At the turn of the millennium, Eminem was dominating the rap music scene and Robbie Williams the Pop stage. The biggest male singer from the R&B World was Usher. His fame has reached unseen heights in 2004 with the release of the album Confessions. He was so big that when Justin Bieber first emerged, the name of his mentor Usher was largely used to promoted the Canadian kid. Times change.

https://flic.kr/p/ciZ8Ju

That LP is well known for producing 4 consecutive US #1 hits which together held the throne for 28 weeks. They were led by the monster smash Yeah!. By 2004, he wasn't a beginner though as You Make Me Wanna..., Nice & Slow, My Way, U Remind Me, U Got It Bad and more had all been big US hits previously, even if they faced mixed fortunes elsewhere.

This being said, Usher doesn't seem to be making much waves anymore. His recent outputs have hardly impacted radio's playlists. Is his public still buying his records though? How been really was Confessions? Has the R&B star been able to sell well outside of the US? What about My Way and 8701' results?

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.

Usher (1994)

My Way (1997)

8701 (2001)

Confessions (2004)

• America

  • US - 10,750,000
  • Canada - 680,000
  • Argentina - N/A
  • Brazil - 25,000
  • Mexico - N/A

• Asia - 690,000

  • Japan - 450,000

• Oceania

  • Australia - 280,000
  • New Zealand - 55,000

• Europe - 2,770,000

  • UK - 1,520,000
  • France - 315,000
  • Germany - 275,000
  • Italy - 50,000
  • Spain - 25,000
  • Sweden - 30,000
  • Netherland - 140,000
  • Switzerland - 50,000
  • Austria - 10,000
  • Finland - 10,000

• World - 15,500,000

Here I Stand (2008)

Raymond v. Raymond (2010)

Looking 4 Myself (2012)

Hard II Love (2016)

Original Album Sales - Comments

Born in late 1978, at the age of 25 Usher was already the lucky owner of three smash albums. His self-titled album from his teenage years wasn't successful, but My Way, 8701 and Confessions all smashed, especially considering they were R&B albums which are always difficult to sell outside of the US plus a few favorable countries like the Netherlands.

Those series of hits came to an abrupt end when Here I Stand sold less than 15% of its predecessor. Raymond v. Raymond hasn't recover but at least it was able to maintain the same level of success. The last two albums, especially the 2016 effort Hard II Love, failed to sell well, starting slowly and dropping fast.

All in all, Usher sold more than 36 million albums with the help of eight records. They contributed very distinctively though. Obviously, album sales were still great by 2004 while the market collapsed during the following years. It raises the question about the origin of that decrease of sales from Usher's albums, was his popularity dropping or is it only due to a transfer of sales into other formats like digital singles?

1994 Usher - 500,000
1997 My Way - 7,450,000
2001 8701 - 7,400,000
2004 Confessions - 15,500,000
2008 Here I Stand - 2,200,000
2010 Raymond v. Raymond - 2,100,000
2012 Looking 4 Myself - 850,000
2016 Hard II Love - 160,000

Physical Singles Sales

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

Part 1

Failing to succeed on his first attempt, Usher hasn't miss it twice. You Make Me Wanna… was a tremendous seller in the US, moving an impressive 2,3 million units. Nice & Slow and My Way sold near 3 million combined there. One of the rare albums that saw its singles sell more than 5 million units in physical format in the US alone, My Way hits were that big in remaining markets though.

Ironically, while 8701 sold similar amounts as My Way - both near 7,5 million units - its singles sold way less. By 2001 the norm was to hold the release of physical singles in the US in order to boost sales of the parent album. U Remind Me was still issued on that format, helping the song to jump from #21 to #1, sales were already low. As Usher was nowhere near as big elsewhere than in the US, the disappearance of the physical singles market on that country concluded on a much lower selling era post-1998.

Usher (1994) - 101,000 equivalent albums

Can U Get Wit It - 140,000
Think Of You - 170,000
The Many Ways - 25,000

My Way (1997) - 1,920,000 equivalent albums

You Make Me Wanna… - 3,100,000
Nice & Slow - 1,710,000
My Way - 1,590,000

8701 (2001) - 411,000 equivalent albums

U Remind Me - 920,000
U Got It Bad - 330,000
U Don't Have to Call - 20,000
U-Turn - 100,000

Part 2

The era of Confessions was bigger with the song Yeah! being way more global than anything ever released by Usher previously. Thus, in spite of near-no US sales, that song sold 1,2 million units Worldwide. Burn and My Boo were great hits too.

During the following eras, that market went downhill. A few Orphan songs released earlier like The Party Continues and I Need A Girl sold decently.

In total, Usher amassed 12 million sales of physical singles.

Confessions (2004) - 669,000 equivalent albums

Yeah! - 1,200,000
Confessions Part II - 40,000
Burn - 470,000
Caught Up - 130,000
My Boo - 390,000

Here I Stand (2008) - 38,000 equivalent albums

Love In This Club - 90,000
Moving Mountains - 15,000
Remaining Singles - 20,000

Raymond v. Raymond (2010) - 24,000 equivalent albums

OMG - 10,000
More - 10,000
DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love - 50,000
Remaining Singles - 10,000

Orphan - 456,000 equivalent albums

Call Me A Mack - 25,000
Comin' For X-Mas - 25,000
The Party Continues - 540,000
Pop Ya Collar - 290,000
I Need A Girl - 490,000
Lovers and Friends - 70,000
Same Girl - 20,000
Without You - 40,000
Dirty Dancer - 20,000

Digital Singles Sales

As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between albums and digital singles.

Part 1

Although the Billboard started compiling a list of best selling downloads as early as in 2003, sales were awfully low when Confessions came out. In the US, a mere 141 million downloads were sold during 2004, way less than the billion plus sales reached every year during the 2008-2014 period.

This background highlights the extraordinary sales of Yeah!. One of the biggest catalog hits of the 00s along with Lose Yourself by Eminem, this track went on to sell 7,6 million units. This stunning catalog appeal isn't limited to this unique single. In fact, all Usher hits perform truly well. Burn, My Boo, Confessions Part II, U Got It Bad, U Remind Me and You Make Me Wanna... all sold from 1,5 to 3,5 million units. Songs from Confessions sold a huge 17,5 million units, worth 2,6 million equivalent album sales.

Usher (1994) - 15,000 equivalent albums

All tracks - 100,000

My Way (1997) - 398,000 equivalent albums

You Make Me Wanna… - 1,500,000
Nice & Slow - 750,000
My Way - 250,000
Remaining tracks - 150,000

8701 (2001) - 855,000 equivalent albums

U Remind Me - 2,500,000
U Got It Bad - 2,300,000
U Don't Have to Call - 400,000
Remaining tracks - 500,000

Confessions (2004) - 2,633,000 equivalent albums

Yeah! - 7,600,000
Confessions Part II - 1,800,000
Burn - 3,550,000
Caught Up - 650,000
My Boo - 1,950,000
Remaining tracks - 2,000,000

Part 2

Here I Stand failed to sell as well as Confessions, Love In This Club was still a sizable hit with 7,6 million sales. The song enjoyed both, great ringtones sales and a great success in Asia. Those elements also supported hits like OMG and DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love, two 8+ million sellers.

With an impressive 27 million singles sold, Raymond v. Raymond appears to be much stronger in this avenue than in original album sales. If songs of Looking 4 Myself performed not too bad, those of Hard II Love had disastrous results.

Up to 93,6 million downloads and ringtones sold, Usher will need one more hit or several years of catalog sales before reaching the magical 100-million plateau.

Here I Stand (2008) - 1,905,000 equivalent albums

Love In This Club - 7,600,000
Trading Places - 1,300,000
Moving Mountains - 1,100,000
Love In This Club, Pt. II - 1,600,000
Remaining tracks - 1,100,000

Raymond v. Raymond (2010) - 4,095,000 equivalent albums

Hey Daddy - 1,600,000
There Goes My Baby - 1,400,000
Lil Freak - 900,000
Papers - 1,100,000
OMG - 8,800,000
More - 3,100,000
DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love - 8,200,000
Remaining tracks - 2,200,000

Looking 4 Myself (2012) - 1,155,000 equivalent albums

Scream - 3,500,000
Climax - 2,100,000
Lemme See - 400,000
Numb - 500,000
Remaining tracks - 1,200,000

Hard II Love (2016) - 90,000 equivalent albums

No Limit - 300,000
Remaining tracks - 300,000

Orphan - 2,895,000 equivalent albums

I Don't Mind - 1,400,000
She Came II Give It II U - 400,000
Good Kisser - 350,000
Party - 300,000
The Matrimony - 350,000
Rest Of My Life - 600,000
Don't Look Down - 500,000
Body Language - 500,000
New Flame - 1,200,000
Without You - 4,000,000
Promise - 400,000
First Dance - 500,000
Somebody To Love - 2,000,000
The Christmas Song - 300,000
Dirty Dancer - 2,000,000
Spotlight - 500,000
I Need A Girl - 500,000
Lovers and Friends - 800,000
Remaining tracks - 2,700,000

Streaming Sales

Streaming is made up of two families - audio and video. Our CSPC methodology now includes both to better reflect the real popularity of each track. The main source of data for each avenue is respectively Spotify and YouTube. As detailed in the Fixing Log article, Spotify represents 132 million of the 212 million users of streaming platforms, while YouTube is pretty much the only video platform generating some revenue for the industry. Below is the equivalence set on the aforementioned article:

Audio Stream - 1500 plays equal 1 album unit
Video Stream - 11,750 views equal 1 album unit

Equivalent Albums Sales = 212/132 * Spotify streams / 1500 + YouTube views / 11750

Streaming Part 1

Usher was young when his debut LP came out. With a limited artistic input from him, this album isn't rated anywhere as high as his later records, concluding on fairly low streams. They represent 5,000 equivalent album sales.

My Way is 28 times bigger. You Make Me Wanna... is the strongest hit from it with nearly 70 million Spotify streams. Nice & Slow remains popular at 30 million. On its side, My Way decelerated a lot with less than 10 million audio streams through the Swedish platform.

Streaming Part 2

At 60-65 million streams each on Spotify, U Remind Me and U Got It Bad boost strongly the album 8701 which enjoys 194,000 equivalent album sales from streams. The video of U Got It Bad, up to 183 million YouTube views, helps too.

Yeah! outperforms with ease those already strong hits. It is now up to 191 million streams from Spotify and over 200 million views on YouTube. Focusing on Spotify alone, My Boo is on 94 million, Burn and Confessions Part II combine for 100 million, Caught Up, Confessions and Bad Girl are all inside the 15-25 million range while album tracks average over 3 million plays. All those impressive figures conclude on nearly 600,000 equivalent album sales from streams.

Streaming Part 3

Love In This Club was a #1 hit upon release. It isn't holding as well as other #1 songs from the singer with 41 million and 129 million streams from Spotify and YouTube. It still does much better than all other tracks from Here I Stand which ends on 154,000 equivalent album sales from streams only.

Raymond v Raymond, which received the help of the Versus EP, is made of 21 songs all of which top 1 million streams. DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love is the leading tune at 109 million streams on Spotify and 297 million on YouTube. OMG is strong too. The album combines for 361,000 equivalent album sales.

Streaming Part 4

Scream and Climax weren't that big on first place but retained a nice appeal since their release. They both generate near 100,000 equivalent album sales from the total of 274,000 of the album Looking 4 Myself.

Hard II Love is a very distinct case as this 2016 album came out when streams were huge. Taking into account this context, its numbers are awful. Its 168,000 equivalent album sales from streams are still more than its sales in pure album format.

Streaming Part 5

Usher contributed in a lot of successful songs from other artists. Don't Look Down, New Flame, Without You, Back To Sleep, Somebody to Love, Dirty Dancer, Party and I Don't Mind all top 100 million streams on at least one platform, Spotify or YouTube.

This extensive list of hits combine for billions of streams and almost 1,6 million equivalent album sales.

Full Length related record Sales

It sounds fairly logical to add together weighted sales of one era - studio album, physical singles, downloads, 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 value originating 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 the worth of these releases, we need to re-assign sales proportionally to its contribution of all the compilations which feature its songs. The following table explains this method.

How to understand this table? If you check for example the OMG Tour Live From London music video line, those figures mean it sold 125,000 units worldwide. The second statistics column means all versions of all the songs included on this package add for 872,000 equivalent album sales from streams of all types.

The second part on the right of the table shows how many equivalent streams are coming from each original album, plus the share it represents on the overall package. Thus, streaming figures tell us songs from Confessions are responsible for 39% of the OMG Tour Live From London track list attractiveness. This means it generated 49,000 of its 125,000 album sales and so forth for the other records.

The first 3 live products issued from 1999 to 2002 are logically dominated by tracks from My Way, 8701 and then Confessions songs take over part of the attractiveness of those packages in later years. The Versus EP is a great addition to Raymond v Raymond.

Full Length related records Sales - Summary

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

BONUS: Total Album (all types) Sales per Country

• America

  • US - 26,870,000
  • Canada - 1,640,000
  • Argentina - N/A
  • Brazil - 60,000
  • Mexico - N/A

• Asia - 1,425,000

  • Japan - 925,000

• Oceania

  • Australia - 680,000
  • New Zealand - 105,000

• Europe - 5,800,000

  • UK - 3,050,000
  • France - 670,000
  • Germany - 705,000
  • Italy - 105,000
  • Spain - 40,000
  • Sweden - 60,000
  • Netherland - 315,000
  • Switzerland - 105,000
  • Austria - 25,000
  • Finland - 20,000

• World - 37,160,000

Please note that some of the countries totals may be slightly incomplete when the figure is N/A for minor releases. Countries with too much missing information to be precise enough are listed as N/A.

Usher Career CSPC Results

So, after checking all the figures, how many overall equivalent album sales has each Usher album achieved? Well, at this point we hardly need to add up all of the figures defined in this article!

[xyz-ips snippet="updatedCSPCalbums"]

Unsurprisingly, Confessions leads the pack of Usher's albums. Closing in 20 million equivalent album sales, it is a force in every format. Its songs are still heavily streamed as shown by the more than half a million sales from this avenue, which means the 20 million barrier will be soon broken. Among all the albums studied so far, only four released afterwards sold more, 21 and 25 by Adele, The Fame by Lady Gaga and American Idiot by Green Day.

20 million is also the combined total of My Way and 8701. Both albums are very strong, just over and just under 10 million respectively. While Here I Stand is a true drop from Confessions, the drop is slightly less drastic is CSPC terms. It sold less than 15% of its predecessors in pure album sales, but the overall tally of sales generated is up to 22%.

The most unexpected result is the one of Raymond v Raymond. Widely regarded as a real flop just like every post-Confessions album released by the R&B star, the huge digital success of its songs push it up to nearly 7 million sales. Incredibly enough, it isn't that much less successful than 8701 and continues to grow faster.

Looking 4 Myself flopped, but nothing close to the massive bomb that has been Hard II Love. No matter how we look at it, this album failed to attract consumers in every front with pathetic results from the start to the end.

A small word on Orphan Album tracks. Those non-studio albums songs encapsulated together represent the strong total of 5 million.

The final indicator of value of Usher's catalog is its total of 59,5 million equivalent album sales. Beyoncé, who has been successful for a longer period, is under 62 million, which proves the strong selling power of Usher still. As his past tracks retain a high pace on streaming platforms, a positive comeback for him isn't out of question.

The following sections list his most successful songs as well as his records and achievements.

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

Sources: IFPI, Spotify, YouTube, Chartmasters.org.

BIGGEST TRACKS - Usher

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

1 2004 - Yeah! [Confessions] - 7,660,000
2 1997 - You Make Me Wanna… [My Way] - 6,080,000
3 2001 - U Got It Bad [8701] - 3,880,000
4 2004 - My Boo [Confessions] - 3,430,000
5 2001 - U Remind Me [8701] - 3,340,000
6 1997 - Nice & Slow [My Way] - 2,930,000
7 2004 - Burn [Confessions] - 2,710,000
8 2010 - DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love [Raymond v. Raymond] - 2,530,000
9 2008 - Love In This Club [Here I Stand] - 2,010,000
10 2010 - OMG [Raymond v. Raymond] - 1,980,000
11 2004 - Confessions Part II [Confessions] - 1,880,000
12 1997 - My Way [My Way] - 1,180,000
13 2004 - Caught Up [Confessions] - 920,000
14 2012 - Scream [Looking 4 Myself] - 900,000
15 2001 - U Don't Have to Call [8701] - 780,000

Records & Achievements

• With 19,8 million equivalent album sales, Confessions is the fifth most successful album released since 2004.
• With 191 million streams on Spotify, Yeah! is among the Top 50 most streamed tracks released before the creation of the platform in 2006.
• Usher is the only R&B artist to ever release 3 consecutive 5-million selling albums in the US.
• Confessions is the most recent male album to hit Diamond - 10 million sales - in the US. Since the introduction of Soundscan to register US sales in 1991, Eminem is the only other male singer to break the mark with a studio album, he did it twice with The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show.

We have more for you...

... checking out the upcoming artists or even voting for them!

... similar artists

... best-selling artists, albums, and singles