Latest on MJJC

After all, did Thriller sell 100 or 70 million copies?

MJBrazil21

Proud Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2023
Messages
37
Points
8
After all, did Thriller sell 100 or 70 million copies? In various sources they say that Thriller sold 120 million copies and while others claim that there are 70 million, But after all, what is the official sales number for Thriller?
 
The confusion started at the World Music Awards (in 2006) when Michael Jackson was given a plaque certifying sales of 104 million copies of his 'Thriller' album.

They actually meant that his 'Thriller' song (and not the 'Thriller' album) sold 104 million copies.

The 'Thriller' song did have these huge sales of 104 million copies because they counted the sales of the 'Thriller' single, the sales of the greatest hits/compilation albums which included that song, etc).

The sales of the 'Thriller' album are 65-70 million copies.
 
mj_frenzy said:
The confusion started at the World Music Awards (in 2006) when Michael Jackson was given a plaque certifying sales of 104 million copies of his 'Thriller' album.

They actually meant that his 'Thriller' song (and not the 'Thriller' album) sold 104 million copies.

The 'Thriller' song did have these huge sales of 104 million copies because they counted the sales of the 'Thriller' single, the sales of the greatest hits/compilation albums which included that song, etc).

The sales of the 'Thriller' album are 65-70 million copies.
Click to expand...
Incorrect. The sales of the Thriller single are obviously not anywhere near 104 million copies. The plaque counted album sales + sales for the singles from the album (including on subsequent greatest hits releases as you have stated).
 
dethorro said:
Incorrect. The sales of the Thriller single are obviously not anywhere near 104 million copies. The plaque counted album sales + sales for the singles from the album (including on subsequent greatest hits releases as you have stated).
Click to expand...
The sales of 104 million copies of the 'Thriller' song came also from the sales of the 'Thriller' album.
 
CBS records shut down the manufacturing plant that produced Thriller in 2010-11, they stated 70 million copies of it were manufactured and sold. So using that as a base, Billboard reported in 2013 that
Michael Jackson has sold 482,000 albums in the US which results in 1.6 million worldwide (1.6 Million / 482k = 3.3)
Click to expand...
This means US album sales x 3.3 = Worldwide album sales, is what they are using to obtain their figures.
16.1 million: The number of albums Jackson has sold in the U.S. since his death (2009-19), according to Nielsen Music. Thriller sold 2.5 million during this period (2.5 Million x 3.3 = 8.2 Million), total worldwide albums sold = 53.3 million from 2009 to 2019
Click to expand...
Thriller sold 8.2 Million in the decade since his death, which means the total by the start of this decade would be 78 million. Highest possible estimation would be about 80 million.
Billboard estimates MJ's U.S. track sales at 48% of his actual global track sales, sold 2.8 million tracks that year. Billboard reported 5.8 million worldwide from that figure. This means US single sales x 2.07 = worldwide single sales. 31.4 million songs were sold in the US during this period, meaning 65 million singles total sold worldwide
Click to expand...
Billie Jean has sold 5 million within the 10 years of his death, Beat It and Man in the Mirror sold about 4 million each.
Total album and single sales from 2009 to 2019 were 118 million
 
dethorro said:
Incorrect. The sales of the Thriller single are obviously not anywhere near 104 million copies. The plaque counted album sales + sales for the singles from the album (including on subsequent greatest hits releases as you have stated).
Click to expand...
Oof. That's not how it works. This is exactly why people have no respect for Sony and distrust everything the music industry spews out.

At this point, people don't actually buy music any more, they haven't for the last 10 years, so the numbers are all frozen and will never grow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top