Worldwide album sales

Yes, Maiden at their commercial peak.
Somewhere in Time sold well not because it's Somewhere in Time but because it was the next album after Powerslave. It did not sell that well because it was Somewhere in Time.

USA audience concerned, it was not the right time to go "middle age" and start experimenting. They wanted more of that Powerslave thing.
 
Zare said:
USA audience concerned, it was not the right time to go "middle age" and start experimenting. They wanted more of that Powerslave thing.
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Yep, the introduction of synths definitely disappointed a lot of metal fans in America.
It was probably the time period when Metallica (and Megadeth and Slayer too) started to dominate over IM in terms of appeal and popularity to American metalheads.
 
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WildRanger said:
Yep, the introduction of synths definitely disappointed a lot of metal fans in America.
It was probably the time period when Metallica (and Megadeth and Slayer too) started to dominate over IM in terms of appeal and popularity to American metalheads.
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I'd argue that was probably inevitable. The onstage wardrobe was starting to come off more glammy than what they had in the early days.
 
Ok. So here is a massive update to the charting, sales and such that could also open an explanation to a few mysteries.

World Wide album sales (officially documented by RIAA, Billboard, etc.)

------------------------------------- Worldwide sales ---------USA Sales ------- Europe Sales ------- Total Sales for Singles
Iron Maiden -------------------------- 4,175,000 ------------ 685,000 ---------- 2,315,000 ----------- (4) 335,015
Killers --------------------------------- 4,855,000 ------------ 955,000 ---------- 2,715,000 ----------- (3) 182,500
Number of the Beast ----------------- 8,330,000 ------------ 2,385,000 -------- 3,940,000 ----------- (5) 865,000
Piece of Mind ------------------------- 6,615,000 ----------- 2,340,000 --------- 2,580,000 ----------- (2) 455,000
Powerslave ---------------------------- 5,610,000 ----------- 1,730,000 --------- 2,455,000 ----------- (2) 430,000
Somewhere in Time ------------------ 5,290,000 ------------ 1,765,000 -------- 2,195,000 ----------- (2) 330,000
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son ------- 4,815,000 ------------ 1,210,000 -------- 2,480,000 ----------- (4) 740,000
No Prayer For The Dying ------------- 3,010,000 ------------ 795,000 ---------- 1,495,000 ----------- (2) 330,000
Fear of the Dark ---------------------- 3,615,000 ------------ 480,000 ----------- 2,025,000 ---------- (4) 240,000
The X Factor -------------------------- 1,410,000 ------------ 195,000 ----------- 730,000 ------------ (2) 85,000
Virtual XI ------------------------------ 1,185,000 ------------ 155,000 ----------- 650,000 ------------ (2) 52,500
Brave New World --------------------- 2,290,000 ------------ 380,000 ----------- 1,115,000 ---------- (2) 175,000
Dance of Death ----------------------- 1,490,000 ------------ 230,000 ----------- 880,000 ------------ (2) 125,000
A Matter of Life and Death ----------- 1,440,000 ------------ 270,000 ----------- 850,000 ------------ (2) 100,000
The Final Frontier --------------------- 1,120,000 ------------ 205,000 ----------- 655,000 ------------ No singles released
The Book of Souls -------------------- 1,090,000 ------------ 200,000 ----------- 660,000 ------------ (2) 16,500
Senjutsu ------------------------------- 480,000 ------------- 110,000 ----------- 280,000 ------------ No singles released

Iron Maiden released a handful of singles over the years and individual data is available but here are the most interesting facts about them. The number (4) in parenthesis represents the number of singles released for the album

1. Wrathchild only sold 5,000 copies as a single by itself but sold 130,000 copies when originally released with Twilight Zone
2. Number of the Beast had 5 total releases including the live and studio version of Run to The Hills, also re-releasing in 2002 and sold 65,000 copies in 2002 as a single studio version. Collectively, RTTH sold 585,000 copies
3. Can I Play with Madness is their best selling single after Run to the Hills with 335,000 individual copies being sold of it
4. Excluding live single releases, Seventh Son has the best single single collectively as an album
5. Seventh Son sold significantly less than Somewhere in Time in the USA but is the opposite in Europe where it sold more but Somewhere in Time collectively, sold more overall.
6. The Book of Souls was Certified Platinum by RIAA standards in 2019 as having sold 1 million copies worldwide.
7. Senjutsu, although released in 2021, is their worst selling album of all time although charting at #4 when debuting.
 
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Now for new data, STREAMING

Top 10 Spotify songs by their records are as listed below as well as YouTube video results

Song -------------------------- Spotify -------------- YouTube
The Trooper ---------------- 249,117,000 -------- 323,100,000
Fear of the Dark ------------ 231,148,000 --------- 295,700,000
Run to the Hills ------------- 236,999,000 --------- 122,200,000
The Number of the Beast -- 168,446,000 --------- 121,300,000
Hallowed By Thy Name ---- 115,314,000 --------- 176,800,000
2 Minutes 2 Midnight ------ 98,499,000 ---------- 74,900,000
Wasted Years --------------- 89,919,000 ---------- 106,700,000
Aces High ------------------ 80,987,000 ---------- 77,300,000
Wasting Love -------------- 53,365,000 ----------- 61,300,000

To date, Iron Maiden have had the total following below:

2,601,222,000 Spotify listens
2,465,470,000 YouTube video watches
162,000 listens on AWA
525,000 listens on Genie
8,645,000 video stream watches on QQ (China server)

48 songs have over 10 million streams on Spotify
143 of their songs have over 2 million Spotify streams (This is actually insanely impressive and shows how great their catalogue is)
 
Now for the overall data that is quite impressive

1.
  • At 12,236,000 EAS, Piece of Mind is among the 10 most successful albums from 1983.
  • At 18,739,000 EAS, The Number of the Beast is the 3rd most successful album from 1982
  • At 832,500 album sales, Iron Maiden are the best selling international artist of all-time in Finland
  • At 87.9 million EAS, Iron Maiden are the best selling artist of all-time to never enter the US Hot 100

The list below shows which albums truly rock their world and ours the most. It combines their physical albums sales, digital ones, singles, streams and compilations below listed in order by release.

Iron Maiden ----- 6,209,000
Killers ------------ 5,663,000
NOTB ------------ 18,975,000
POM ------------- 12,432,000
PS ---------------- 9,033,000
SIT ---------------- 6,561,000
SSOASS ----------- 6,301,000
NPFTD ------------ 3,399,000
FOTD -------------- 7,612,000
TXF ---------------- 1,591,000
VXI ----------------- 1,339,000
BNW --------------- 3,012,000
DOD --------------- 1,859,000
AMOLAD ---------- 1,669,000
TFF ----------------- 1,310,000
TBOS --------------- 1,316,000
Senjutsu ------------ 602,000

Worldwide sales EAS is 76,389,200 copies based on available data

Here are the total sales for the band's entire discography by

USA - 18,735,000
Canada - 3,137,500
Latin America - 8,765,000
Mexico - 2,265,000
Brazil - 4,135,000
Asia - 6,335,000
Argentina - 1,152,500
Japan - 4,007,500
Australia - 1,200,000
New Zealand - 237,500
UK - 8,085,000
Germany - 6,965,000
France - 4,245,000
Italy - 4,180,000
Spain - 1,807,500
Netherlands - 762,500
Sweden - 1,325,000
Switzerland - 872,500
Austria - 575,000
Finland - 832,500
Rest of Europe - 7,372,500
Rest of World - 962,500
 
SirRobbins said:
Now for the overall data that is quite impressive

1.
  • At 12,236,000 EAS, Piece of Mind is among the 10 most successful albums from 1983.
  • At 18,739,000 EAS, The Number of the Beast is the 3rd most successful album from 1982
  • At 832,500 album sales, Iron Maiden are the best selling international artist of all-time in Finland
  • At 87.9 million EAS, Iron Maiden are the best selling artist of all-time to never enter the US Hot 100

The list below shows which albums truly rock their world and ours the most. It combines their physical albums sales, digital ones, singles, streams and compilations below listed in order by release.

Iron Maiden ----- 6,209,000
Killers ------------ 5,663,000
NOTB ------------ 18,975,000
POM ------------- 12,432,000
PS ---------------- 9,033,000
SIT ---------------- 6,561,000
SSOASS ----------- 6,301,000
NPFTD ------------ 3,399,000
FOTD -------------- 7,612,000
TXF ---------------- 1,591,000
VXI ----------------- 1,339,000
BNW --------------- 3,012,000
DOD --------------- 1,859,000
AMOLAD ---------- 1,669,000
TFF ----------------- 1,310,000
TBOS --------------- 1,316,000
Senjutsu ------------ 602,000

Worldwide sales EAS is 76,389,200 copies based on available data

Here are the total sales for the band's entire discography by

USA - 18,735,000
Canada - 3,137,500
Latin America - 8,765,000
Mexico - 2,265,000
Brazil - 4,135,000
Asia - 6,335,000
Argentina - 1,152,500
Japan - 4,007,500
Australia - 1,200,000
New Zealand - 237,500
UK - 8,085,000
Germany - 6,965,000
France - 4,245,000
Italy - 4,180,000
Spain - 1,807,500
Netherlands - 762,500
Sweden - 1,325,000
Switzerland - 872,500
Austria - 575,000
Finland - 832,500
Rest of Europe - 7,372,500
Rest of World - 962,500
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It would be interesting to calculate from this data how many album sales are made per capita of the country.

Just eyeballing it, it seems like UK and Germany are Maiden's biggest markets.
 
SirRobbins said:
Worldwide sales EAS is 76,389,200 copies based on available data
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They were quoting about 80 million sales more than 20 years ago, either they were lying at the time, the available data is incomplete or else they've sold practically nothing in the intervening years.
 
srfc said:
They were quoting about 80 million sales more than 20 years ago, either they were lying at the time, the available data is incomplete or else they've sold practically nothing in the intervening years.
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I have always thought the figures given in press releases to be overinflated. #IblameRod
 
srfc said:
They were quoting about 80 million sales more than 20 years ago, either they were lying at the time, the available data is incomplete or else they've sold practically nothing in the intervening years.
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I'd say Live After Death sold somewhere around the POM/Powerslave numbers, so that would boost up the numbers a bit as well.
 
Smither said:
I'd say Live After Death sold somewhere around the POM/Powerslave numbers, so that would boost up the numbers a bit as well.
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Yep, probably a couple of million across the other live albums and compilations too
 
SirRobbins said:
Senjutsu ------------------------------- 480,000 ------------- 110,000 ----------- 280,000 ------------ No singles released
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280.000 copies sold in Europe ?
I have 3 physical copies and 1 digital (4) so 279996 for the rest … (I can't believe it to be honest)
 
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srfc said:
Yep, probably a couple of million across the other live albums and compilations too
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The live and compilation albums are not factored in to the EAS. Live After Death sold over 5 million copies world wide alone and Maiden England and a few others were over a million a piece so that could equate to a more 90 million ish number they quote
 
The_7th_one said:
280.000 copies sold in Europe ?
I have 3 physical copies and 1 digital (4) so 279996 for the rest … (I can't believe it to be honest)
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I was thinking the same that can’t be right. I was in the FC at the time it was released and there’s hundreds of people in there posting how they bought multiple copies. I’ve got 3 copies myself, deluxe cd, box set and vinyl.
 
AncientMariner_Essex said:
I was thinking the same that can’t be right. I was in the FC at the time it was released and there’s hundreds of people in there posting how they bought multiple copies. I’ve got 3 copies myself, deluxe cd, box set and vinyl.
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As I stated, this was through the end of 2021. I anticipate more copies of Somewhere in Time and Senjutsu to be sold as this tour progresses. With that being said, it took 5 years for Book of Souls to reach 1 million copies world wide. I was not a fan of the new album but still bought it and also bought 2 formats of it. Time will tell. Regardless, the fact that an album in 2016 could still exceed a million copies for a whole record and from a band that was 40 years old at that point speaks volumes!

Def Leppard released a new album last year and it hasn't passed 100k sales world wide and only reached 34,000 in the debut week compared to maiden's consistent 65k plus debuts recently. I use them as an example as they are a mainstream commercial act and to show the power of a loyal and solid fanbase Maiden continue to maintain.
 
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