Official Global Top Sellers of 2004 – with Sales

#9 Guns N’ Roses – Greatest Hits – 4,900,000

It’s no breaking news that Guns N’ Roses’ catalog is heavily popular. It was also perfectly structured to generate a monster selling compilation. First, it is short enough to feel that you have all their hits by buying one best of only. Second, all their studio albums contain big hits including the ones not regarded as essential by critics. Third, they still sold heavy numbers in LP format upon release. Fourth, and maybe more important than anything else, this catalog had never been remastered and no anniversary edition of their original albums whatsoever ever released. To resume, all but nobody had a satisfactory set of records to cover their career.

The results of Greatest Hits were, as expected, impressive. Getting most of their big hits on one CD with an updated sound was more than enough reason to buy this record, as much as the band’s members tried to stop its release. Greatest Hits debuted inside the Top 5 all over the world, which is especially strong for a compilation released outside of the gifting season and with no new material.

Obviously, as it became a perennial seller its sales are now much higher than the 4,9 million units moved in 2004.