I’ve made my case that the Beatles were the greatest band ever. The Beatles’ stranglehold on album sales and singles sales doesn’t necessarily prove that they were a great band. If that were the case, Shania Twain would be one of the greatest artists ever. (She’s the owner of the ninth-greatest selling album in history — Come on Over — which sold 29.6 million copies.)
No, it’s the immediacy in which they took the world by storm, and the fact that they’ve kept those sales numbers going for almost 60 years, that shows their popularity over generations and yes, proves that their talent was recognized worldwide.
Here are the Beatles by the numbers:
Album Sales
- Number of albums sold worldwide.- 600 million
- Number of albums sold in the U.S. – 177 million
- Number of multi-platinum albums in the U.S. – 13
- Number of No. 1 albums – 19
- Number of weeks at No. 1 – 132
- Number of weeks on the Billboard album chart – 2,184
- Most consecutive no. 1 albums on the Billboard album chart – 8 (1965 to 1968)
- Most consecutive top 5 albums in the Billboard album chart – 16 (1965 to 1977)
- Longest span between No. 1 albums on the Billboard album chart – 36 years, 51 weeks (1964 to 2001)
- Most No. 1 albums on the Billboard album chart in one year – 3 (1964; repeated in 1965 and 1966)
- Total U.S. sales for The Beatles (The White Album) – 24 million
- Total U.S. sales for 1967-1970 – 17 million
- Total U.S. sales for 1962-1966 – 15 million
- Total U.S. sales for Abbey Road – 12 million
- Total U.S. sales for Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – 11 million
- Total U.S. sales for Rubber Soul – 6 million
- Total U.S. sales for Revolver – 5 million
- Total U.S. sales for Let It Be – 4 million
- Total U.S. sales for 1 – 11 million
- Number of albums in Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time -10
Singles Sales
- Number of singles sold in the United States – 1.6 billion
- Number of No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart – 20
- Number of U.S. Top 10 hits – 34
- Number of weeks singles spent on the Hot 100 chart – 609
- Number of weeks singles spent at no. 1 – 59
- Number of singles on the Hot 100 chart at the same time – 14 (April 11, 1964)
- Number of singles in the Top 5 at the same time – 5 (April 4, 1964)
- Number of singles that have appeared on the Hot 100 chart – 71
- Number of singles on the Billboard Top 40 at the same time – 7 (April 11 and April 25, 1964)
- Number of singles on the Billboard Hot 100 in one year – 30
- Number of No. 1 singles in a year – 6 (1964)
- Most consecutive top 5 singles on the Hot 100 chart – 17 (1964–1969)
- Most consecutive top 10 singles on the Hot 100 chart – 24 (1964–1976)
- Number of songs in Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time – 23
- Number of times “Yesterday” has been covered (the most-covered song of all time) – 3,000
Sources:
https://www.infoplease.com/us/arts-entertainment/beatles-numbers
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-beatles-by-the-numbers/
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-151127/
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-156826/
https://www.billboard.com/music/the-beatles/chart-history/HSI/5
