According to Entertainment Weekly
(* Warner in Billboard article)
(** Warner in Forbes article)

Worldwide sales (September 1992)
in million

0.8 For You (=800,000 copies)
1.75 Prince (=1,750,000 copies)
1.8 Dirty Mind
2.3 Controversy
5 1999
14.7 Purple Rain (*4.5 outside US)
(Canada + UK + Germany = 1.8 million at least)
4.35 Around The World In A Day
(*3.65 - 2.7 shipped in US first week)
3.5 Parade (* 2.8 )
3.75 Sign Of The Times (* 2.9)
2.65 Lovesexy (*2.25 - 800k shipped in US first month)
4.4 Batman (*4.6)
1.95 Graffiti Bridge (*2)
5.8 Diamonds And Pearls (* 3.3 outside US)

**Symbol sold 3.45 worldwide

From EMI Emancipation shipped 1million (x3CD) worldwide
[This message was edited Mon Aug 5 8:25:03 PDT 2002 by Edu]

What do the #'s represent?

0,8 For You ?
14, 7 Purple Rain?

(edit: i assume in millions but how?)
[This message was edited Mon Aug 5 8:10:58 PDT 2002 by mrchristian]

mrchristian said:

I believe that the comma is meant to be a decimal point.

e.g. 14,7 Purple Rain is probably 14.7 million copies. Some areas use the comma instead of a period for the decimal. Can anyone confirm/deny this assumption? Thanks.

C'mon. These figures are 10 years old. And they say nothing about the success of the different albums. Just think about how many (illegal) copies and used cds are circulating and you can guess p's success.

Yes they say, because they show his sales on his peak period (Symbol was his last real popular album). This way we can see the weight each album had in commercial terms, i think i can say that this proportion of sales will be constante,or saying in another way, for instance:
"Purple Rain" will be always his best seller, or that "Sign of The Times" will sell always more than "Parade" etc...

Yes, in France (and a ot of other countries), we use the coma instead of the point for the decimal.

diamond and pearls is now 12.2m
and sott has 13.0m
at the end of 2001 i read on other site

sirnose said:

Wow, how drastic!

COMA: a state of deep, often prolonged unconsciousness...

COMMA: a punctuation mark used to indicate a pause or separation...

Always a pleasure...