Ozzy Spent a Lifetime Summoning Demons — Now His Songs Are Climbing to the Clouds
Ozzy Osbourne has left the stage — and as the curtain falls, his music takes flight. Days after the death of the man once crowned the Prince of Darkness, a strange kind of resurrection is underway: streams are soaring, albums are reentering the charts, and a new generation is enjoying a catalog that once terrified their grandparents.
For over five decades, Ozzy was synonymous with chaos. He howled through Black Sabbath’s apocalyptic sermons, barked at the moon, bit the head off a bat, and laughed as the world labeled him satanic. But now, in death, the very voice that once seemed hellbound is climbing toward heaven — at least in digital form.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Though controversy often stole the spotlight, Ozzy‘s catalog, both with his band and solo, is a masterpiece. On Ranker’s list of best heavy metal bands, Black Sabbath leads the pack, ahead of Iron Maiden and Metallica. Ozzy himself ranks seventh overall, the highest solo artist on the list. A well-earned nod to the genre’s founder, and one of the greatest legends in rock history.
Prince of Darkness, King of Charts: Ozzy’s Historic Reign
Black Sabbath Defined the Codes of Metal… and Sold Millions Doing It
In February 1970, a new band from Birmingham, UK, debuted with their eponymous album: Black Sabbath. The first true metal record, it was mocked by critics upon release, yet the record climbed to #8 on the UK charts, and #23 in the US. By September, their follow-up Paranoid had arrived. Tony Iommi‘s colossal riffs and Ozzy‘s thunderous voice proved explosive.
The album interrupted Simon & Garfunkel‘s Bridge Over Troubled Water‘s record-breaking run atop the UK charts and held strong in the US Top 20 for months. In mid-1971, Master of Reality confirmed their status, reaching the top 10 in both countries.
Over the years, tales of excess, addiction, and Ozzy’s well-documented drug problems chipped away at the group’s public image, but their music never stopped selling. If anything, the band’s aura only grew stronger with time, as new generations of metal acts traced their roots back to Sabbath.
Black Sabbath and Master of Reality, along with Vol. 4 and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, all surpassed 4 million pure album sales. The band’s defining classic, Paranoid, moved a staggering 10 million units.
And that’s just one part of the story. Beyond studio albums, their catalog sold millions more through compilations, live releases, digital downloads, and streams. Once everything is counted, Paranoid alone accounts for nearly 35 million sales, a terrific tally.
Ozzy fronted the band up to their 8th album Never Say Die!, in 1978, before being kicked out due to his excesses, and returned for 13 in 2013. In between, a handful of vocalists stepped in, most notably Ronnie James Dio, a legend in his own right. All in, the band has moved over 83 million equivalent album sales, including 68 million tied to records fronted by Ozzy.
Ozzy Osbourne Gets into a Crazy Run
Rock frontmen rarely carve out major solo careers. Ozzy seemed even less likely to succeed after being ejected from Black Sabbath by his former bandmates due to his severe substance abuse. Making matters worse, Black Sabbath had a creative and commercial resurgence without him, scoring one of their biggest successes in years with 1980’s Heaven and Hell.
Yet only months later, Ozzy struck back. Blizzard of Ozz, led by the single Crazy Train, went on to be a constant fixture on Billboard top 200’s album chart for two entire years. To date, the album has sold 7.4 million pure copies worldwide.
Despite increasingly disturbing headlines, from biting a dove to decapitating a bat onstage, Ozzy launched into an improbable run of multi-Platinum releases. Even the tragic death of guitar virtuoso Randy Rhoads (Quiet Riot‘s co-founder), who played on both Blizzard of Ozz and its follow-up Diary of a Madman, didn’t slow the momentum.
He powered through the 1980s and 1990s with a streak of heavy hitters: 1983’s Bark at the Moon, 1986’s The Ultimate Sin, 1988’s No Rest for the Wicked, 1991’s No More Tears, and 1995’s Ozzmosis all went multi-Platinum in the US, with 2001’s Down To Earth just shy of that mark. All told, including his years with Black Sabbath, Ozzy pulled off an astonishing 31-year run of albums selling over 1.5 million each, a feat almost unheard of in the metal world.
From 2002 to 2005, Ozzy took on an entirely new audience as the unlikely star of MTV’s hit reality show The Osbournes. The show, depicting Ozzy‘s family life, became an immense success, with the public discovering a strangely relatable suburban dad behind the madman on stage. After pioneering heavy metal, the British icon ended up pioneering the celebrity-family reality genre, directly inspiring later cultural juggernauts like Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
The table below breaks down Ozzy‘s 55-million equivalent album sales across his solo eras. In the world of metal, only Metallica outsold Ozzy‘s full career, combining his band and solo years.
Back from the Grave: Measuring Ozzy’s Posthumous Popularity Explosion
A Phenomenal Farewell Concert
After decades of hard living, Ozzy had been facing serious health issues since the early 2000s. By the late 2010s and into the 2020s, his shows were canceled more often than not. He had already begun preparing his farewell years earlier, the release of the career-spanning box set See You On The Other Side in 2019 (see featured image) was telling enough.
Still, he wanted to say goodbye, and do it the right way. On July 5, 2025, he organized the benefit concert Back to the Beginning in Aston, Birmingham, the very place where it all started for him and Black Sabbath. Conceived as “the greatest heavy metal show ever” by Rage Against the Machine‘s guitarist Tom Morello, the event lived up to the hype. Nearly every major name in metal showed up, Anthrax, Slayer, Pantera, Gojira, Alice in Chains, Yungblud, Tool, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, and many more. The show closed with a set by Ozzy Osbourne with his solo band, followed by the final performance from Black Sabbath‘s original lineup.
The response was overwhelming. The 45,000 tickets sold out in just 16 minutes. The 10-hour long concert, streamed as pay-per-view, peaked at 5.8 million concurrent viewers. It raised $190 million, making it arguably the biggest charity concert since Live Aid in 1985. A theatrical release is planned for early 2026.
The impact was immediate. Ozzy‘s solo catalog jumped from 1.6 million to over 5 million daily streams. The momentum hadn’t faded by July 21, the day before his passing, when he recorded 2,385,274 streams. The song Paranoid even climbed to #1 on Billboard’s Hot Hard Rock Songs chart.
The World Mourns a Legend
The sad news broke on July 22, in the second half of the day. That was enough to send Ozzy’s daily streams skyrocketing to 14,433,046 streams. Just 24 hours later, that number more than doubled, reaching 30,789,490. Black Sabbath saw a similar surge. From an organic pace of around 2.3 million in recent weeks, their numbers jumped to 11,773,277 on July 22 and 27,338,173 on July 23.
New followers flooded in as well. Both acts typically recorded around 2,000 new followers per day on Spotify. In a little more than a day, they added 226,438 and 121,921 new fans, respectively.
The reaction on iTunes was just as staggering. In the US, Ozzy-related tracks currently occupy the entire top 16, led by three solo songs, followed by four Black Sabbath classics. Altogether, 40 tracks tied to the singer appear inside the top 100. And it wasn’t just a US phenomenon, Ozzy’s songs and albums soared to #1 in over 30 countries worldwide
The Songs Resurrecting His Legacy
Black Sabbath‘s popularity is slightly more evenly distributed worldwide, while Ozzy Osbourne’s solo catalog holds a stronger footprint in the US. Fittingly, the most popular songs differ depending on the country.
On iTunes, Ozzy’s Crazy Train quickly shot to the top in the US and Canada. But as the weight of the moment set it, Mama, I’m Coming Home, with its appropriate lyrics, soon overtook it. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Dreamer claimed the top spot. In Australia, Italy, and Sweden, Black Sabbath‘s Paranoid led the charge. Meanwhile in the UK, Yungblud widely praised live cover of Changes, performed during Ozzy‘s farewell concert, is at #1.
Globally, Paranoid has been the top-performing track on Spotify, followed by Crazy Train. Below is a ranking of Ozzy and Black Sabbath tracks charted on July 23, the first full day following his passing.
Spotify Global Chart — July 23, 2025
- #9 Paranoid – 3,964,513
- #14 Crazy Train – 3,472,155
- #17 Mama, I’m Coming Home 3,250,743
- #20 No More Tears – 3,051,364
- #33 Iron Man – 2,572,154
- #41 War Pigs – 2,292,406
- #67 Mr. Crowley – 1,927,998
- #106 Changes – 1,573,578
- #108 Bark at the Moon – 1,549,138
- #145 N.I.B. – 1,374,974
- #151 Dreamer – 1,344,567
- #195 Children of the Grave – 1,230,261
Shot in the Dark narrowly missed the top 200 with 1,199,124 streams, but in the process, it crossed the 100 million streams to date threshold.
To put these numbers into perspective, they rival the strongest posthumous performance in Spotify’s history for a legacy artist, set by David Bowie in January 2016. At the time, Heroes peaked at #8, followed by Under Pressure (#11), Let’s Dance (#17), and Life On Mars? (#19), all within the top 20.
From Darkness to Immortality: Ozzy’s Enduring Influence
Recent collaborations with artists like Post Malone and Travis Scott showed just how revered Ozzy remained among contemporary stars. But beyond high-profile features, the data itself tells the full story of a legacy that only grew stronger over time.
The album Paranoid stands as the clearest flagbearer of this lasting influence. Once considered a classic, it has now become legendary. In 1989, Kerrang! ranked it only #39 on its list of the greatest heavy metal albums. By 2003, Rolling Stone elevated it to #130 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
Streaming numbers reflect this growing reverence. Even before Ozzy‘s passing, Paranoid was ranked as the 10th most-streamed album from the 1970s, across all genres. It sits within striking distance of giants like Eagles‘ Hotel California and Pink Floyd‘s Dark Side of the Moon. Powered by timeless tracks like War Pigs, Iron Man and the title track, the album has amassed 2.6 billion streams to date.
On the solo front, Blizzard of Ozz ranks as the 13th most-streamed hard rock or metal album from the 1980s, ahead of Metallica‘s Kill ‘Em All. With the current surge, it’s on track to surpass Iron Maiden‘s The Number of the Beast in the coming weeks.
Ozzy Osbourne never needed more credentials to validate his place in rock history. Critically acclaimed, massively influential, and responsible for 123 million equivalent album sales, he was already a titan. Yet his death reminds the world not only of his iconic status, but also the sheer weight of his musical catalog. A catalog that is now climbing even higher in the all-time rankings.
For real-time figures and deeper insights, visit Ozzy‘s artist dashboard, or that of Black Sabbath, to see the legend continue to rise.
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