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Her new album sales is a little bit of a misinformation with that 1,5 mill sales globally... Her latest album is at 500k at best cuz it's opened 266k globally, and the album loaded only the third week of it's life time
Some of these albums are veryinflated
It's hard to believe that an album that has only been certified in 3 countries is ahead of albums certified in 10 or 15 countries, and even harder to believe the digital sales of Nicki's first two albums.
And Pink Friday, Roman Reloaded, and The PinkPrint being higher than 4, BEYONCE, no way
I think we all think so (except barbs), an album that in 13 years has only been certified in 3 countries suddenly seems to be a worldwide success
Hi Hamzi420!
This total includes units generated by singles released prior to the album, mainly Super Freaky Girl. It did not sell this in a few weeks only.
A great and interesting analysis. The Cardi and Taylor swift fans saying it’s inflated lol. These numbers make perfect sense. The only smaller numbers are starships and anaconda, I thought they’d sell better. How much did Starships sell in markets like Germany, France and Italy. Or platinum in Japan and 400k in Canada/Australia looking at the year ends. One of the best analysis you’ve done so far. Interested to see other pop artists like Sia, Nelly Furtado, Camila Cabello, or Kesha.
Bedrock, The Drake collab, Turn Me On and some of her other collabs are counted because she included them in the tracklist of her album, which many rappers do. The pure sales for the albums make sense. The digital sales make sense and the streaming data is right there on YouTube and Spotify if you can count. She’s a mainstream artist not a random flop.
Those certs only reflect the pure sales for the album. Platinum in Australia and he estimated 75k. Platinum in the UK and he has it at 372k. It’s also platinum eligible in New Zealand and Canada if you look at the year end. The album had great longevity in all English speaking countries. Its sales elsewhere are low and he did not inflate them. The majority of her units are from the Anglosphere countries though she has a lot of global hits.
Why are "Up All Night" and "Make Me Proud" from Drake's albums being included as part of 'Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded'? As far as I'm aware they were never part of the era...
Not hating on Nicki or anything, but it's weird that she is taken as such a popular and successful figure of the 2010's when her best selling album hasn't even sold 3 million copies. She's usually put on the same category of superstars like Katy, Gaga, Rihanna, etc. But her album sales don't much their numbers. I know she's very successful for a female rapper but she's usually considered as a pop artist too, she's been very popular, her eras weren't unnoticed by the general public. I think the problem is outside USA because her numbers are decent in America.
Also could you please do article on Jessie J, Sia and Kesha?
Hi omi!
Rap fans move away from higher priced products earlier than other consumers. They translated from album sales to downloads very early, and then from downloads to streams early too. Also the US as a whole started to replace albums with downloads earlier. By 2010, it was still very possible to sell a lot of albums in Europe, while in the US that was being eaten up by DLs already.
All that together mean that US rappers and pop artists from these years aren't good comparisons. If you compare Nicki's 2.9m seller to Drake early 2010s hit albums, they are on par. He never did more than 3.4m, and he sold less downloads than Nicki's albums. From 2008 to date, Kanye's top album is below 3m pure.
Also I don't think anyone really compare her to Katy, Gaga or Rihanna at their peak. All these have arguments to say they were the biggest pop star on earth at some point. Nicki would be more comparable to singers like Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys or P!nk. Great sellers, consistent, but never the very biggest star.
Hi Lala!
Your feelings about which albums should be bigger or weaker may not portrait a definitive truth. All numbers are out there, detailed by format, you are free to challenge all of them to see if they are made up or not.
Thanks for your answer, I didn't know that. Her low sales in Europe still surprise me though.
How is P!nk comparable to Alicia or Miley. Her albums sold way better than Katy, Gaga or Rihanna. Her peak was also huge. Missundazstood sold 12 million. Which is more than any Beyoncé or Christina album.
