Music

UK’s best-selling albums of all time; Queen’s Greatest Hits become the first album to pass seven million UK chart sales

Published

4 years ago

July 20, 2022

UKs best selling albums of all time Queens Greatest Hits become the first album to pass seven million UK chart sales

Queen has made UK chart history by turning into the primary act to sell seven million duplicates of an individual album. British rock veterans Queen have made UK music history as their Greatest Hits has turned into the principal album to pass seven million chart sales, the Official Charts Company said.

Their most memorable Greatest Hits collection, from 1981, is currently owned by one in every four families in the UK, said the Official Charts Company.

The record, which features classic singles like We Will Rock You and Bohemian Rhapsody, has been a perennial best-seller for years.

It as of late spent its 1,000th week on the UK album chart.

Queen guitarist Brian May referred to the most recent accomplishment as “joyous news”.

“No album has done this before in history,” he said in a statement. “Thank you, we appreciate it.”

Drummer Roger Taylor added: “The British public and their infinitely-great taste have made this the biggest-selling album in history.

“Thank you very much; we’re humbled and honored. We salute you!”

Queen’s Greatest Hits leads the all-time album chart by very nearly a million copies, in front of Abba’s 1992 compilation album Gold.

“When it was released for the first time in 1981, career-spanning packages such as Greatest Hits were relatively rare, the preserve of only the very biggest acts,” noted Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts.

“There is no doubt that its massive success has done as much as any other release to turn hits packages into the omnipresent album concept that they are today.”

Queen’s second Greatest Hits album, released in October 1991, a month prior to the death of singer Freddie Mercury – is likewise the UK’s 10th greatest record, with sales around the four million imprint.

Back in 2014, Queen’s Greatest Hits turned into the primary album outperforming six million sales in the UK.

At that point, the chart just counted “pure” sales – i.e. vinyl, cassette, CD, and downloads.

After a year, audio streams were integrated into the calculations, with 1,000 streams counting one “sale”.

From that point forward, Queen’s Greatest Hits has amassed 1.26 billion absolute UK streams, with the album’s most-streamed track being Bohemian Rhapsody, which boasts 240 million UK streams and then some, the chart organization said.

The band’s back catalog got a gigantic boost from the release of the Oscar-winning Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody in 2018.

On Spotify, Queen is as of now the 31st most-streamed act in the world, in front of other exemplary artists like The Beatles, who placed 44th, and Michael Jackson, who is 68th.

As per the accounts filed by the band’s organization, Queen Productions Ltd, sales and streams of their music created £39m in royalties in the last financial year.