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Roaring into life in 1976, Def Leppard spent the rest of the decade honing their live skills and cultivating an ever growing fanbase, which would culminated in them being signed to the Phonogram/Vertigo label in 1979 and the release of their first album, On Through The Night, in March 1980. Deemed part of the early 1980s burgeoning NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) scene, along side the likes of Saxon, Iron Maiden and Diamond Head, they would go through various trials and tribulations, in career which would see them hitting some crazy highs but also some brutal lows.
Their Diamond certified 80s blockbusters, Pyromania and Hysteria, may be their best-known albums but what about the rest of their discography? Well, please now join us, as we take a look at Def Leppards career sales and find out.
Looking at the big picture: Def Leppard
The New wave of British heavy metal arrives
Following the explosion of the Beatles in the early 1960s, countless British youngsters began dreaming of rock stardom. In pursuing this dream, countless bands were formed throughout the UK, in the late 60s and 70s.
Inevitably, many failed to get noticed, while others went on to become global superstars like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. It was a time of great experimentation in music and many new genres and sub genres began to appear, with varying success and longevity.
Musically, in the mid 70s, the UK was awash with the Punk phenomenon and it's most iconic act, the infamous and notorious, Sex Pistols. Replicating the band, the genre made big headlines and then vanished incredibly fast. The music scene never stays quiet for long though, especially when thousands of young hopefuls are sitting in their bedrooms, teaching themselves guitar, dreaming about being as successful as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin or The Rolling Stones.
Some of these young hopefuls would go on to create a plethora of new groups in 1979, many of which would be identified as being part of the aforementioned New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. Two of the front runners were Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, who both issued highly-hyped, self-produced EPs in 1979, before releasing their debut albums in 1980.
In 1976, a 15-year-old student and bass guitarist Rick Savage created his first band with some schoolmates, within a year, both Joe Elliott (on vocals) and Pete Willis (on guitar) had joined.
Guitarist and talented songwriter Steve Clark, joined next in 1978, with Rick Allen completing the line up on drums. The oldest of them, Joe Elliott, was barely 19 when their initial E.P. came out in January 1979, yet within 2 years they would go from playing dirty pubs and clubs in Northern England, to being played on major US FM stations and touring huge arenas in support of AC/DC and Ozzy Osbourne.
Promising start and Pyromania's US shocker
Def Leppard issued their debut album On Through the Night in 1980 and both singles, Wasted (#61) and Hello America (#45) were moderate successes in their homeland and the album did well, hitting #15, on an 8-week chart stay. In the US the single Rock Brigade charted at #106 (#6 on Bubbling under chart), while the album charted for 21 weeks, hitting #51. Promising, but not earth shattering.
Their second album, High 'n' Dry from 1981, kind of saw them treading water. It's performance was pretty similar to its predecessor. Amongst its singles, only Let It Go charted, at #76 in the UK and at #34 on US Rock charts. The album went to #26 in the UK and #38 in the US.
These results were even more disappointing, considering the album was produced by the legendary Robert "Mutt" Lange. The South African mastermind, who worked on Highway to Hell and Back in Black for AC/DC and 4 for Foreigner, was one of the most in-demand rock producers in the world. He would go on to create a terrific legacy, producing among others Def Leppard's blockbusters (more below), Bryan Adams' Waking Up the Neighbours and then-wife Shania Twain's Come on Over.
During the touring for High 'n' Dry and then the recording sessions for their upcoming third album, guitarist Pete Willis alcohol problems began to get so severe, that he was dismissed from the band and replaced by Girl guitarist Phil Collen.
In 1983, they returned with the album Pyromania and lead single Photograph. It was another moderate hit in the UK (#66), but it took the US Rock charts by storm, topping them and climbing to #12 in the Hot 100. This was a very surprising and unexpected result for a British heavy metal band.
Accordingly, the album began to get traction, further aided by Rock of Ages hitting #16 (Rock #1) and Foolin' #28 (Rock #9). 3 more songs made it to the Rock charts, mostly thanks to airplay, and their videos began flooding the MTV channel. Pyromania climbed all the way to #2, blocked only by Michael Jackson's Thriller. Competing with Flashdance and The Police's Synchronicity too, the album spent 17 non consecutive (12 consecutive) weeks at #4.
When the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) introduced multi-platinum awards in 1984, Pyromania was one of the highest certified, having sold over 6m copies, by that point. Ironically, the album stalled at #18 and dropped out of the charts. After a mere 5 weeks in the UK. Which, while still upsetting to the band, they were somewhat consoled by their monstrous sales in North America.
Their departure from the more aggressive, fast paced sound, of the more traditional NWOBHM bands, to a more melodic, layered sound, made Def Leppard stand out from the crowd. Although the band were originally tagged as being part of the NWOBHM phenomenon in the UK, they would now became an integral act in Glam metals accent, to becoming the most popular genre in the US, for a short period of time in the late 80s.
Within no time, bands like Mötley Crüe and Quiet Riot were starting to have hit singles and albums and numerous other bands were being signed up, left, right and central.
The Hysteria apotheosis surrounded by tragedies
On the last day of 1984, drummer Rick Allen, still only 21, tragically lost his left arm after being involved in a car crash. While he thought his days as a drummer were over, the band refused to keep going without him. After designing a custom drum kit, Allen trained for months, started using his legs to do part of the job and managed to bring his skills back to a level where he was perfectly able to deliver both in the studio and live.
Just like Def Leppard had influenced many bands with Pyromania, they were themselves impacted by the ground breaking success of Jackson's Thriller. They recorded their new album, Hysteria, with the idea of creating the Thriller of rock music, an album where every song had the potential to be a single.
Hysterias timing could not have been any better, Glam Metal was ripping up the US charts, which was non better exemplified than by Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet.
At first, Hysteria peaked at a somewhat disappointing #4 position, with lead single Women peaking at #80. In the UK, Animal was released first and provided them with their first Top 40 single, hitting #6. In the US, it was their second single and got to respectable #19.
In the US, each subsequent song started to out do the previous one. Next up, Hysteria peaked at 10, 4th single Pour Some Sugar On Me hit #2, while 5th single Love Bites topped the Hot 100. In-between, the album climbed to the top a year after its release, leading for 6 weeks between July and September 1988. Armaggedon It (#3) and Rocket (#12) rounded up this perfect era.
They also made it big in the UK at last, with Hysteria opening at #1 and spending over 100 weeks on chart, to date.. While most of their sales were coming from the Anglosphere, the Hysteria tour was huge, with 231 dates in North America and Europe.
Just when everything was going so amazingly well for the band, tragedy struck, when songwriter and guitarist Steve Clark, who had been struggling with alcohol for years, died of an overdose. His alcohol problems had went from bad to worse and once drugs were added to the mix, hopes of recovery were reduced even further. Almost inevitably, he passed away on January 8 1991, aged 30. He was replaced by Vivian Campbell.
From top stars to top nostalgia act
Although a major blow, it was not an isolated incident in the glam metal scene, with many instances of misuse and death from drugs. By the end of the 80s, the image of the whole genre had started to deteriorate. Rawer and more stripped down bands like Nirvana started to emerge and thus, the grunge scene was born. Alternative rock, for long an underground genre, suddenly captured the airwaves with R.E.M. leading the way. Soon, the image of 80s glam metal and pop metal, felt somewhat ridiculous, leading many from the new generation to negatively refer to them as hair metal.
Given all this context, added to the the loss of Steve Clark and the departure of Robert Mutt Lange, their comeback wasn't the sure fire success, that one could expect from a band with back to back monster albums.
Nevertheless, they forged ahead and released their fifth studio album Adrenalize in 1992. The album debuted at #1 in both the UK and the US, remaining there for 5 weeks in the latter and quickly sold millions of copies. It also became their biggest success by far in continental Europe, Latin America or Asia.
Still, its success was short lived and ultimately, was a major drop from their predecessors, both commercially and artistically speaking.
By the time the their sixth studio album was released in 1996, they were already seen as past it and has beens. TV channel and FM radio station exposure had also dried up, with programs dedicated to 80s pop metal music, now a thing of the past. Their albums continued to open with decent first week sales but disappeared from the charts as fast as they had entered.
Their hits never went away though and maybe more importantly, they represent an entire culture that impacted the US strongly during the 80s. It could be the reason why they can still effortlessly sell out stadiums, often pairing with other glam metal bands from the 80s like Mötley Crüe, Whitesnake or Poison. Even more impressively, they made Pollstar's list of top 10 grossing tours of 2022.
From their early beginnings to their record-breaking albums, this article delves into the band's incredible success and enduring legacy in the music industry, all of it in numbers, format by format, record by record.
Def Leppard Album Sales
Updated Studio Album Sales & Comments
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The first two albums were moderate successes upon release, but were reignited in North America, upon the success of their later 1980s albums, with both enjoying subsequent catalogue sales and chart again in the US. By the end of 1984, they combined for 174 weeks inside the Billboard 200.
This pushed American sales over 1.5 million and 2.8 million, respectively. Globally, On Through the Night is now over 2.5 million, while High 'n' Dry has around 4 million sales.
Pyromania was certified 6xPlatinum by the end of its US run, reaching Diamond status in 2004. It's now up to over 10.7 million sales. Catalogue sales also brought it to nearly a million in Canada and nearly as much in Europe. The album now stands close to 13.5 million worldwide.
Hysteria did even better, topping that number with US sales alone. Certified at 12xPlatinum way back in 1998, with catalogue sales, club sales, track equivalent albums and streaming units, it will soon be eligible to 15xPlatinum.
The album has been a good seller everywhere, either with or without initial success. It's well over a million in the UK and Canada, while closing in half a million units in Germany and not too far away from 20 million globally.
It's worth noting that both albums continue to sell in pure units. For example, Pyromania has made 5 re-entries on US Top 100 sales charts over the last 3 years, while Hysteria charted in the UK Top 100 in 7 out of the last 9 years.
Adrenalize perfectly used the traction of its predecessors to amass over 6.7 million sales, 3.7 million stateside and 3 million abroad. It could be seen as a surprise for American readers, but even with catalogue sales favouring the 1983 effort, Adrenalize is still higher than Pyromania outside of the US.
From Slang, numbers get much lower and never go back up. Both Slang and Euphoria topped a million, X did half of that and follow ups half of X.
2022's Diamond Star Halos isn't that much lower than 2006's Yeah!, which, considering the massive decline of pure sales, shows that they rely more on a solid fanbase, than general public interest.
Overall, that's more than 50 million sales on the back of their 12 studio albums. This number would have been higher if it wasn't for compilations, especially 1995's Vault, taking away catalogue sales from the main albums. These releases will be added later on, inside the compilation section.
Want to compare Def Leppard's albums with others?
Def Leppard songs sales
Below, we list down results from the artist through physical sales, digital sales and streaming.
Please be aware that when the artist is regarded as the lead act, they are rewarded with 100% of these units. However, featured acts share a 50% piece of the total.
Physical Singles
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As a reminder, the weighting is a 10 to 3 ratio between albums and physical singles.
While their early singles had all entered the top 100, in the UK, no single from their first two albums could be rated as a hit. In total, the 6 tracks combined for 220,000 sales globally.
The real breakthrough came with Photograph, which sold over half a million units, most of which came from the US where it peaked at 12. Another top 20 hit, Rock of Ages moved over 400,000 copies, while Foolin' topped 200,000 sales. Due to the success of Pyromania, a remix version of Bringin' On The Heartbreak came out in 1984, selling a quarter of million copies worldwide.
They would gain even more success and popularity, thanks to the singles from Hysteria. Released almost only in North America, Women is the lowest seller but still has over 200,000 sales. The title track did close to half a million, while each of the remaining 5 singles moved at least 600,000 copies. Their only chart topper, Love Bites, cracked the million mark, their only track to do so in their career.
In part thanks to its larger success in Europe where physical singles were strong during the 90s, Adrenalize and its singles sold well in this format. The strongest ones were Let's Get Rocket, which is close to a million and Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad, at nearly 600,000 sales. Another 4 additional singles came out, either globally, in North America or in Europe, shifting over 900,000 sales together.
In late 1993, a not-new not-old album came out, Retro Active. It was a collection of rare material like b-sides, plus unreleased outtakes. This record emerged after the surprise #12 success of the song Two Steps Behind, a 1989 demo which was finished and finalised by popular producer Michael Kamen, as to feature in the 1993 movie Last Action Hero. This song sold 455,000 copies. Among the tracks they regrouped to create Retro Active, Miss You in a Heartbeat, previously part of the Japanese version of Adrenalize, came out as a single and cleared 200,000 sales.
In 1995, the orphan track When Love & Hate Collide - a new track featured on their first compilation Vault - moved over 500,000 units worldwide, with 250,000 from the UK. It charted at #2 there, their best showing ever, tied with Let's Get Rocked. It was a modest #58 hit in the US, ultimately becoming their final Hot 100 appearance. This was also their last song to reach 6 digits in sales, as their last 9 physical singles shifted less than 30,000 units per release.
Still, their career total is over 10.5 million physical singles, a very good number in this format, especially for a hard rock act.
Digital Songs
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As a reminder, the weighting is calculated using a 10 to 1.5 ratio between albums and digital singles.
Def Leppard are an act that has a difficult history, with new formats and platforms. They fought for many years with their label, to prevent them from exploiting their music on iTunes and then on various streaming apps.
They started very strong though, as by early 2007 Pour Some Sugar On Me had already eclipsed the 500,000 US downloads milestone while the format was just getting started. At the time, it was challenging the likes Journey's Don't Stop Believin' and Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody as the very biggest legacy hit. Note for fans: they are actually going on a tour with Journey during the summer of 2024.
Back to digital sales. In 2010, the band decided to delete their catalogue from iTunes. The band was also in an open battle with their label, Universal Records, over royalties issues. They were questioning the fairness of their historical and traditional band/label royalty split, feeling that in a digital world, the label had way less costs to incur and hence shouldn't need to recoup as much.
Having finally reached some agreements in 2011, for their new material, their big hits were also back in the form of live recordings, thanks to the release of the live album Mirror Ball. Still, the feud continued and in 2012 the band decided to do a Taylor Swift, before Taylor Swift herself, re-recording both Pour Some Sugar on Me and Rock of Ages in a near-identical way to take the royalties for themselves. Hysteria followed in 2013. Jokes apart, the English band was possibly an inspiration for the American diva, as both Def Leppard and Taylor Swift teamed together for a CMT Crossroads episode that became a #1 DVD in 2009.
It took until January 2018 to get the dispute sorted and the entire Def Leppard catalogue returned to iTunes - and arrived on Spotify - pushing a lot of their songs onto the charts.
Through the original years, the live versions, re-recordings and with their contemporary activity, their hits managed to add notable numbers, especially Pour Some Sugar on Me. The 1987 classic stands on 4.2 million sales in total, including 2.5 million downloads in the US.
Hysteria isn't too far away from 2 million, while Photograph, Rock of Ages and Animal are all million sellers. Maybe surprisingly, their lone chart topper Love Bites isn't quite there yet, even if it is close.
Why is their only #1 hit, not one of their top 5 digital sellers? It's a combination of factors. The first one is, the song was never re-recorded, whereas 3 of the top 5 were. The second is, the track wasn't their top hit outside of North America. The third element is, back in 1988 the song was released in quite favourable times for the group, with radio stations and the public, clamouring for a new Leppard hit, on the back of the hype Sugar had provided them with.
The rest of their 80s catalogue also posts impressive numbers. Foolin' claims 800,000 sales, Bringin' On the Heartbreak and Too Late for Love over half a million and 7 other songs standing on 6 digits results. Adrenalize also adds 4 songs at that level, with Let's Get Rocket leading at over 400,000.
Overall, their total of downloads and ringtones sales is at 18.3 million, which is really good considering they missed out so many key years of sales.
Streaming
Streaming is made up of both audio and video streams. Our CSPC methodology includes both formats to better reflect the real popularity of each track.
The main source of data for each avenue is Spotify and YouTube, respectively. To factor in the growing impact of multiple Asian countries where these platforms aren't always the go-to site for music streaming, more sources have been added.
In order to account for their real popularity in each relevant country, the below sources have been used along with the mentioned ratios that reflect the market share of each area.
Audio Streams
– South Korea: Genie streams * 2.20 (consistent with Gaon streaming numbers)
– Japan: AWA streams * 100 / 4 (AWA has 4% of the Japanese streaming market)
– Arabic world: Anghami streams
– Sub-Saharan Africa: Boomplay + Audiomack streams
– Elsewhere: Spotify streams * Spotify market shares based on artists' market distribution
Video Streams
– China* : QQ video streams * 50 if the song is available for audio stream, QQ video streams * 5 elseway (scale built based on known figures for several major artists)
– Elsewhere : Youtube views increased by 10% to account for various local platforms
*since Chinese streaming platforms are mostly video streaming platforms, their streams are weighted on par with YouTube streams.
Audio Stream value – 1,500 plays equal 1 album unit
Video Stream value – 6,750 views equal 1 album unit
Equivalent Albums Sales (EAS) = ( Spotify * ArtistRatio + Genie * 2.20 + AWA * 100 / 4 + Anghami + Boomplay + Audiomack ) / 1500 + ( QQ views* 50(or 5) + YouTube * 1.1 ) / 6750
Top Hits
Once again, Pour Some Sugar on Me leads with a comfortable margin. It is past 500 million streams on Spotify, and 700,000 equivalent album sales from streams.
This total includes the 104.6 million streams from the 2012 re-recorded version which has since been removed from the platform. It grants the track an even bigger lead, although there are no match with following songs.
These ones are big on their own yet. Hysteria is past 200 million streams and 300,000 EAS. Love Bites and Photograph are very close to each other at 3-4, both closing in 200,000 EAS. Their top 3 are tracks from the Hysteria album, now that's an amazing way to follow up a Diamond album!
Rock of Ages, Animal and When Love and Hate Collide are all over 100,000 EAS, demonstrating one more time how strong their catalog is. The latter is especially high with streams, a sign of Def Leppard's wider global reach in the 90s.
In a more negative note, 18 of their top 20 tracks are from High 'n' Dry, Pyromania, Hysteria and Adrenalize, plus two orphan titles. Their debut and their last 7 albums are left unrepresented. From these releases, the top tracks are Diamond Star Halos' Kick (10,500 EAS, #23), Euphoria's Promises (8,600 EAS, #32) and On Through the Night's Wasted (7,800 EAS, #33).
The album Hysteria leads with an impressive tally of 1.5 million EAS. Their discography total stands at 2.6 million.
Full catalog breakdown
If you are familiar with the artist's catalog and want to check details of each and every song, you can access to all of them right here.
Keep yourself up to date
Our website provides you a fantastic tool which fetches updated Spotify streams as you request them, use it to watch these results grow day after day!
Want to compare Def Leppard's songs with other top hits?
Def Leppard compilations 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 generate sales over 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 with each of its tracks instead. Inevitably, this downgrades catalog sales of the original LP when such compilations are issued.
Thus, to accurately 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:
The distribution process
How do you understand this table? For example, if we check the Vault (Def Leppard Greatest Hits 1980-1995) line, these figures mean it sold 9,465,000 units worldwide. The second statistics column means all versions of all the songs included in this package add for 1,876,203 equivalent album sales from streams across all formats.
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 in the overall package.
Therefore, the streaming figures convey that songs from Hysteria equate to 68% of Vault (Def Leppard Greatest Hits 1980-1995)' tracklist attractiveness. Meaning, it generated 6,462,000 of its 9,465,000 album sales and so on for the other records.
Compilations sales figures listing
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The strength of Def Leppard's hits generated the usual influx of compilations over the years, especially since the release of their first compilation, Vault. This album is now well over 5 million sales in the US, while moving close to 9.5 million units worldwide. It was a top seller in Japan too, with 570,000 sales.
Prior to that, the Retro Active package had already sold nearly 2 million copies. Back to back 2004/2005 compilations Best of and Rock of Ages were released mostly in Europe and in North America, respectively, they combine for 2.3 million sales. The live Mirror Ball from 2011 sold almost 400,000 copies, while their music videos add for over 1.6 million.
Full Length related records Sales – Summary
Here is the most underestimated indicator of an album’s success – the amount of compilation sales across all versions that were generated. Due to the dependency of sales of the original studio albums on these releases, they are a key piece of the jigsaw.
These numbers are obtained by applying the method from the section The distribution process to all packages listed under Compilation sales figures listing category.
We can notice the strong dominance of Hysteria with a stunning 10 million units generated across various releases.
Bonus: Top selling compilations' breakdowns
Total Album (all types) Sales per Country
Please note country-specific numbers may miss sales of a few minor releases, although totals are complete.
Def Leppard Career CSPC Results
So, after checking all the figures, how many overall equivalent album sales has each Def Leppard album achieved? Well, at this point we hardly need to add up all of the figures defined in this article!
Albums CSPC results
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Slowly but surely, the Sheffield band conquered the US, the UK and then the rest of the world from the start of the 80s to 1992.
They peaked with Hysteria, which records phenomenal sales of 33.7 million once everything is added together. It's the 4th biggest hard rock / metal release of the 80s, only behind history making albums Back In Black by AC/DC, Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi, and Appetite For Destruction by the Guns N' Roses.
In that particular ranking, Pyromania is also a sales beast. At over 17 million, it closes the top 10. With all metrics, Adrenalize is also getting close to the magical 10 million threshold, an impressive feat.
High 'n' Dry, at 5 million, and On Through the Night, at 2.8 million, complete their top 5. Obviously, remaining albums are on a lower league. It won't improve with time as they aren't moving units anymore as shown by the streaming numbers.
Up to date, Def Leppard are on their way to reach 75 million equivalent album sales this year.
Singles CSPC results
The list is compiled in album equivalent sales generated by each song. Therefore, these figures are not merged units of singles formats. Instead, it includes weighted sales of the song's physical single, download, ringtone and streaming as well as its share among sales of all albums on which it is featured.
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Discography results
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Records & Achievements
- At 74,653,000 EAS, Def Leppard are 12th among the biggest hard rock/metal bands of all time.
- At 33,700,000 EAS, Hysteria is the 5th biggest album from 1987.
- At 33,700,000 EAS, Hysteria is the 17th biggest album from the 80s.
- At 17,275,000 EAS, Pyromania is the 6th biggest album from 1983.
- At 78 weeks, Hysteria owns the longest run ever inside the Billboard album chart top 10 for a band/group.
- At 7, Hysteria has the most Hot 100 hits ever from a hard rock/metal album.
NB: EAS means Equivalent Album Sales.
Dynamic Spotify Key Performance Indicators
As usual, feel free to comment and / or ask a question!
Sources: IFPI, Spotify, YouTube, Discogs, Billboard.
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Thanks for the article. Honestly, I have to write that I am disappointed with their sales. I expected much higher sales of their carriers. Even Hysteria doesn't have 20 million in net sales. Otherwise, nice job and thank you, although I'm pretty disappointed from the total numbers.
Thanks! Great to get a well deserved article on Leppard.
You have Hysteria at 13.705.000 sales in the US, but say it's close to 15 x platinum?
I also thought they'd have a bit higher numbers. That Hysteria was a bit closer to Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet. Very surprised that SWW is bigger than Hysteria and Pyromania combined!!!
And New Jersey is bigger than Pyromania too, btw.
Bon Jovi has a broader WW appeal, but still.
It should be close in RIAA units which includes streaming and digital tracks.
Pyromania only really sold and done well in the US and Canada. I remember in the 80s being shocked and surprised that Def Leppard and Pyromania were that popular in the US and Canada, as nobody really gave a toss about them in the UK. I'd go as far as to say, that hard rock fans looked down their noses at them, seeing them as wishy washy, poppy sounding, sell outs.
Even Hysteria, was only hugely successful in a handful of places, roughly 16m of it's 19.5m sales, come from just the US, Canada and The UK.
Hmmm,. This is a bit hit and miss.
I have been a semi-regular visitor to this site, and been impressed with the work do here. However, I have always been a bit sceptical about how non-industry persons could calculate global career sales for so many acts.
Now I see I was right to be skeptical as, sadly, these Def Leppard figures are lacking accuracy in too many areas (some overstatements, but more cases of under estimating).
How do I know? Because I worked in the music industry in the late 90s and early 00s including having involvement with Def Leppard’s Euphoria release in 1999. And, as of the end of the Euphoria campaign in 2000, I had access to all the bands sales/shipments globally. Now, of course, these figures would have changed in the 20 years since, but there are some obvious mistakes that I see here.
Ironically, this site is almost exactly spot on with forecasting the sales of Euphoria at around 1.2 million - this is 100% correct, assuming minimal back catalogue sales in the years since its release.
However, this site totally underestimates the global sales of Slang. By the time of the release of Euphoria, Slang (which had been out for 3 years) had already passed the 2.25 million mark.
Also, global sales of Adrenalize were around the 7.5 million mark by the time Euphoria was released, so the site seems to have got the sales underestimated for this album too. Ditto, with Retro Active which I recall having also comfortably passed the 2 million sales mark by the release of Euphoria.
Notably, I recall that Leppard had huge success in SE Asia in the Adrenalize/Retro/Vault/Slang eras so maybe this site is failing to count sales in this region sufficiently. Notably, Euphoria flopped in the SE Asia markets so perhaps that is why the site gets Euphoria correct but underestimates the prior albums?
However, I do not think the problems are just related to SE Asia. I clearly recall that Adrenalize had shifted approximately 500,000 in the UK by 1999, yet this site claims much lower as of 2024. But, it has to be said, the UK sales estimates for Slang and Euphoria are looking spot on! Hysteria seems pretty accurate too.
But it is not just a case of this site underestimating sales by the band. The UK sales of Vault by the time Euphoria was released stood at approx 450,000 for its first four years of its release. And so, the total UK lifetime sales of over 600,000 claimed on this site seem a bit too generous to me. Talking about Vault, it was the bands biggest seller in South Africa and by the time of Euphoria’s release has shifted more than 100,000 in that country in its first four years of release. And yet, this site states in the last thirty years it has sold just over 100,000 for the whole of the ‘rest of the world’….seems low to me.
However, on the whole the site’s estimated 9.4 million sales of Vault for a global count seem sensible to me.
Some other overestimates…. The estimated European sales of the first two album seem high. From what I recall, those first two albums did pretty badly in Europe but maybe back catalogue sales have improved for them in the years since.
Also, I certainly recall that Adrenalize was in many European markets a far bigger seller than Hysteria, but this site does not seem to reflect that. Sure, back catalogue sales may have favoured Hysteria over the past twenty years, but from what I recall, the gap was really quite big in favour of Adrenalize (e.g I recall by the release of Euphoria in 1999, Adrenalize had almost double the sales count of Hysteria in Germany).
As I say, I only had access to sales figures for Def Leppard during the Euphoria release campaign, so my data is old. And I am relying on memory, but I am quite sure of what I have posted above.
Some other mistake I spotted around physical singles….Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad was the bands biggest selling single in the USA equalling Sugar and Love Bites for physical sales in that country. Globally, Two Steps Behind was the bands biggest selling single (again, huge in Asia).
I am not writing all of the above to bash this site. I think the people behind it do a lot of hard work. But I believe there are some clear errors around the sales forecasting of Def Leppard in the 80s and 90s. Though, oddly, also some extremely accurate findings too.
It is interesting, that this site really mess up the UK sales of Adrenalize, but are spot on with the sales of Euphoria and Slang.
My take away is that amateur estimation can not be relied on to heavily, even with the best of researching. Industry insight is really needed. Sadly, I only ever had certain reports for a small number of acts and from over twenty years ago.
Still, I hope the above Def Leppard insights help.
Of course there are errors, it is not an exact science, it is an attempt to get as accurate and as close as possible, to what an artists sales most likely are.
I to have worked in the industry, at the MCPS and PRS and have seen and used hundreds, if not thousands of figures I obtained on UK retail and music club shipments, as supplied by record labels to us, for royalty calculation.
The thing is, there is nothing else but amateur estimation, as there never have been any official organisations, that provide detailed music sales like we do. Most of us that help out here understand the difficulties in trying to assume sales figures for artists/albums etc, certainly from yesteryear. Industry insight is mainly needed, to see how ambiguous and misleading the industry can be with it's PR releases, "sales" figures and what not. It is certainly helpful, getting exact figures from labels, MCPS etc but it is not vital in getting to very good approximate estimations for artists/albums etc. Yes, inevitably some will be a bit out but the probability of getting exact numbers, even from record label or music collection agency sources is IMO impossible, so we are the best, again IMO, that you will find out there.
Do you still have your data/figures and can you share them?
UK pyromania album sales could be updated from silver status to platinum.
Hysteria album status from 2x platinum to 4x platinum.
Hi N N!
Ironically, the conclusion from your message is that it's possible to get way, way better figures from "amateur estimation" than from "industry insight" 😉
I don't want to completely discard your message, nor to doubt your honesty. Still, many of the figures you list are very, very strongly inaccurate, and to be honest quite easy to debunk, showing most likely a misundestanding of figures. I'll try to go around all of them, sorry if I miss some.
- Two Steps Behind's huge sales in Asia
By the time TSB came out, total Asian sales of singles outside of Japan were less than 2 million per year. These aren't Def Leppard sales, nor international artists' sales, but TOTAL sales in the continent. You've read it well - Asian markets weren't selling/releasing singles at all. The only one that can be seen as in operation on that sector was the Philippines, with less than 1 million sales per year. To give a good idea of these markets, just think that more singles were sold per year in Switzerland than in Asia (minus Japan ofc). When we check TSB releases on Discogs, the Philippines appears to be precisely the only non-Japanese country where the single was released. It has 3 owners out of the 1,100+ there, suggesting a tiny fraction of its (not so good) global sales came from there. Then, there's Japan, where the single has decent showing on Discogs (34 of its global owners are for the Japanese version), but that's only 3% of total global sales. The single failed to enter charts there, reflecting peak weekly sales below 3,000 units. The very top selling non-charted singles could sell 25-35,000 units. TSB is unlikely to be on this range though as with 34 owners, it is much weaker than Let's Get Rocket (72 owners), which itself failed to chart. As you can see, nothing 'huge' there.
- Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad in the US
While the absence of certs doesn't help, both charts and Discogs data makes it very, very difficult for this track to be their top seller in the US. Data for Let's Get Rocked, to not even got deeper, are about 20% higher. Also, that song made the 1992 annual sales chart there (#69) while HYENSSB failed to chart.
- Slang at 2.25m
There are no way this album sold that much. It sold a 3rd of that amount in the US plus Europe combined. It's not like an album of this profile can sell 1m copies unnoticed on random markets, more on SE Asia later on. Without going into all the numbers, virtually all their albums sold at least half of their copies in the US, and we should be expected to believe that one sold 5.5 times more WW than in the US, obviously it doesn't make sense. What it does look like are initial shipments or even forecasts, as this album failed to sell it's initial orders as we can see by its fast US Gold cert while its Soundscan numbers have yet to reach 400,000 units, and it wasn't available on music clubs.
- Adrenalize at 7.5m
Same thing here. Please note that their label awarded the band for 5m units in 1993 when national certs were already at their "final" level, as the bulk of its units had already been sold when the award was given.
- UK sales
Adrenalize was certified, both Silver and Gold, but failed to reach Platinum. It wasn't that much of a surprise considering it was the 40th top seller of the year, with approx 220,000 units. Its chart run reflect 20,000 additional sales in the 1st quarter of 1993. After that, it was gone from the top 100 and never reentered even the top 200. 500k sales by 1999 are 100% out of reach, even thinking about decent club showings.
What does appear possible is that your figure referred to sales produced in the UK. Discogs shows various UK versions that were sold across Europe, which again is no surprise as European versions became the norm from mid-80s. Randomly checking the first UK version I see now, only 2 out of 19 sellers are actually from the UK. Thus, this 500k figure would include a large chunk of exports.
These exports/imports would also explain your claim related to German sales of Hysteria/Adrenalize. In most European countries, Adrenalize was clearly much, much bigger upon release. It wasn't that big though, so good original sales plus solid catalog sales lately from Hysteria are enough to make them very close in most countries.
- huge success in SE Asia
Relatively speaking, they definitely did decently there during the 90s, even hitting some certs. Adrenalize went Silver in India (10k), Gold in both Indonesia (25k) and Malaysia (15k). These two countries were about a third of Asian sales outside of India/China/Japan, and the ones were the band was certified so likely they performed a bit better there than elsewhere. This is nothing to be ashamed of, it wasn't easy to reach awards for international acts, but as you can see the numbers (10k/25k/15k) are still low, and in line with the estimates (near 200k in Asia outside Japan for Adrenalize). By the way, Discogs show both Slang and Euphoria performed on par there, while you mention the first one as very successful and the second as a flop. Tends to confirm that the figures you saw for Slang were initial shipments, that sales never came close to match.
- Rest of world vs South Africa
In 1995, the only African country listed inside the IFPI report was South Africa (17.71m albums sold). Outside of the listed countries on breakdowns (America, Europe, Asia, Oceania) the only other area missing is the middle east, where 9.6 million albums were sold in 1995. Now, while the South Africa market was heavily linked to British expatriates, with international singers doing very well, Middle East markets are massively dominated by local singers, with only Israel letting a small spot for foreigners. Unsurprisingly again, it's the only market that has a version of Vault listed on Discogs. KPis suggest about 40 times less buyers of the Israelian version compared to the (4) South African versions. In concrete words, Rest of world is indeed virtually equal to South Africa.
I think i've gone around all numbers. Again, I'm not trying to discredit you/your story, I don't think you are making up your message out of thin air. That being said, it seems there are two confusions between net shipments and gross shipments (Slang, Adrenalize), and between local sales to consumers (which include imports and exclude exports), and local sales to retailers (which exclude imports and include exports), explaining figures like Adrenalize in the UK. Not too sure how to explain the bogus claims about Asia, most likely a confusion with some indicators based on national charts, which were all based on airplay rather than sales as there was simply no single market there at the time.
Another key point to finish. That Slang sold 400k ish in the US is not an "amateur estimation", it's a Soundscan figure. That Adrenalize failed to go Platinum in the UK isn't an amateur estimation, it's verified by the BPI. That it sold less than 300k at retail back then is also not an amateur estimation, but a data from the official chart provider. The market size of the Middle East or the absence of physical singles markets in Asia isn't an amateur estimation, it's a report from the IFPI. I could go on and on and on. More than 90% of sales totals are entirely covered by official data. The "estimation" part fills in some holes, which are mechanically small as relevant markets/sales are visible and tracked. Of course a label doing paperworks to evidence total net shipments up to date would reveal small gaps here and there, but nowhere near to the extent you seem to believe (360k/500k for Adrenalize, 1.215m/2.25m for Slang, etc). These latter figures can be ruled out with an extremely high level of confidence. Claiming that Slang sold net 2.25m copies for example would be equivalent to discrediting tens and tens of official bodies tracking and certifying sales, as well as suggesting that market information from the IFPI is made up.
Yep as Al said it's with TEA+SEA. That being said, technically speaking a good chunk of its TEA+SEA aren't eligible for Hysteria as they were downloads/streams from the re-recorded versions of Sugar and (the song) Hysteria!
Def Leppard’s Billboard 200 entries ranked by weeks in top 10 ( as of April 1 , 2024 ):
1. 78 , Hysteria
2. 38 , Pyromania
3. 15 , Adrenalize
4. 1 , Rock Of Ages: The Definitive Collection
5. 1 , Retro Active
6. 1 , Songs From The Sparkle Lounge
7. 1 , Def Leppard
8. 1 , Diamond Star Halos
Total : 136 weeks .
