Queen have made history in the UK charts as their Greatest Hits album becomes the first to sell 7 million copies, according to the Official Charts Company.
Their first Greatest Hits collection, released in 1981, recently spent its 1,000th week on the UK album charts – and is now owned by one in every four UK households after passing the 7 million sales mark.
It contains some of the band’s most recognisable work – including ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
Guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor said they were “humbled and honoured” by achieving the milestone, which was totted up through a combination of physical sales, downloads and streams. They also jokingly thanked fans for their “infinitely great taste”.
It’s yet another record for the compilation album, which became the first album to surpass six million sales in the UK in 2014 and
In total, the album has collectively had 1.26 billion UK streams so far. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is the most-streamed track on the album with 240 million streams.
Martin Talbot, Chief Exec of the Official Charts Company, said: “It really is a fantastic achievement by Queen to become the first act to notch up seven million sales of one album with their legendary Greatest Hits.
“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.
Queen’s back catalogue was given a boost in 2018 after the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody.
“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 back catalogue has been given a hearty boost in recent years, thanks to 2018’s Oscar-winning Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Rami Malek.
