50 million Album Sales? Guessing the breakdown per album

[yamishogun]

Even Talk had a surprisingly positive reception in Japan, comparatively speaking.

That was me! I was the one who bought the Japan copy there in 1994!

[soundchaser09]

Interesting data from Japan's Oricon sales archives, according to UKmix forum, showing highest charting position, time in the charts and sales figures (as well as format):

72.3.25 Tales From Topographic Oceans (presumably Fragile? judging by the date) # 22, 22 weeks, 32,410 LP
72.10.25 Close To The Edge # 16, 32 weeks, 74,800 LP
73.6.10 Yessongs # 17, 11 weeks, 27,480 LP
74.1.25 Tales From Topographic Oceans # 9, 13 weeks, 40,270 LP
74.12.21 Relayer # 37, 9 weeks, 20,080 LP
75.3.10 Yesterdays # 72, 5 weeks, 7.420 LP
77.9.10 Going For The One # 20, 11 weeks, 26,380 LP
78.10.18 Tormato # 41, 7 weeks, 15,380 LP
80.9.25 Drama # 78, 4 weeks, 5,940 LP
83.11.16 90125 # 12, 24 weeks, 91,370 LP
83.11.18 90125 # 23, 13 weeks, 32,000 CT
85.12.10 9012 Live - The Solos # 88, 2 weeks, 2,090 LP
87.11.10 Big Generator # 14, 4 weeks, 5,830 LP
87.11.10 Big Generator # 40, 4 weeks, 3,610 CT
87.11.10 Big Generator # 11, 4 weeks, 13,470 CD
91.5.21 Union # 11, 7 weeks, 64,250 CD
91.9.25 Yes Years # 93, 2 weeks, 6,660 CD
94.3.16 Talk # 17, 6 weeks, 44,350 CD
96.10.27 Keys To Ascension # 56, 2 weeks, 9,850 CD
97.12.17 Open Your Eyes # 81, 1 weeks, 3,450 CD
99.9.22 The Ladder # 38, 2 weeks, 10,980 CD
03.9.10 Close To The Edge # 236, 1 weeks, 887 CD
05.9.21 The Word Is Live # 295, 1 weeks, 888 CD

Not sure how accurate these figures are to today's numbers though. No information on some albums also like Magnification or Keys to Ascension 2 because they did not chart in Japan.
Presumably these are the figures solely from when these albums were on the charts, as there are no sales listed for example on CD for earlier albums, or any digital sales. Which means the actual figure is a fair bit higher.

We also know for a fact that very likely Close to the Edge and certainly 90125 went Gold in Japan (100,000 units) from these initial figures, 90125 is very likely platinum now (250,000 units). I would imagine Fragile over the years as well as Tales and maybe even Union went Gold also. Even Talk had a surprisingly positive reception in Japan, comparatively speaking.

[yamishogun]

Pretty sure there was a report of over 100,000 for FFH by the end of 2011, can't remember if it was a record company statement or a member of the band. I do remember an article about Keys I In 1997 that it had only sold 65k copies, a huge drop-off for the band.

I'm not sure. Keys 1 reached #99 on the Top 200 Billboard chart. Keys 2 was at #169, Open Your Eyes #151,The Ladder # 99 and Magnification #186.

Fly From Here was on the charts one week at #36 in a new era when Wikipedia stated 5,000 copies were sold. Maybe that was incorrect. Rush's Clockwork Angels sold about 100,000 in the U.S. the week it appeared at #2 and 20,000 copies were sold in Canada. I doubt the last three Yes albums have sold 40,000 copies based on their positions in the Top 200.

[Davy]

Alan White also said a few years ago that 90125 sold 12 Million copies. He must have been thinking of Def Leppard's Hysteria.

Yes ?
Time and a Word ?
The Yes Album 1,000,000
Fragile 3,000,000
Close to the Edge 2,000,000
Yessongs 1,500,000
Tales 700,000
Relayer 700,000
Going or The One 700,000
Tormato 1,300,000
Drama 700,000
Classic Yes 1,000,000
Yesshows ?
90125 5,000,000
Big Generator 2,000,000
Union 800,000
Talk 300,000
-------------------------------------------------
20,700,000
------------------------------------------------
Keys 1 100,000 ?
Keys 2 100,000 ?
OYE 70,000 ?
The Ladder 70,000 ?
Magnification 40,000 ?
Fly From Here 40,000 ?
Heaven & Earth 40,000 ?
The Quest 30,000 ?
---------------------------------------------
500,000
________________________________________

Pretty sure there was a report of over 100,000 for FFH by the end of 2011, can't remember if it was a record company statement or a member of the band. I do remember an article about Keys I In 1997 that it had only sold 65k copies, a huge drop-off for the band.

[Ash Armstrong]

I was being sarcastic about using Google.
It eludes me why the unit sales of records should be of any interest. Isn't it about the music on them?
No accounting for Yesfans I suppose, but I suspect most of anything interesting about the band's history has been covered extensively and exhaustingly at least over the duration of that history, and certainly since the advent of the internet, including guestimations about album sales.

[yamishogun]

A reasonable estimate or am I way off would you say?

Alan White also said a few years ago that 90125 sold 12 Million copies. He must have been thinking of Def Leppard's Hysteria.

Yes ?
Time and a Word ?
The Yes Album 1,000,000
Fragile 3,000,000
Close to the Edge 2,000,000
Yessongs 1,500,000
Tales 700,000
Relayer 700,000
Going or The One 700,000
Tormato 1,300,000
Drama 700,000
Classic Yes 1,000,000
Yesshows ?
90125 5,000,000
Big Generator 2,000,000
Union 800,000
Talk 300,000
-------------------------------------------------
20,700,000
------------------------------------------------
Keys 1 100,000 ?
Keys 2 100,000 ?
OYE 70,000 ?
The Ladder 70,000 ?
Magnification 40,000 ?
Fly From Here 40,000 ?
Heaven & Earth 40,000 ?
The Quest 30,000 ?
---------------------------------------------
500,000
________________________________________

[soundchaser09]

Or just Google it....

https://www.ukmix.org/forum/chart-di...-sales-history

interesting info, I got some information from the certified figures as they are laid out on wikipedia, though I imagine since they were certified that sales figures in every region have gone up, hence my approximations in the table.

But yes this is a very interesting resource thanks Ash!

[Ash Armstrong]

Or just Google it....

https://www.ukmix.org/forum/chart-discussion/artist-chart-analysis/41421-yes-charts-sales-history

[soundchaser09]

Back in around 2006 during the hiatus, Chris Squire stated the following according to PROG magazine issue 58, (which was dedicated to Chris's life after his passing), "I suppose we have probably sold something like 50 million albums over our career". If we take that to be a fairly true figure and say that it may have been slightly overestimated then but is fairly accurate by 2021- what would you say is the album breakdown? We know that certain albums hit certification thresholds in different countries particularly in the US which gives us some idea as to the relative sales from each album to each other.

An album like The Yes Album went Platinum in the US meaning a minimum of 1 million sales, if we expand that worldwide I would say it has to be a minimum of 3 million globally over the 50 years that the album's been out now.

In my opinion, globally:

YES	500,000
Time and a Word	500,000
The Yes Album	3,000,000
Fragile	5,000,000
Close to the Edge	4,000,000
Tales From Topographic Oceans	2,000,000
Relayer	2,000,000
Going for the One	3,000,000
Tormato	3,000,000
Drama	1,000,000
90125	8,000,000
Big Generator	4,000,000
ABWH	1,500,000
Union	2,000,000
Talk	500,000
All Studio Albums combined since Talk	1,000,000
Yessongs	4,000,000
Yesshows	2,000,000
All other live albums combined	1,000,000
All compilation albums combined	4,000,000
Total	52,000,000

A reasonable estimate or am I way off would you say?