Hei, i'm examined and compared the sales volumes various countries. For the Queen, sales are i think, overestimated. I posted Bob Dylan's thread yesterday on the sale of Spanish albums. 50th anniversary of Superventas lists. From 1st of April 1969 to Match. Point system, which is most sensible. The Queen was 10th, 14 top ten albums, 2 number one, 10 weeks on top. First was Joan Serrat 2. Julio Iglesias 3. Bob Dylan 6. Bruce Springsteen 7. Beatles 10. Queen 12 Rolling Stones 15. Elton John 17. Madonna. Together 50 names. Chartmasters reports Queen's sales 6,67 milloin copies. Thinking that Dylan and Bruce have sold maximum 4 milloin, as recorded for Michael Jackson. Queen figure is badly disproportionate to others. USA sales had risen to 47 milloin. Almost same as Dylan. Greasy Lake previously estimated 41 million in USA. Queen soundscan sales is 20 million 1991-2011. And later i wonder Italy.
To Mjd many thanks really. You are the best in your industry.

One problem with point systems is that they don't account for market size. Way more albums were sold at Queen's peak than Dylan's. A big part of Queen's sales there came from club sales as well that were not accounted for on the charts.

The 1970-1980 (decades) Queen doesn't have any albums among the top 50 in Spain. Queen performed only 5 concerts in Spain with fairly modest audience numbers. Last in Marbella in 1986. Altough the list-act studio records are average, so sales are the top notch. Sales are channeled to studio records.
Club sales, USA, Spain? I dont know. Queen soundscan sales is 20 million albums from 1991-2011 and those who studied so Queen sales in the USA from 1970 to end 1980 were mediocre. 42 millions in USA is close to the truth. Dylan Soundscan sales were 23 million from 1991-2013. (same as Barbra Streisand and same period). I think Dylan Us album sales are about 50 million. And sales has remain thanks to Nobel Price. Chartmasters figures from Dylan are correct. Problem is overestimating Queens sales.
In Italy sales according to hitparadeitaly is modest. A night at The Opera is not among the 100 bestselling 1975-1976. It was until 1991 that Innuendo rose to the top ten, number 9 in year 1991. 8,8 million in Italy and 6,7 million in Spain are not reliable figures. 47 million in the USA far too much. 42-43 million is more correct figure.

Hi Mika!

You're giving way too much importance to charts. When we talk about artists like Queen or Bob Dylan, their interest is clearly limited, it's only the visible part of the iceberg. Chart performance during 10/20 weeks represents next to nothing in comparison to 30-40 catalog albums shifting decent numbers week after week, year after year, since several decades. That's not even considering the lack of accuracy of some charts, if you check Alabama, they spent a mere 1 week inside the US Top 10 album chart, at #10, yet they are one of the best selling acts ever in the country.

In 1975 in Italy, about 50,000 was enough to belong to the top 10/20 albums of the year. That's less than Queen's yearly sales in the 10s decade in spite of a dreadful market that is a 4th of what it used to be. In fact, even outside of Mercury's death madness (2m+ sales in 91/92 alone), during the 90s the band was shifting every year about the same as mid-70s' annual top sellers. The same situation is true in Spain. Just for fun, I looked at the top 20 sellers in Italy in 1975 according to hitparadeitalia, only 1 of them has been certified Gold for sales since 2009 to date as ANATO has been.

In these comments, I do not even take into account the multiple "one-per-week release" campaigns that took place in both Italy and Spain since 2008. They moved over 1m units in Italy and almost 2m in Spain while going unnoticed since their specific nature made them not eligible to chart.

Back to the US, while the research job done on Greasy Lake is good to put together Soundscan sales, the estimation part is very poorly done. It adds vague and conservative soundscan estimates since the last award, without caring about club sales nor if the certification was date-specific or not. When multiple catalog albums are awarded together, one can't seriously expect all albums to have pass the exact criteria the same day. It's a big lie to say that Queen sales in the 70s were "mediocre". From 1975 to 1981 they sold 16 million albums, there haven't been many artists who outdid them in the US during this period. Obviously, their new releases in the latter part of the 80s haven't done well at all, so the myth of them being unpopular there was extended to their debut to Mercury's death, but it's deeply untrue.

Also, you seem to base your claims on data from about 8 years ago. I agree 42 million would have been a more correct figure... 8 years ago. Time passes and Queen, as many classic artists, keep selling. Their top albums alone sold 1.5m+ in the US since the release of the Bohemian Rhapsody movie.

1975-1981, it's 6 year. 16 million albums in USA. It IS more than 2,5 million per year! But Soundscan after that is one million per year also 20 million albums to 2011. Freddie died end of the year 1991. I remember, i bought Innuendo C-cassette then. Freddies death was not a big deal here in Scandinavia and Finland. I think Queens popularity is lowest here in the North. Freddie had such a reputation as a posing (like Bowie). I myself have been listening to Queen, perhaps the most after Dylan. So i'm pretty old and i remember this stuff closely. In Spanish i learned to listen Dylan. Dylanita is the name of the fan. So the Queen has sold almost The same on USA as Dylan.......Dylan is Sonys best selling artist globally every year. 2018 second best selling after Traviscott period Q4. Dylan has released more than 120 (sic!) records since 2010. And they sell well. Some have money to buy everything possible or receive it a Christmas gift.

Hej. I was wrong, Queens sales were really strong on 1975-81. 16 million in Usa is certainly right. I studied more.

Freddie Mercury mostly wrote Innuendo, Roger Taylor only contributed some lyrics.

Looks like Queen will be the first artist in history to cross 100m albums on continental Europe.

omg! 25million jump over madonna since that movie?? another strong biopic/documentary coupled with their strong legacy and current popularity might see another 25 million jump lol

disrespecting the other legend is uncalled for...you never know one big movie on madonna or that inevitable death push some 25 years down the line may significantly raise her and u hv been spatting on MJ.MADONNA in each and evry thread with fake IDs cool down,,,u cant compare A band to a solo artist

so u meant to say MJ is not as relevant as the queen?lol before that movie both were at same level on spotify despite MJ having only about half the number of tracks as queen hv, just bcz they are outstreaming him now u cant say jackson had a peak long ago and indirectly hint at him being not as relevant ?? and what about Youtube streams? y only talk about Spotify? when u r speaking about absolute numbers its ok to say they are outsreaming but when u r trying to imply RELEVANCE u hv to see the number of tracks that are generating such numbers,,,,just bcz MJ has only 6.5b spotify streams with only some 300 tracks doesnt mean he is not relevant,,,,even without the help of any movie his youtube streams are still higher

strictly on popularity terms his moonwalk and billie jean dance alone is sufficient and now as of numbers well for someoene with 300 tracks and to hv a 6.5b plays on spotify is as good as anyone(legacy artist) can have without a boost from a blockbuster movie(infact there was only a slandering documentary) what do u mean by Mj does not have any opportunity to be more popular trhan queen?? lol his thriller is still played throughout the world during Halloween and his dance continues to be imitated and if u r commenting based on streaming numbers u never know MJ too might have a pro movie ,did u expect queen to be outsreaming MJ by such a margin some 3years ago? how can u judge popularity based on spotify only? what about youtube?? and lets not forget Queen members are still sometimes touring and performing ,,once the movie effect saturates and rest of the queen members retire and may be A pro MJ documentary MJ could be again outstreaming...Popularity alone by means of current streams cannot be assessed

lol MJ's ASR IS 1000 so according to chartmasters he is the most successful artist of all time ur hatred towards MJ with multiple fake accounts amazes me,,if u r thinking MJ's influence is not as big as the beatles just see the sales of jackson outside US and the number of top selling albums,,,,spotify spotify why r u keep blabbering about only spotify streams? there is a world outside spotify ,,what about youtube streams?? last but not least MJ has only some 300 tracks

Don't place such importance on the number of tracks or number of albums, volume of releases has little bearing on popularity or how well a catalogue is streamed.

Prime examples of acts with smaller discographies outperforming those with much larger ones are;
The Beatles > Elvis Presley,
Led Zeppelin > Celine Dion
Mariah Carey > Barbara Streisand

I’m looking at my childish comments when I knew nothing and I was new here. Sorry to everyone 😭 (Queen is still bigger than Madonna tho 💅🏻).