000
Compilations / Box Sets = 203,392,000
Singles Sold = 151,310,000
Streams = 20,788,000
Total Sales = 536,140,000
He's still behind by nearly 15 million including the unaccounted for unit sales, Michael would need a surge in sales like 2009-2014 in order to be the definitive #1
Oh well, if KB50MH is rated as a "credible" source that people can "trust", the fanbase really is in dire straits lately!
Billboard 03/2023.
2018 Jackson music generated 1,4 million consumption units (EAS) and next years 1,1 m, 1 27 m, 1,28 m and 2022 it generated 1,47 m consumption units. US sales generated about 1/3 from Jackson's WW sales.
I.e WW sales is between 3,5-5 million EAS, only recorded music i.e physical, digitals, streams.
No just pointing out facts because some actually feel they are on his level.
A huge survey in 2005 (after his trial) was conducted in over 70 countries, translated in 20 languages. People had to submit their 3 favorite songs, Sony then translated the results into a top 100. Queen came away with the #1 spot for We are The Champions. Michael had 18 of the top 100 most popular songs globally. No other artist had more than 4 hits make the list. The Beatles had 2, U2 had 3, Elvis had none, Queen and Britney had 3, Dire Straits had 4
This is the best example of how internationally huge MJ is
Here are the official Motown era sales figures as detailed in a Detroit court from a contract between Motown and Polygram, they were collaborated by Randy Taraborrelli who detailed in his book on Michael Jackson "I also reviewed a computer readout of all of Motown's exact sales figures as of December 1990. This computer readout is over ten thousand pages long and includes the album, tape and CD sales of virtually every Motown release from the time of the company's inception. I refer to these figures quite often in this book.' Alessandro who was provided direct figures of every single and album release by a Motown employee. Alessandro was in frequent contact with Taraborelli, archived by MJJChartData (2007).
Singles - 2,865,012 + 2,897,345 + 2,245,881 + 1,756,234 + 1,321,567 + 861,120 + 788,133 + 403,331 + 341,123 + 278,910 + 145,871 + 89,129 + 15,345 + 12,345 + 10,208 + 5,003 + 1,003 = 14,037,560 Worldwide singles
Albums - Ben (4,401,605), Got to Be There (4,112,879), Anthology (2,655,098), The Best of (2,230,223), Farewell my Summer Love (2,087,110), Music and Me (1,980,440), Forever Michael (1,687,234), One Day in Your Life (1,552,208),
The Original Soul Of (377,745), Looking Back to Yesterday (302,330) - 21,386,872
As of 1990 Michael Jackson had sold
14.037 million singles
21.386 million albums total
12,182 million studio albums
Under the Motown contract which relates to albums/Singles before Off the Wall
Total studio album sales would be at 189 million minimum factoring in the Motown figures alone, taking the new certification levels for the Epic / Sony albums puts it at a estimated 200-207 million studio album sales excluding any LP
Regarding Motown era
Here are the official Motown era sales figures as detailed in a Detroit court from a contract between Motown and Polygram, they were collaborated by Randy Taraborrelli who detailed in his book on Michael Jackson "I also reviewed a computer readout of all of Motown's exact sales figures as of December 1990. This computer readout is over ten thousand pages long and includes the album, tape and CD sales of virtually every Motown release from the time of the company's inception. I refer to these figures quite often in this book.' Alessandro who was provided direct figures of every single and album release by a Motown employee. Alessandro was in frequent contact with Taraborelli, archived by MJJChartData (2007).
Singles - 2,865,012 + 2,897,345 + 2,245,881 + 1,756,234 + 1,321,567 + 861,120 + 788,133 + 403,331 + 341,123 + 278,910 + 145,871 + 89,129 + 15,345 + 12,345 + 10,208 + 5,003 + 1,003 = 14,037,560 Worldwide singles
Albums - Ben (4,401,605), Got to Be There (4,112,879), Anthology (2,655,098), The Best of (2,230,223), Farewell my Summer Love (2,087,110), Music and Me (1,980,440), Forever Michael (1,687,234), One Day in Your Life (1,552,208),
The Original Soul Of (377,745), Looking Back to Yesterday (302,330) - 21,386,872
As of 1990 Michael Jackson had sold
14.037 million singles
21.386 million albums total
12,182 million studio albums
Under the Motown contract which relates to albums/Singles before Off the Wall
Sony screwed over Invincible by refusing to promote it, due to the conflict between MJ and Sony it had no worldwide promotion, marketing and the budget was restricted meaning no music videdos, it had it's single releases delayed as well. Actual sales if it wasn't for Sony's bullshit would have been 20-30 million since it sold 3 million in the first 5 days
