A General Study of the Commercial Success of the Beatles - a thread

Across the span of their incredible yet short 8 year career as a band, the Beatles have left a legendary reputation, here's a little thread of all that.

DISCLAIMER:

This thread does NOT mean to downgrade the success of other artists/your fave.

PLEASE do not take it *that* way.

I am simply listing the things I've learnt, and this thread is to show my admiration for their achievements.

On with the thread . . .

Due to digital downloads and media like Apple Music/Spotify, it has become difficult to pin down the EXACT number of sales the Beatles had in TOTAL.

The following number of “certified sales,” CD’s, records etc are not fixed numbers and are ESTIMATIONS.

That's why I personally believe, you cannot simply compare "streaming" numbers of an artist today with the Beatles and artists before the digital streaming era. There wasn't a way to count HOW many times someone put on a Beatles tape/record.

- According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Beatles had 300 million worldwide sales in 1969.

- By 1972, the total sales worldwide was 545 million.

- By 2004, the total number of albums sold is an estimation of 600 million.

- Estimated world sales were well over 2 billion.

It is quite clear the number is huge due to the Beatles’ music spanning from generations to generations, with new compilation releases and albums topping charts almost half a century after its original release (ie: Abbey Road).

Let's start with records in the US alone:

➲ They had 21 number #1 albums (studio and compilations) in the US.

➲ By 2014, official figures for US sales was astonishingly 1.6 Billion.

➲ They have:
6 Diamond albums,
18 multi platinum,
15 platinum albums,
and 6 golden albums.

Fun fact:
⇨ All of the Beatles' Studio Albums in the US have reached Gold Certified except for 3:

Abbey Road, Sergeant Peppers, and The Beatles (Whit Album).

Instead, all three held a Diamond Certified Award.

Mentioning Worldwide achievements would be insane, so I'll just stop at the UK:

➲ They have the most no #1 ALBUMS in UK singles chart (15).

➲ They have the most no #1 HITS in UK singles chart (17).

➲ They have the most no #1 SINGLES in UK singles chart (20).

And many more.

It is also worth mentioning that both Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club and Abbey Road both returned to number one in the chart 50 years from their release.

They beat their own record, twice(?) https://twitter.com/PaulMcCartney/status/1180154726492585986