Key year of release year of latest certification title riaa shipment soundscan figure where available with date - figures courtesy of Hanboo with some updates by John2000 and Dane weeks on catalogue chart 1982-2005
Part One - USA Albums
UK titles (CD only) 1987 1997 Please Please Me - 1,000,000 - 772,000 jan 2004 - 1 week 1987 1997 With the Beatles - 500,000 - 563,000 jan 2004 1987 2001 Beatles For Sale - 1,000,000 - 594,000 jan 2004
USA only titles (not on CD) 1965 1997 Early Beatles - 1,000,000 1964 1991 Meet the Beatles - 5,000,000 1964 1997 Second Album - 2,000,000 1964 1997 Something New - 2,000,000 1965 1997 Beatles '65 - 3,000,000 1965 1997 Beatles VI - 1,000,000 1966 1997 Yesterday and Today - 2,000,000 1970 1991 Hey Jude - 3,000,000
Soundtrack Related 1964 2000 A Hard Day's Night - 4,000,000 - 1,037,000 jan 2004 - 2 weeks 1965 1997 Help - 3,000,000 - 1,087,000 jan 2004 - 8 weeks 1967 2000 Magical Mystery Tour - 6,000,000 - 1,339,000 jan 2004 - 20 weeks 1969 1991 Yellow Submarine - 1,000,000 - 1,090,000 jan 2004 1970 2000 Let It Be - 4,000,000 - 1,032,000 jan 2004 - 3 weeks 1999 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack - 500,000 2003 2003 Let It Be - Naked - 1,000,000 - 1,027,000 nov 2003
Primary Compilations 1973 2001 1962-1966 - 7,500,000 - 2,146,076 may 2005 - 63 weeks 1973 2001 1967-1970 - 8,000,000 - 2,476,590 may 2005 - 88 weeks 2000 2005 One - 10,000,000 - 10,371,400 dec 2005 - 179 weeks
CD Era Compilations 1988 1997 Past Masters Vol 1 - 1,000,000 - 772,000 jan 2004 - 1 week 1988 1997 Past Masters Vol 2 - 1,000,000 - 1,098,000 jan 2004 - 2 weeks 1988 2001 Studio Box (15 CD's) - 67,000 1994 1995 At the Beeb - 2,000,000 - 1,498,000 jan 2004 1995 1996 Anthology 1 - 4,000,000 - 3,639,000 jan 2004 1996 1998 Anthology 2 - 2,000,000 - 1,707,000 jan 2004 1996 1997 Anthology 3 - 1,500,000 - 1,323,000 jan 2004 2004 2004 Capitol Box Vol 1 - 250,000 2006 2006 Capitol Box Vol 2 - 125,000
Non CD Compilations/Exploitation 1964 1964 Beatles Story - 500,000 1976 1976 Rock n Roll Music - 1,000,000 1980 1997 Rock n Roll Music Vol 1 - 1,000,000 1980 1997 Rock n Roll Music Vol 2 - 1,000,000 1977 1977 At the Hollywood Bowl - 1,000,000 - 11,000 jan 2004 1977 2000 Love Songs - 1,500,000 1980 1997 Rarities - 500,000 1982 1982 Reel Music - 500,000 1982 1997 20 Greatest Hits - 2,000,000 - 821,000 jan 2004
All of the above are the official Capitol/Apple Albums.
Many more albums were released in the US on other labels.
Herkenrath reports that a 1964 court case forced Vee-Jay to release their sales figures.
Introducing the Beatles was a cut-down version of their UK debut. It sold 1,346,226 by the end of 1964. The other Vee-Jay albums sold 465,557 in total.
Total riaa shipment for The Beatles is 130,850,000. They are the only artists to ship more than 100m albums.
Soundscan began more than 20 years after the band broke-up, but their total of 51.3m (june 2006) is way ahead of any other band.
The following 4 titles
A Hard Day's Night Help Rubber Soul Revolver
shared the same titles in the UK and US, but their contents were very different until the CD re-issues.[/color][color=orange]
This is one thing I've never understood: why Anthology 2 and Anthology 3 weren't sold half as much as Anthology 1? There was great (and unreleased) stuff on them too!!!
This is one thing I've never understood: why Anthology 2 and Anthology 3 weren't sold half as much as Anthology 1? There was great (and unreleased) stuff on them too!!!
I guess many non-fans bought Anthology 1 because of the hype back in December 1995, but thought it wasn't as good as they expected. They didn't touch the follow-ups, which was of course stupid. In an ideal world, A1 would have been A2 (the strongest in my opinion), more people would have caught the Beatles fire that way, but of course that wasn't practicable as things had to be kept chronological.
I guess many non-fans bought Anthology 1 because of the hype back in December 1995, but thought it wasn't as good as they expected. They didn't touch the follow-ups, which was of course stupid. In an ideal world, A1 would have been A2 (the strongest in my opinion), more people would have caught the Beatles fire that way, but of course that wasn't practicable as things had to be kept chronological.
Yep, that's what I used to believe too ... but don't you think that the half of them is like too many people?
Wow, Wolf, thanks for this! I really enjoy seeing these statistics-- it just awes me. These guys sure had that certain something!
Quoted from Wolf
Soundscan began more than 20 years after the band broke-up, but their total of 51.3m (june 2006) is way ahead of any other band.
*laughs and pumps fist in the air*
Why do I enjoy this so much? Cheers.
All you've got to do is choose love. That's how I live it now. I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden. I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007
For all I know, Ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer! - George Harrison
Wow, Wolf, thanks for this! I really enjoy seeing these statistics-- it just awes me. These guys sure had that certain something!
*laughs and pumps fist in the air*
Why do I enjoy this so much? ;D Cheers.
It is indeed stunning. Not only that they outsold all of their competitors from back in the 1960s without the slightest difficulty, no, they also outsold all current bands and singers, really huge 1990s stars like Mariah Carey, Eminem or whoever. It's amazing. Only Garth Brooks sold more, but I'm sure we'll get him at one point in the future. The Beatles will remain strong sellers for decades to come (they just need to open their catalog to digital retail), while I have doubts that Garth Brooks will keep on selling like he did in the last 15 years forever.
From the same source as above, here's the complete list of the biggest selling acts since SoundScan took over the data collecting back in 1991:
Top 100 Selling Bands/Artists in the Soundscan Era January 2007
Key position sep 2005 position 1st jan 2006 position 1st jan 2007 artist soundscan total (albums) 1991-2006
Yep, that's what I used to believe too ... but don't you think that the half of them is like too many people?
It is strange. You'd think there'd be more Beatles fans involved in the sales of the first Anthology, assuring a smaller drop down in sales for the follow-ups, as Beatles fans of course knew that the best was yet to come. I'm not really sure what to make of these numbers myself.
I think that the price was part of the problem too ... probably they expected more and only the older fans (usually the ones with more money) bought the rest of the series .. 'cos the 2nd and 3rd parts sold more or less the same!
Okay, now I need an engineer to make a spreadsheet based on popularity vs. number of years the artist has been extinct. Surely nobody else is selling so strongly this far after the disbanding as the Beatles. Although I'm sure the Anthology boom really helped.
As part of my extensive research I've been playing the music of other artists of the era. It amazes me to discover for myself that there really wasn't anyone putting out the sheer quality of product that the Beatles were. Everyone else seemed much more uneven-- although that might not be a fair judgment. Their sound might have been tailored to appeal to the time. But the Beatles' work (both in the group and all their early solo work) has aged extremely well. In fact, I think some of it (like Harrison's) plays even better today than it did at the time-- perhaps because they trained us to expect the unexpected all those years ago...
All you've got to do is choose love. That's how I live it now. I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden. I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007
For all I know, Ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer! - George Harrison
[...]But the Beatles' work (both in the group and all their early solo work) has aged extremely well. In fact, I think some of it (like Harrison's) plays even better today than it did at the time-- perhaps because they trained us to expect the unexpected all those years ago...
It could be because of the completelly different kinds of music of that time: simphonic, reggae, punk, new age ... and many more ...
... now we usualley just listen to their albums without prejudices but out of context ... this seems to be very helpful when the quality of the music is high and not a mere product of its time!
Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream... Special Member
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Just curious, but how did the "Music For Pleasure" release of Hollywood Bowl impact on the Parlophone/Apple release? Were the sales figures pooled or were they counted seperately?
Of the artists who made it really big, I don't listen to any of the ones in the top 10 except the Beatles and Pink Floyd. I actually prefer British groups... unlike the Beatles, who preferred American artists. But the USA is a big country, I mean really big, and you have a lot more people overall who are interested in easy listening and country, simply because it is middle-of-the-road.
People (including me) need to remind themselves that "more popular" does not equal "better", although it's only natural for us to want our "team" to win. Still, I think the Beatles are doing very well over all. It's nice to think that sometimes, quantity and quality do go together. Cheers.
PS: Looking at that list again, as far as albums I actually own, besides the Beatles and Pink Floyd, I have to skip all the way down to Enya at 28 and Eagles at 31 before I can find one of these records in my house. But everyone has their own favorites, I'm sure. My sisters' lists would look very different from mine.
All you've got to do is choose love. That's how I live it now. I learned a long time ago, I can feed the birds in my garden. I can't feed them all. -- Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone magazine, May 2007
For all I know, Ringo might be a yogi disguised as a drummer! - George Harrison
PS: Looking at that list again, as far as albums I actually own, besides the Beatles and Pink Floyd, I have to skip all the way down to Enya at 28 and Eagles at 31 before I can find one of these records in my house. But everyone has their own favorites, I'm sure. My sisters' lists would look very different from mine.
Mine goes:
2. The Beatles
9. Pink Floyd
13. U2
21. Eric Clapton
46. Led Zeppelin
63. REM
86. Fleetwood Mac
87. Van Morrison
100. The Doors.
Interesting. Though the only ones on the list that I own a lot of is The Beatles, Floyd, Led Zep, and Van.
I just want you to reassure him - talk to him, make him see the error of his ways. Then I'll hit him.
Of the artists who made it really big, I don't listen to any of the ones in the top 10 except the Beatles and Pink Floyd. I actually prefer British groups... [...]
The Beatles have sold 5,826,000 albums in United Kingdom since 2000. This includes 2,725,000 sales for One and 744,000 sales for Love. Sgt Pepper is in third place with 342,000 sales.
With sales between 1984 and 1999, the Beatles' UK sales for the years 1984 to 2006 adds up to a staggering 12,659,000.
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Cheers. 
I've been playing the music of other artists of the era. It amazes me to discover for myself that there really wasn't anyone putting out the sheer quality of product that the Beatles were. Everyone else seemed much more uneven-- although that might not be a fair judgment. Their sound might have been tailored to appeal to the time. But the Beatles' work (both in the group and all their early solo work) has aged extremely well. In fact, I think some of it (like Harrison's) plays even better today than it did at the time-- perhaps because they trained us to expect the unexpected all those years ago... 
