CSPC: Green Day Popularity Analysis

Original Album Sales – Comments

1990 39/Smooth – 100,000
1991 Kerplunk – 1,950,000
1994 Dookie – 19,750,000
1995 Insomniac – 5,800,000
1997 Nimrod – 5,200,000
2000 Warning – 3,450,000
2004 American Idiot – 15,250,000
2009 21st Century Breakdown – 3,800,000
2012 ¡Uno! – 1,050,000
2012 ¡Dos! – 650,000
2012 ¡Tré! – 550,000
2016 Revolution Radio – 700,000

Green Day‘s sales summed it in one word?… irregular. Green Day have sold a combined 58,25 million studio albums spread across 12 outputs, an average close to 6 million units per set. Two of them though, Dookie and American Idiot, shifted 35 million units combined, leaving a mere 23,25 million for the remaining 10 LPs.

Chronologically speaking, they started with two albums from a minor label selling a only a few thousand units. 39/Smooth is on 100,000 copies sold while their second album, Kerplunk, is close to 2 million. This is because 39/Smooth was deleted when the band became big, being replaced instead by 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, a compilation of the album plus early EPs. This set’s figures will come in the Compilation Category later on in the article.

Both Dookie and American Idiot were immense successes, but both were followed by strong disappointments. In-between, they retained some decent sales though. In recent years the band has been struggling a lot and isn’t looking likely to get back on track anytime soon.