The Eagles albums and songs sales
40 years ago the success of the Eagles‘ fifth album titled Hotel California was so massive that the industry was looking for new words to define it. Along with Stevie Wonder‘s Songs In The Key of Life, Fleetwood Mac‘s Rumours and Frampton Comes Alive!, it sold over 6 million units during its first year. While the RIAA had introduced the Platinum Award some months earlier, these industry gorillas opened the door for multi-Platinum discs that would arrive in 1984 for the first time.
By then, the Eagles had already split up although they only released one more studio album, 1979’s The Long Run, since their global breakthrough. Their former members Joe Walsh, Don Henley and Glenn Frey were successfully going solo. This brief period of success shouldn’t be enough to make this band one of the all-time greats. The Eagles are inevitable in every Classic Rock bands list though. The song Hotel California is an absolute classic, but in various countries there is nothing else from them that is popular. Just one song doesn’t transform an average act into a giant rock band. The Animals and Derek & the Dominos can confirm that. What’s the truth then? How does Hotel California stand against the biggest albums of all-time? How many units has Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 sold, the album that was long the front runner in terms of Platinum awards in the US?
As usual, I’ll be using the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept in order to relevantly gauge their results. This concept will not only bring you sales information for all Eagles‘ albums, physical and download singles, as well as audio and video streaming, but it will also determine their true popularity. If you are not yet familiar with the CSPC method, the next page explains it with a short video. I fully recommend watching the video before getting into the sales figures. Of course, if you are a regular visitor feel free to skip the video and get into the figures.
The Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept (CSPC)
There are two ways to understand this revolutionary concept. The first is the Scribe video posted below. If you are unaware of the CSPC method, you will get the full idea within just a few minutes.
If you are a mathematical person, and want to know the full method as well as formulas, you can read the full introduction article.
Now let’s get into the artist’s sales figures in detail in order to apply this concept and define the act’s true popularity!
Original Albums Sales
Eagles (1972)
- America
- US – 1,900,000
- Canada – 200,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 225,000
- Japan – 150,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 75,000
- New Zealand – 20,000
- Europe – 480,000
- UK – 180,000
- France – 60,000
- Germany – N/A
- Italy – 20,000
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – 50,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 2,950,000
Desperado (1973)
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- America
- US – 2,150,000
- Canada – 225,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 235,000
- Japan – 150,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 95,000
- New Zealand – 25,000
- Europe – 950,000
- UK – 240,000
- France – 80,000
- Germany – N/A
- Italy – 90,000
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – 130,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 3,800,000
On The Border (1974)
- America
- US – 2,900,000
- Canada – 300,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 225,000
- Japan – 150,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 120,000
- New Zealand – 25,000
- Europe – 630,000
- UK – 200,000
- France – 50,000
- Germany – N/A
- Italy – 30,000
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – 90,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 4,725,000
One Of These Nights (1975)
- America
- US – 4,500,000
- Canada – 475,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 525,000
- Japan – 350,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 190,000
- New Zealand – 50,000
- Europe – 1,310,000
- UK – 550,000
- France – 75,000
- Germany – 160,000
- Italy – 50,000
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – 160,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 7,175,000
Hotel California (1976)
- America
- US – 16,775,000
- Canada – 1,650,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 2,045,000
- Japan – 1,300,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 650,000
- New Zealand – 145,000
- Europe – 7,610,000
- UK – 1,910,000
- France – 1,365,000
- Germany – 1,000,000
- Italy – 450,000
- Spain – 450,000
- Sweden – 225,000
- Netherland – 550,000
- Switzerland – 150,000
- Austria – 70,000
- Finland – 50,000
- World – 30,050,000
The Long Run (1979)
- America
- US – 7,500,000
- Canada – 800,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 755,000
- Japan – 500,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 275,000
- New Zealand – 45,000
- Europe – 1,510,000
- UK – 325,000
- France – 250,000
- Germany – 175,000
- Italy – 150,000
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – 80,000
- Netherland – 100,000
- Switzerland – 30,000
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 11,150,000
Long Road Out Of Eden (2007)
- America
- US – 3,500,000
- Canada – 250,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – 10,000
- Mexico – 35,000
- Asia – 200,000
- Japan – 125,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 225,000
- New Zealand – 55,000
- Europe – 1,620,000
- UK – 870,000
- France – 50,000
- Germany – 200,000
- Italy – 70,000
- Spain – 15,000
- Sweden – 55,000
- Netherland – 85,000
- Switzerland – 25,000
- Austria – 25,000
- Finland – 15,000
- World – 6,025,000
Original Album Sales – Comments
The steady growth of the Eagles reached its peak in 1976 with the release of Hotel California. This huge album has been a global juggernaut since day 1 and never really stopped selling. A smash of this magnitude may generate millions of back catalog sales, especially for a rock band.
How come then albums like Eagles and Desperado sold so little? They do include relevant hits like Take It Easy and Desperado respectively. The Eagles are the perfect illustration of the cannibalization phenomenon. Less than a year before the release of Hotel California, Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 was issued covering singles from their first four albums. This is why those early albums enjoyed very moderate success after the smash of their follow up as consumers jumped into the compilation instead. Compilations are treated on a separated section coming later on this article.
The Long Run hasn’t been as massive but it still sold a whopping 11 million units. Their much hyped reunion album Long Road Out Of Eden moved a huge 6 million. All told, the band sold 65,4 million units from its 7 studio albums, an average of more than 9 million in spite of their gigantic sales of compilations.
1972 Eagles – 2,950,000
1973 Desperado– 3,800,000
1974 On The Border – 4,275,000
1975 One Of These Nights – 7,175,000
1976 Hotel California – 30,050,000
1979 The Long Road – 11,150,000
2007 Long Road Out Of Eden – 6,025,000
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
Singles-wise the Eagles started fairly strong with Take It Easy, Witchy Woman and Peaceful Easy Feeling peaking at #12, #9 and #22 respectively in the US. It wasn’t enough to push their parent album into the Top 10 but that enabled them to make a dent inside radio playlists. They sold a combined 1,36 million units.
The era of Desperado was much weaker as both Tequila Surprise and Outlaw Man failed to reach the Top 50. The following era started poorly too as Already Gone peaked at #32 while James Dean wasn’t able to go higher than #77. These statistics refer to the US only as they were completely failing to chart elsewhere. It wasn’t the end of the road for the band though, Best Of My Love, the last single from On The Border, came out in late 1974. The climb of the song was slow as it needed 5 weeks to reach the Top 40, but it continued improving week after week until peaking at #1 and eventually selling over 1 million units.
This pivotal success raised the standards of the band. Their next era saw One Of These Nights hit #1 too while Lyin’ Eyes and Take It To The Limit reached #2 and #4 respectively. All of them sold around 1 million units. Their new status also enabled them to be promoted in the UK where One Of These Nights became their first charted single peaking at #23. Lyin’ Eyes reproduced the same showing while Take It To The Limit went to #12. The band was ready to battle for more though…
Eagles (1972) – 411,000 equivalent albums
Take It easy – 450,000
Witchy Woman – 550,000
Peaceful Easy Feeling – 360,000
Chug All Night – 10,000
Desperado (1973) – 114,000 equivalent albums
Tequila Surprise – 210,000
Outlaw Man – 170,000
On The Border (1974) – 455,000 equivalent albums
Already Gone – 300,000
James Dean – 120,000
Best Of My Love – 1,090,000
My Man – 5,000
One Of These Nights (1975) – 930,000 equivalent albums
One Of These Nights – 1,140,000
Lyin’ Eyes – 930,000
Take It To The Limits – 1,030,000
Part 2
By their 4th album the Eagles were still not managing to break most foreign markets. They were strong in the US, solid in remaining English-speaking countries plus the Netherlands, surprisingly great sellers in Japan, but then unknown in continental Europe or Latin America. New Kid in Town mostly followed those patterns although its #1 success in the US was enough to grant it more than 1 million sales. The song Hotel California was very different though. It was big everywhere.
Ironically, the track peaked at a shockingly low #60 position in Australia and at a modest #8 spot in the UK. The cannibalization factor worked the other way around this time: rather than a single that ate into sales of an album, the song Hotel California was so popular that it convinced music consumers to go after the LP. Despite this, the single still moved a healthy 3,5 million units. Life In The Fast Lane broke a string of 6 consecutive US Top 5 hits by stalling just outside at #11 due to the success of the album which reduced the number of possible buyers tremendously.
Heartache Tonight was one more US #1 hit while both The Long Run and I Can’t Tell You Why were Top 10 successes. They sold 3 million copies combined.
In terms of physical singles this was the last proper era of the Eagles as no song was released physically from Long Road Out Of Eden. From 1978 to 2003 new singles popped up here and there though. The most successful of them has been their Christmas tune Please Come Home For Christmas.
Over their career the group sold 16,6 million singles. It may look disappointing for a band with 5 #1 hits plus 5 more Top 10 singles, but we need to keep in mind their huge airplay which fueled their US chart performances, as well as their lackluster results abroad during their entire career minus Hotel California, which remains their only Top 10 hit in countries as important as the UK, France and Germany.
Hotel California (1976) – 1,737,000 equivalent albums
New Kid In Town – 1,640,000
Hotel California – 3,500,000
Life In The Fast Lane – 650,000
The Long Run (1979) – 921,000 equivalent albums
Heartache Tonight – 1,490,000
The Long Run – 880,000
I Can’t Tell You Why – 690,000
Sad Caf̩ Р10,000
Long Road Out Of Eden (2007) – 0 equivalent albums
No physical single released.
Orphan – 420,000 equivalent albums
Please Come Home For Christmas – 740,000
Seven Bridges Road – 340,000
Get Over It – 70,000
Love Will Keep Us Alive – 40,000
Learn To Be Still – 60,000
Hole In The World – 150,000
Digital Singles Sales
As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between one album and one digital single.
Part 1
A compilation like Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 can’t continue to sell well for decades without hits. The downloads era proved the relevance of this set. Take It Easy remains a strong seller with 1,8 million digital sales worldwide. Desperado comes second from this pack with a stunning 1,6 million units sold. This is especially impressive considering the song was never issued as a single. It was popularized by several covers including one by Linda Ronstadt.
Peaceful Easy Feeling, Take It To The Limits and Lyin’ Eyes are all close to 1 million sales. The only negative surprise from this list comes from Best Of My Love. Their first #1 hit, the song was fundamental in turning the success around for the band at the time. It is now largely forgotten. Its 300,000 downloads make it the lowest selling song from the best of Their Greatest Hits 1971-75.
Eagles (1972) – 482,000 equivalent albums
Take It easy – 1,810,000
Witchy Woman – 400,000
Peaceful Easy Feeling – 900,000
Remaining tracks – 100,000
Desperado (1973) – 360,000 equivalent albums
Tequila Surprise – 600,000
Desperado – 1,600,000
Remaining tracks – 200,000
On The Border (1974) – 143,000 equivalent albums
Already Gone – 300,000
Best Of My Love – 300,000
Remaining tracks – 350,000
One Of These Nights (1975) – 413,000 equivalent albums
One Of These Nights – 700,000
Lyin’ Eyes – 900,000
Take It To The Limits – 900,000
Remaining tracks – 250,000
Part 2
Unsurprisingly Hotel California massively dominates this category. If no other Eagles song topped 2 million sales of downloads and ringtones this one tops 6 million with ease. It is one of the very best selling catalog songs from the 70s. The remaining songs from the album sold more than 2 million units.
Everything else listed on this page is uneventful. No song from The Long Road, nor Long Road Out Of Eden, nor Orphan tracks top half a million sales. Despite this the Eagles still sold over 20 million digital units in total from their catalog.
Hotel California (1976) – 1,293,000 equivalent albums
New Kid In Town – 600,000
Hotel California – 6,270,000
Life In The Fast Lane – 900,000
Wasted Time – 300,000
Remaining tracks – 550,000
The Long Run (1979) – 210,000 equivalent albums
Heartache Tonight – 400,000
The Long Run – 200,000
I Can’t Tell You Why – 400,000
In The City – 200,000
Remaining tracks – 200,000
Long Road Out Of Eden (2007) – 60,000 equivalent albums
How Long – 100,000
Remaining tracks – 300,000
Orphan – 105,000 equivalent albums
Please Come Home For Christmas – 300,000
Seven Bridges Road – 200,000
Remaining tracks – 200,000
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 (EAS) = 212/132 * Spotify streams / 1500 + YouTube views / 11750
Streaming Part 1
Take It Easy may not be as global as Hotel California but its streams are huge at 71 million on Spotify. The remaining two songs used as singles back in the day, Witchy Woman and Peaceful Easy Feeling, crack 10 million each on both Spotify and YouTube. Album cuts aren’t strong but this is still enough for a great 123,000 equivalent album sales for Eagles.
Desperado‘s title track does wonders for a former album-cut. At 36 million the song is responsible for more than half of Spotify’s streams for the album which totals 75,000 EAS. Outlaw Man is forgotten nowadays with a mere 1,5 million streams.
Streaming Part 2
Two will get there soon, but so far no song from On The Border tops 10 million streams on Spotify, which is no doubt disappointing for a rock band of this stature. The album cumulates 39,000 EAS.
One Of These Nights is stronger with 97,000 EAS thanks to 3 good performers led by the title track. Along with Lyin’ Eyes and Take It To The Limit they add for 74 million streams on Spotify and 45 million on YouTube.
Streaming Part 3
The song Hotel California is an unstoppable beast. With 243 million streams on Spotify it ranks among the very biggest hits of the last century. It is only topped by Queen‘s Bohemian Rhapsody and Don’t Stop Me Now, Bob Marley‘s Three Little Birds and Earth, Wind & Fire‘s September among 70s hits.
New Kid In Town and Life In The Fast Lane are both strong too with a combined 68 million on Spotify. All album tracks are impressive too with 4-10 million streams each. This stunning showing provides the album Hotel California some 387,000 EAS.
Results of The Long Run would be fairly decent for most strong artists but they really pale in comparison to its immediate predecessor. It has four tracks in the 9-18 million range but nothing higher, not even the former smash hit Heartache Tonight. Its total from streams is worth 67,000 EAS.
Streaming Part 4
Long Road Out Of Even was massively hyped thanks to the unexpected comeback of the Eagles and the gigantic promotional push from Wal-Mart, forcing Billboard to change their rules by allowing albums with an exclusivity clause to chart. It didn’t have a hit though. None of its songs reach 5 million although the 20-songs track list shows a solid consistency, enough to create 32,000 EAS.
Among Orphan songs, the strongest one is Please Come Home For Christmas which is currently enjoying a boost. The song has 14 million streams on Spotify.
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.
Part 1 – Compilations
How to understand this table? If you check for example the Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 line, those figures mean it sold 37,450,000 units worldwide. The second statistics column means all versions of all the songs included on this package add for 281,000 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 the Desperado album are responsible for 21% of the Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 track list attractiveness. This means it generated 7,902,000 of its 37,450,000 album sales and so forth for the other records.
This compilation is the biggest anomaly ever of the music industry. Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 is the best selling compilation album of all-time… and it misses the signature song of its artist. The success of Hotel California, which happened some months after the release of the best of, boosted it incredibly well. Casual buyers that bought the two records had the perfect companion to each other. The Volume 2 issued in 1982 included Hotel California and sold a stunning 14,4 million, which is insane considering 85% of its appeal come from tracks of the 1976 album which was itself a major seller.
To sell a large number of one compilation it is needed to let it be the main set of a catalog for many years. The Eagles contradict what’s natural for others. The five career-spanning compilations released from 1985 to 2003 sold a massive 16 million units. This is all the more insane since four of them weren’t released in North America. This explains why 46 million out of the 52 million copies sold by Their Greatest Hits Vol 1 and 2 come from North America as elsewhere they were quickly replaced. The final total is unbelievable: the band’s main greatest hits albums sold 68 million units.
In terms of distribution patterns we notice that all compilations released after 1976 have more than half of their sales powered by Hotel California‘s songs. The debut album Eagles is a distant second. Distant among post-1976 compilations, but the main driving force of Their Greatest Hits 1971-75, which isn’t a small thing to point out since we are speaking of a 37 million seller. In fact, Eagles is responsible for an out of this World 15 million of its sales.
Full Length related record Sales – Part 2 – Live Albums / Videos
Not satisfied with unreal sales of compilations, the Eagles also sold an immense number of live albums and videos. The 1980 package Live and Hell Freezes Over sold a combined 19 million. Songs from Hotel California represent more than 60% of their strength.
Their sales of music videos are just as incredible. Both Hell Freezes Over and Farewell Tour belong to the top selling music videos ever with 3 million units each. Once again the leading provider of sales is Hotel California. Please notice that a part of those sales aren’t awarded to the Eagles‘ studio albums. Indeed, only 82% of Farewell Tour sales were fueled by the Eagles songs, the remaining 18% come from solo songs of Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh (plus James Gang).
Full Length related record Sales – Part 3 – Box Sets
Just like every major artist the Eagles saw their discography exploited by box sets which included most of their records. Sales of those packages are re-assigned in full into the original albums that they contain.
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.
The number of sales created by Eagles, Desperado, One Of These Nights and of course Hotel California are enormous. The latter is responsible for 37 million sales of compilations and this doesn’t even factor in the boost it gave to Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 thanks to its smash. We need to keep in mind that their early albums sold about 3 million units on their own, which shows just how much they have been cannibalized by the cult 1976 compilation.
BONUS: Compilation Albums Sales
Their Greatest Hits 1971–75 (1976)
- America
- US – 30,250,000
- Canada – 3,100,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 475,000
- Japan – 300,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 600,000
- New Zealand – 175,000
- Europe – 2,370,000
- UK – 1,200,000
- France – N/A
- Germany – N/A
- Italy – 200,000
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – 75,000
- Netherland – 150,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 37,450,000
Eagles Live (1980)
- America
- US – 3,750,000
- Canada – 400,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 535,000
- Japan – 350,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 175,000
- New Zealand – 65,000
- Europe – 1,490,000
- UK – 350,000
- France – 175,000
- Germany – 200,000
- Italy – 200,000
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – 30,000
- Netherland – 125,000
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 6,650,000
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (1982)
- America
- US – 11,775,000
- Canada – 1,200,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 375,000
- Japan – 250,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 250,000
- New Zealand – 65,000
- Europe – 540,000
- UK – N/R
- France – 125,000
- Germany – N/A
- Italy – 60,000
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – N/A
- Switzerland – N/A
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 14,400,000
The Best Of Eagles (1985)
- America
- US – N/R
- Canada – N/R
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 315,000
- Japan – 200,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 325,000
- New Zealand – 110,000
- Europe – 1,880,000
- UK – 1,300,000
- France – N/A
- Germany – 200,000
- Italy – N/A
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – N/A
- Netherland – N/A
- Switzerland – 35,000
- Austria – N/A
- Finland – N/A
- World – 2,850,000
Hell Freezes Over (1994)
- America
- US – 9,150,000
- Canada – 975,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 900,000
- Japan – 600,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 200,000
- New Zealand – 60,000
- Europe – 1,380,000
- UK – 375,000
- France – 100,000
- Germany – 250,000
- Italy – 60,000
- Spain – 75,000
- Sweden – 75,000
- Netherland – 125,000
- Switzerland – 30,000
- Austria – 20,000
- Finland – 25,000
- World – 12,875,000
The Very Best of the Eagles (1994)
- America
- US – N/R
- Canada – N/R
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 550,000
- Japan – 350,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 630,000
- New Zealand – 130,000
- Europe – 2,280,000
- UK – 750,000
- France – 250,000
- Germany – 300,000
- Italy – 220,000
- Spain – 85,000
- Sweden – 80,000
- Netherland – 125,000
- Switzerland – 40,000
- Austria – 20,000
- Finland – 30,000
- World – 3,875,000
The Very Best of the Eagles (2001)
- America
- US – N/R
- Canada – N/R
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 170,000
- Japan – N/A
- Oceania
- Australia – 270,000
- New Zealand – 70,000
- Europe – 1,570,000
- UK – 800,000
- France – 100,000
- Germany – 125,000
- Italy – 80,000
- Spain – 40,000
- Sweden – 40,000
- Netherland – 125,000
- Switzerland – 20,000
- Austria – 10,000
- Finland – 20,000
- World – 2,225,000
The Complete Greatest Hits (2003)
- America
- US – 3,600,000
- Canada – 300,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 305,000
- Japan – 200,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 300,000
- New Zealand – 60,000
- Europe – 1,040,000
- UK – 675,000
- France – 10,000
- Germany – 100,000
- Italy – 50,000
- Spain – N/A
- Sweden – 35,000
- Netherland – 25,000
- Switzerland – 10,000
- Austria – 10,000
- Finland – N/A
- World – 5,700,000
BONUS: Total Album (all types) Sales per Country
- America
- US – 98,205,000
- Canada – 9,915,000
- Argentina – N/A
- Brazil – N/A
- Mexico – N/A
- Asia – 7,915,000
- Japan – 5,145,000
- Oceania
- Australia – 4,455,000
- New Zealand – 1,120,000
- Europe – 28,360,000
- UK – 9,860,000
- France – 3,260,000
- Germany – 3,400,000
- Italy – 2,000,000
- Spain – 1,170,000
- Sweden – 910,000
- Netherland – 2,040,000
- Switzerland – 495,000
- Austria – 300,000
- Finland – 275,000
- World – 153,885,000
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.
Eagles Career CSPC Results
So, after checking all the figures, how many overall equivalent album sales has each album by Eagles achieved? Well, at this point we hardly need to add up all of the figures defined in this article!
In the following results table, all categories display figures in equivalent album sales. If different, pure sales are listed between parentheses.
As a reminder:
- Studio Album: sales of the original album
- Other Releases: sales of compilations generated thanks to the album
- Physical Singles: sales of physical singles from the album (ratio 3/10)
- Download Singles: sales of digital singles from the album (ratio 1,5/10)
- Streaming: equivalent album sales of all the album tracks (ratio 1/1500 for Audio stream and 1/6750 for Video stream)
Artist career totals
See where the artist ranks among remaining singers
More than 70 million. Colossal. Hotel California storms into our Biggest Albums Ever list at #2, ahead of Saturday Night Fever, and only topped by Michael Jackson‘s Thriller. Quickly becoming one of the best selling albums of all-time upon release, the LP has since generated zillions of sales of compilations, live albums, music videos, singles, downloads and streams to reach this gargantuan total of 70,6 million equivalent album sales.
Apart from this juggernaut their remaining albums perform incredibly well too. Eagles is the runner up at 26 million, 9 times more than its original album sales. One Of These Nights is a strong third at 23 million. The Long Run and Desperado complete their personal Top 5 with around 17 million equivalent album sales a piece.
Those superb figures catapult On The Border and Long Road Out Of Eden, two albums with 15 million units combined, at the bottom of their list. The Eagles never did it wrong.
Their career to date total is on 171,1 million equivalent album sales. The band issued a mere 7 albums. They recorded the ridiculous total of 88 different songs. It means each of their tracks, including album cuts, generated an average of 1,94 million equivalent album sales, or 12,96 million downloads, a mind-blowing showing.
The following sections list their most successful songs as well as their records and achievements.
As usual, feel free to comment and / or ask a question!
Sources: IFPI, Spotify, YouTube, Warner Music Reports, Chartmasters.org.
BIGGEST TRACKS – Eagles
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.
- 1976 – Hotel California [Hotel California] – 51,840,000
- 1972 – Take It Easy [Eagles] – 18,700,000
- 1973 – Desperado [Desperado] – 10,760,000
- 1975 – One Of These Nights [One Of These Nights] – 9,840,000
- 1976 – Life In The Fast Lane [Hotel California] – 8,920,000
- 1975 – Lyin’ Eyes [One Of These Nights] – 6,490,000
- 1979 – I Can’t Tell You Why [The Long Run] – 6,060,000
- 1975 – Take It To The Limit [One Of These Nights] – 5,380,000
- 1973 – Tequila Sunrise [Desperado] – 4,770,000
- 1976 – New Kid In Town [Hotel California] – 4,750,000
- 1972 – Peaceful Easy Feeling [Eagles] – 4,460,000
- 1979 – Heartache Tonight [The Long Run] – 3,890,000
- 1974 – The Best Of My Love [On The Border] – 3,540,000
- 1974 – Already Gone [On The Border] – 2,950,000
- 1972 – Witchy Woman [Eagles] – 2,830,000
- 1979 – The Long Run [The Long Run] – 2,830,000
- 1979 – In The City [The Long Run] – 2,350,000
- 1976 – Wasted Time [Hotel California] – 1,610,000
- 1976 – Victim Of Love [Hotel California] – 1,270,000
- 2007 – How Long [Long Road Out Of Eden] – 1,050,000
Records & Achievements
- At 171 million equivalent album sales, the Eagles are the most successful act ever with 8 studio albums or less.
- At 70,58 million equivalent album sales, Hotel California is the 2nd most successful album of all-time.
- At 70,58 million equivalent album sales, Hotel California is the most successful album of the 70s.
- At 26,21 million equivalent album sales, Eagles is the most successful album from 1972.
- At 51,84 million equivalent album sales, Hotel California is the most successful song of all-time.
- At 30,25 million pure album sales in the US, Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 is the second highest selling album ever.
- At 37,45 million pure album sales Worldwide, Their Greatest Hits 1971-75 is the highest selling compilation album ever.
- At 12,88 million pure album sales Worldwide, Hell Freezes Over is the 5th highest selling live album ever.
- At over 3 million music videos sales, both Hell Freezes Over and Farewell Tour are among the Top 10 highest selling videos ever.
- The Eagles are the only act ever with 30-million selling studio albums and compilations.
We have more for you…
… a special focus on Hotel California‘s success in France
… checking out the upcoming artists or even voting for them!
… similar artists
… best-selling artists, albums, and singles
