Depeche Mode hit 100 million sales

A cult band in the largest markets, superstars elsewhere, Depeche Mode somehow managed to crack 100 million equivalent album sales to date. They are the very first British band from the 80s to hit this mark.

In the era of loud guitars from Metallica, Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses, their synthetizer charger electronic music appeared to be everything but short lived, with their popularity still intact nearly 45 years in.

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Debuting against all odds

Unfashioned UK bands to start the 80s

Following the Beatles‘ US explosion in 1964, all news were about the British Invasion. Until the start of the 70s, notable acts such as the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin or Queen kept arriving.

Then, the flow of new talents came to an abrupt end, especially when the hottest music genre switched from rock music to disco in the mid-70s.

It’s in this context that a group of very young Brits, singer-songwriter Vince Clarke, keyboardists Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore, and lead singer Dave Gahan, founded the band Depeche Mode in 1980.

Electronic music struggling to go global

Of course, when you are 18 to 20, you want to play the music you love. Fans of bands like Kraftwerk or OMD, little did they bother about the fact that even their personal heroes never broke the main audience in the US. Their chances to make it big themselves were close to zero.

Still, they were off to a promising start in their homeland. On their first year, they landed 3 charted singles, Dreaming of Me (#57), New Life (#11), and Just Can’t Get Enough (#8). The latter was also a good performer in various European markets.

In the US, they did not touch their products, with only their debut album Speak And Spell denting into charts at a very low #192 position.

If their mission wasn’t easy, it got truly complicated when their mastermind Vince Clarke left the band right after their debut album. Not a bad decision for him, as he went on to create two more successful bands, Yazoo and Erasure.

Steadily rising to the top

Prolific years consolidate Depeche Mode’s reputation

Gore took over the songwriter role from their second album A Broken Frame, while musician Alan Wilder completed the band. With a darker atmosphere, the kids started to get a little more credit artistically speaking. Their commercial success remained decent. See You (#6), Everything Counts (#6) gave them more UK top 10 hits, but it took until 1984’s People Are People (#4 in the UK) to see them make some waves in the US. The song peaked at #13 in the Hot 100.

Up to that point they were so unknown there that a local compilation titled Catching Up with Depeche Mode was released in late 1985.

People Are People also changed the band’s dimension in continental Europe. In Germany, it was their first top 10 hit – in fact, it went to #1, a started a sequence of 10 top 10 hits in a mere 3 years.

Violator breaks the ceiling of a capped market

Despite the continuous influx of new, good hits, the smash single that would push an album into the highest spheres of album charts all around the world kept escaping them. After a little break in late 80s, they returned with exactly that smash hit: Personal Jesus. Thanks to it, the album Violator went on to sell over 4 million copies in each the US and Europe, and just over 10 million globally.

Ironically, their UK success was still low relatively speaking. Despite a sharp increase compared to its predecessors, Violator sold less in their homeland than in Germany, France, and even Italy, a market 5 times smaller. In Australia, the album peaked at a very modest #46 position, while going mostly unnoticed in Asian markets, including Japan. Their music genre was simply a niche market in the largest music industry countries.

An incredible resilience

The 90s success came with its dangers…

The millions of sales and the monumental tour that followed the release of Violator was difficult to handle for each band member. At first, they were able to put out a strong follow up with Songs of Faith and Devotion. Then, each had to face his personal demon. From drugs to alcohol to depression to isolation. Wilder left at that time and the band decided to continue as a trio.

After overcoming these challenges, while also getting older, they slowed their pace of release. As years passed, their discography got more and more robust with additions of Ultra (1997), Exciter (2001), Playing the Angel (2005), Sounds of the Universe (2009), Delta Machine (2013) and Spirit (2017).

…but in 2024, Depeche Mode is still going strong

The band’s immaculate popularity in continental Europe never vanished. In the US, the UK or Japan, while never breaking records, they certainly amassed more and more sales year after year, with both new titles and legacy albums.

The unexpected passing of founding member Fletcher, 60, in 2022, left Gahan and Gore as a duo. Again, their choice was to stick together, without recruiting a new member.

The following year, they added what’s for now the final touch to their career, Memento Mori. As an illustration of their legendary status across Europe, the album debuted at #1 in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland. The Memento Mori World Tour sealed one more time their strong bond with their fans as more than 2 million showed up at one of its 112 dates.

Outstanding sales figures

For many reasons, nobody would have put much money on Depeche Mode becoming a household name when they first debuted.

Yet here they are, hitting the magical 9-digits figure in equivalent album sales. When adding up all formats (original, compilations, physical singles, downloads, and streams), each of their first 11 albums are over 3 million units.

You got it, the key to their success has been to never stop selling. Since their very first album to this date, they have got a popular catalog, full of records that remain well alive long after their first release. A real tour de force from the Essex kids.