Updated 2014 list of Prince's total world wide album sales.

1978 For You: 950,000

1979 Prince: 2,000,000
1980 Dirty Mind: 2,035,000
1981 Controversy: 2,680,000
1982 1999: 6,400,000
1984 Purple Rain: 21,000,000 (Highest selling Prince album)
1985 Around The World In A Day: 4,600,000
1986 Parade: 4,210,000
1987 Sign Of The Times: 4,225,000
1988 Lovesexy: 2,895,000
1989 Batman: 7,000,000

1990 Graffiti Bridge: 2,500,000
1991 Diamonds & Pearls: 6,750,000
1992 Symbol: 4,800,000
1993 The Hits 1,2/The B-Sides: 5,200,000
1994 Come: 1,300,000
1994 The Black Album: 590,000
1995 The Gold Experience: 920,000
1996 Chaos & Disorder: 360,000
1996 Emancipation: 1,250,000 (Certified 2x Platinum by RIAA for 3 disc set)
1998 Crystal Ball: 277,000
1998 Newpower Soul: 435,000
1999 The Vault: 265,000
1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic: 765,000

2001 The Very Best Of Prince: 2,300,000
2001 The Rainbow Children: 320,000

2002 One Night Alone Live: N/A

2003 N.E.W.S.: 40,000 (Lowest selling Prince album)
2004 Musicology: 2,500,000
2006 3121: 1,000,000

2006 Ultimate Prince: 500,000

2007 Planet Earth: 300,000 (U.S. Sales only)

2009 LotusFlow3r: 544,700

2010 20Ten: (N/A)

2014 Art Official Age: 51,003 (U.S. 1st week sales)

2014 Plectrum Electrum: 26,360 (U.S. 1st week sales)

[Edited 10/10/14 19:48pm]

Diamond Album (1)

Purple Rain

Platinum Albums: (18)

Prince

Dirty Mind

Controversy

1999

Around The World In A Day

Parade

Sign "O" The Times

Lovesexy

Batman

Graffiti Bridge

Diamonds & Pearls

Love Symbol

The Hits 1,2/The B-Sides

Come

Emancipation

The Very Best of Prince

Musicology

3121

Gold Albums: (6)

For You

The Black Album

The Gold Experience

Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic

Ultimate Prince

Lotus Flow3r

Uncertified: (9)

Chaos & Disorder

Crystal Ball

New Power Soul

The Vault

The Rainbow Children

One Night Alone Live

N.E.W.S.

Planet Earth

20Ten

[Edited 10/10/14 19:49pm]

controversy99 said:

Interesting. Thanks for putting that together. Btw, what's your source? And something is very strange about the listening public here: 1998 Crystal Ball: 277,000 1998 Newpower Soul: 435,000 1999 The Vault: 265,000 How can the terrible NpS outsell the excellent albums before and after it?!

Maybe because it was all but terrible? It's one of my favorite albums. All my musician friends who were deep into funk but moderatly into at the time were totally crazy about this album, too.

feeluupp said:

Updated 2014 list of Prince's total world wide album sales.

1978 For You: 950,000

1979 Prince: 2,000,000
1980 Dirty Mind: 2,035,000
1981 Controversy: 2,680,000
1982 1999: 6,400,000
1984 Purple Rain: 21,000,000 (Highest selling Prince album)
1985 Around The World In A Day: 4,600,000
1986 Parade: 4,210,000
1987 Sign Of The Times: 4,225,000
1988 Lovesexy: 2,895,000
1989 Batman: 7,000,000

1990 Graffiti Bridge: 2,500,000
1991 Diamonds & Pearls: 6,750,000
1992 Symbol: 4,800,000
1993 The Hits 1,2/The B-Sides: 5,200,000
1994 Come: 1,300,000
1994 The Black Album: 590,000
1995 The Gold Experience: 920,000
1996 Chaos & Disorder: 360,000
1996 Emancipation: 1,250,000 (Certified 2x Platinum by RIAA for 3 disc set)
1998 Crystal Ball: 277,000
1998 Newpower Soul: 435,000
1999 The Vault: 265,000
1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic: 765,000

2001 The Very Best Of Prince: 2,300,000
2001 The Rainbow Children: 320,000

2002 One Night Alone Live: N/A

2003 N.E.W.S.: 40,000 (Lowest selling Prince album)
2004 Musicology: 2,500,000
2006 3121: 1,000,000

2006 Ultimate Prince: 500,000

2007 Planet Earth: 300,000 (U.S. Sales only)

2009 LotusFlow3r: 544,700

2010 20Ten: (N/A)

2014 Art Official Age: 51,003 (U.S. 1st week sales)

2014 Plectrum Electrum: 26,360 (U.S. 1st week sales)

[Edited 10/10/14 19:48pm]

Great job! Thanks a lot

databank said:

Notice how All (except For You) the WB album years are pretty much platinum or multiplatinum, with the exception of hit compilations , and musicology / 3121 and emancipation. Hmmm I don't really count gold exp, chaos and disorder, the vault, or black album WB years since that was during the whole SLAVE period and the relationship was ruined by then.

[Edited 10/11/14 6:10am]

[Edited 10/11/14 6:12am]

yes there are 'background' reasons why some didn't sell aswell - for instance NEWS was only sold thru Prince's NPGclub, so would of had limited exposure. Also if an album has been in print and available since it's release then it would continue to sell (a lot of the post WB albums are not available, thus reducing there chance to sell more). Also Black Album was a limited printing probably 600,000 total units manufactured so that one did quite well relatively.

can anyone be bothered to do a grand total?

Cool! What do all these numbers mean? What's going to happen?

Dandroppedadime said:

VERY INTERESTING THREA

total world wide album sales.

1978 For You: 950,000

1979 Prince: 2,000,000
1980 Dirty Mind: 2,035,000 it should have been higher
1981 Controversy: 2,680,000
1982 1999: 6,400,000 that's my boy the beginning of the golden age
1984 Purple Rain: 21,000,000 (Highest selling Prince album) HISTORY
1985 Around The World In A Day: 4,600,000 amazing considering the low promo
1986 Parade: 4,210,000 I guess Kiss is the one to "blame" here
1987 Sign Of The Times: 4,225,000 not bad at all, considering that it hadn't many hits
1988 Lovesexy: 2,895,000 still high nonetheless
1989 Batman: 7,000,000 thanks to the movie

1990 Graffiti Bridge: 2,500,000 and some people still call this whole project a failure...
1991 Diamonds & Pearls: 6,750,000 Prince still had it
1992 Symbol: 4,800,000 well done NPG!
1993 The Hits 1,2/The B-Sides: 5,200,000
1994 Come: 1,300,000 not bad at all
1994 The Black Album: 590,000 not surprising
1995 The Gold Experience: 920,000 that album could and should have been a mega-hit
1996 Chaos & Disorder: 360,000 the beginning of the end, people already tired of his antics and viewing him as the villian of the story (not just Warners)

1996 Emancipation: 1,250,000 (Certified 2x Platinum by RIAA for 3 disc set) had it been a single album, the sales would have been 600.000 aprox...
1998 Crystal Ball: 277,000 ugh
1998 Newpower Soul: 435,000
1999 The Vault: 265,000
1999 Rave Un2 The Joy Fantastic: 765,000 not bad for a total failure of a project, disappointing that it didn't reach the million, but THE END nonetheless

2001 The Very Best Of Prince: 2,300,000
2001 The Rainbow Children: 320,000 pfff

2002 One Night Alone Live: N/A

2003 N.E.W.S.: 40,000 (Lowest selling Prince album)

2004 Musicology: 2,500,000 didn't know that
2006 3121: 1,000,000 kind of low...

2006 Ultimate Prince: 500,000 only that?

2007 Planet Earth: 300,000 (U.S. Sales only) bad promotion/distribution

2009 LotusFlow3r: 544,700 bad promotion/distribution

2010 20Ten: (N/A) AWFUL promotion/distribution

2014 Art Official Age: 51,003 (U.S. 1st week sales) bad promotion, lack of a real single with hit potential...and worst era of all time for the industry in term of sales

2014 Plectrum Electrum: 26,360 (U.S. 1st week sales) not surprising

[Edited 10/11/14 9:36am]

[Edited 10/11/14 9:37am]

Where are these numbers coming from? I only ask because Wikipedia says "Prince" (the album) has sold closer to 3m copies.

BATMAN is reported to sell 4.7 million from 1989-1992 making it the fastest selling soundrack in history with a 2014 total of 7 million.

But Wikipedia states Batman has sold over 11 million world wide...

According to Wikipedia:

Prince - 3m

Around The World In A Day -4m (U.S. sales)

Batman -11m

Love Symbol - 5m

I've previously seen some higher sales

such as Around the World in a Day sold 7 million (I know it was said it outsold 1999 due to this album following the PR hype)... Batman sold 11 million... SOTT sold 5 million, D&P sold 9 million, etc.. etc...

Wish I could find those links!

feeluupp said:

According to Wikipedia:

Prince - 3m

Around The World In A Day -4m (U.S. sales)

Batman -11m

Love Symbol - 5m

it's possible ATWIAD sold an additional 2 or 3 million worldwide. Afterall, it charted higher in the UK than Purple Rain did

Noodled24 said:

World Sales of AOA so far: 108,000 + 51,003 (U.S. first week sales) = 159,003 total first week world wide sales.

World Sales of PE so far: 63,000 + 26,360 (U.S. first week sales) = 89,360 total first week world wide sales.

Daveoooo said:

Dandroppedadime said:

yes there are 'background' reasons why some didn't sell aswell - for instance NEWS was only sold thru Prince's NPGclub, so would of had limited exposure. Also if an album has been in print and available since it's release then it would continue to sell (a lot of the post WB albums are not available, thus reducing there chance to sell more). Also Black Album was a limited printing probably 600,000 total units manufactured so that one did quite well relatively.

can anyone be bothered to do a grand total?

NEWS was commercially avalible - well I bought in inv in Plymouth, UK (as well as all CD releases including Crystal Ball between '98 and '04 for that matter)

Yeah, NEWS was distributed to the general market by the now-defunct Big Daddy Music Distribution, the same company that distributed the ONA box set.

[Edited 10/11/14 17:59pm]

redflag said:

Daveoooo said:

Dandroppedadime said: NEWS was commercially avalible - well I bought in inv in Plymouth, UK (as well as all CD releases including Crystal Ball between '98 and '04 for that matter)

Yeah, NEWS was distributed to the general market by the now-defunct Big Daddy Music Distribution, the same company that distributed the ONA box set.

[Edited 10/11/14 17:59pm]

Yeah I wish some people would cut the nonsense. Thx u guys for clarifying

feeluupp said:

1993 The Hits 1,2/The B-Sides: 5,200,000

These were 3 seperate albums, so not sure why all the sales are lumped together?

The Hits1 #5 UK Charts (spending 27 weeks in the charts)

The Hits2 #5 UK Charts (28 weeks in the charts)

The Hits/B-sides #4 UK Charts (14 weeks - and not bad given this cost about £30/$60 at the time)

According the the official Charts all 3 albums were released on the same day. Having 3 greatest hits CDs in the charts is nothing to be sniffed at. 5 discs occupying 3 of the top 10 spots in the same week(s) on a chart compiled by sales.