Good news to report this week as the Number Ones CD scans platinum in the United States. For those that don't know, Sony also recently recertified the Number Ones DVD 4X platinum in the USA signifying shipment of 400,000 units to U.S. retailers.

Congrats to MJ.

USA

SoundScan Information courtesy of JRKing. Thanks J.

Sales For The Week Ending November 20th, 2005. Billboard Issue Date: December 3th, 2005.

*Note: This tally does not include sales for The Ultimate Collection (4 CD/1 DVD), single sales, certain music DVD titles (eg. The One, Dangerous: The Short Films, etc.), material recorded with The Jacksons, and Motown era solo and Jackson 5 albums. Weekly sales information for those titles is not available at this time.

Rank, Title, Sales This Week, Sales Last Week, +/- percentage

Michael Jackson - 14,584 units (Sales estimate)

1. Number Ones: 3,411 (+3%) (Cumulative sales: 1,003,141 units)
2. The Essential (2 CD): 2,800 (ESTIMATED) (Cumulative sales: 90,000 units)
3. Number Ones (DVD/Video): 2,735 (+2%) (#33 on the Billboard Comprehensive Music Videos Chart, 87 weeks on chart) (Certified 4X Platinum by the RIAA)
4. Live In Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour (DVD/Video): 1,800 (ESTIMATED) (Drops out on the Billboard Comprehensive Music Videos Chart)
5. Thriller: 1,581 (+28.2%)
6. Greatest Hits: HIStory Vol. 1: 704 (-9%)
7. Off the Wall: 443 (-4%)
8. Greatest Hits: HIStory (Video): 291 (-14%)
9. HIStory on Film- Vol. 2: 266 (+15%)
10. Bad: 240 (+8.5%)
11. Dangerous: 117 (-31%)
12. Invincible: 117 (-20%)
13. HIStory (2-CD): 49 (-36%)
14. Blood on the Dance Floor: 30 (+58%)
[Edited 1/19/06 22:05pm]

The news I have been waiting for, thanks.

1. Who the hell still needs Thriller?

2. Why does it sell so much in comparison to the others? Particularly since the compilations are now the top weekly sellers in his catalogue and Thriller is the only album pretty much justly covered in those.

I'll never get it.

Ellie said:

its because of the hype surrounding it

Ellie said:

Didn't The Essentials go to 1 in the UK? after Number Ones moved like 6mil and the History album was huge. I like the fact mike is still huge in the UK, but c'mon who doesn't have a greastest hits package by now.

Thriller, I can understand, some people don't own the special edition, plus the album is usually under 10 dollars.

invincible selling more then history is a crime, they should release history without the greatest hits. i would love that, and it would sell more because its cheaper and the greatest hits is useless anyway.

Invincible just sold about half of what HIStory did worldwide.

Yes, all MJ's album releases in the UK do very well (The Essential made #2 I think), but they're always promoted like crazy here too. Invincible was the exception. All the hits compilations got way more attention than that did. You couldn't escape the posters and TV ads for those, but you'd have to stay up til 1am to find a shoddy 7 second Invincible TV ad, and they only lasted for the opening week.

Off The Wall and Bad also do well over here, especially since Bad is his biggest seller. It's irritating that the big Q produced albums haven't had their UK sales updated in the last 14 years, yet they're always in the album charts.
[Edited 11/28/05 17:46pm]

Ellie said:

it still went to no.1 here and over there and about 30 other countries. Is he going to sign with Def Jam or what?

lilgish said:

co-sign

I've almost rebought Thriller just for the extras on that edition.

"Invisible" went to #1 and fell off really quickly. It stuck around in the US longer than it did in the UK.

No idea about contracts... still *sigh*

Ellie said:

That's what Motolla had planned.

CinisterCee said:

I'm hoping that MJ is saving the news of his new record deal until the new year.

BTW, I think Invincible and Number Ones have roughly the same worldwide total in the neighborhood of 7 million copies each.

USA

Invincible - #1 Pop, #1 R&B (4 weeks) - 2.1 million
Number Ones - #13 Pop, #6 R&B - 1 million

UK

Invincible - #1 Pop - 400k (sales estimate)
Number Ones - #1 Pop - 1.6 million

amit1234 said:

i thought invincible was 8 million and number ones was 6 million

BTW, MJ's The Essential has done pretty good so far. In the UK, the album will likely have scanned over 200,000 units for the year.

And as per http://mjinf.co.uk/Essent...ential.htm:

The overall Eurochart the albums debut position was a reasonable #6 (it was still in the top 25 after 9 weeks) which is just one place lower than Number Ones. It enjoyed top 10 charts peaks in the majority of countries around the world making it a better global success than Number One's in many places. It has also done very well in Ireland with a top 5 position (with a #2 peak) for its first 6 weeks. In France it has charted at #1 in the compilation & comprehensive album charts and has sold over 270,000 copies and was at #1 on the compilation chart for 6 weeks (the highest sales of this album anywhere in the world). In Turkey it has sold nearly 20,000 copies, Australia 35,000 copies and New Zealand 15,000 copies.

hellomoto said:

They very well might be.

Just giving my opinion.

how do you get these figures?
ive seen similar figures on a madonna site and (for some reason) would love to see prince's sales, especially on the older stuff.

just wondering..

thanx!

The figures are kindly provided by JRKing.

He only gets diva stats. He was able to get to MJ stats since I convinced him MJ was a diva at heart.

amit1234 said:

Estimates vary between 8.5m & 11.2m.

So I guess it's safe to say Invincible sold somewhere in the region of 10 million. Not bad for a "shit" album that got little promotion. It's hard to get accurate sales, anyway. Depending on the source, Thriller has sold anything from 47m to 59m.

amit1234 said:

Prince is more of a diva then MJ

I'd like to get Prince's aswell. Does your friend have to pay for each artist individually?

Ellie said:

Because it's his BEST. my two fave MJ songs are "Baby Be Mine" and "PYT" but most people love it for the monster hits that will always be his staple. if you look on iTunes all his most downloaded shit is Billie Jean, Beat It, etc.

Most casual fans think that everything from "Bad" on is...well...Bad. They must not know "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" (my third fave . The great album gems on "Dangerous" (i.e. Why You Wanna Trip on Me) and "Invincible" (Unbreakable) are widely unknown and should have been singles. IMO.

See, I'll never understand anyone who says Thriller is his best. The general public are force fed this myth about his music and the gems go unnoticed - but casual fans or old skool fans who fell off after he went to "megastar" status that prefer Thriller to Off The Wall leave me utterly baffled.

Me personally, I have no preference. Off The Wall is my favourite MJ album, but when I rank them they're all scattered about throughout the years, there' no pattern at all.
[Edited 11/29/05 9:05am]

i can give him "wanna be startin something" and "human nature" and that is it.

Hey Ellie - He gets the figures from a contact of his. I don't think his contact can get anymore figures since they cost money.

amit1234 said:

He should just replace witney with prince

Wow. Stack another platinum plaque for the Gloved One.

Well, I know that I'll be sleeping a little easier at night knowing the above information.

Yeah he should replace whitney with prince for the fans here, no one really cares about her lol well i dont. Only diva's huh?

Ellie said:

completely agree, ill never understand it either.