Queen has made UK chart history by becoming the first act to sell seven million copies of an individual album. Their first Greatest Hits collection, from 1981, is now owned by one in every four households in the UK, said the Official Charts Company. The record, which features classic singles like We Will Rock You and Bohemian Rhapsody, has been a perennial best-seller for years.
Queen’s Greatest Hits leads the all-time album chart by almost a million copies, ahead of Abba’s 1992 compilation album Gold. Queen’s second Greatest Hits album, released in October 1991, a month before the death of singer Freddie Mercury, is also the UK’s tenth biggest record, with sales around the four million mark.
Since then, Queen’s Greatest Hits has accumulated 1.26 billion total UK streams, with the album’s most-streamed track being Bohemian Rhapsody, which boasts 240 million UK streams and counting, the chart company said. According to the accounts filed by the band’s company, Queen Productions Ltd, sales and streams of their music generated 39million Euros in royalties in the last financial year.
Queen guitarist Brian May called the latest achievement “joyous news”. “No album has done this before in history,” he said in a statement. “Thank you, we appreciate it.” He added.
