Though the two bands have jockeyed for decades to hold the record for the most albums sold, it has finally been made official: the iconic Queen have outpaced the Swedish supergroup for the most successful album in British history.
With nearly 400 million albums sold worldwide, 17 No. 1 hits and over 16 million weekly global streams, ABBA is one of the world's most successful music acts of all time. Ever since their breakthrough with “Waterloo” back in 1974, ABBA's music has captured the hearts of people all over the world.
Top-selling artists worldwide as of 2022
Perhaps unsurprisingly, British rock band The Beatles are top of the list for best-selling artists worldwide, with 183 million units certified sales.
History Highlight: Today in 1976, ABBA knocked Queen from the U.K. No. 1 position on the U.K. singles chart with "Mamma Mia".
But the Queen's taste in music obviously goes beyond a quick top 10, and there are some other big names that Her Majesty was said to be a fan of. One perhaps surprising pick is Swedish pop icons ABBA. The royal family of Sweden's love of 'Dancing Queen' is well known and pretty understandable.
31st January 1976, ABBA knocked Queen from the UK No. 1 position on the UK singles chart with 'Mamma Mia. ' Queen's single 'Bohemian Rhapsody' had enjoyed a nine week run at the top of the charts, by coincidence, Queen's single contains the famous "mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia let me go" line.
The group's name is an acronym of the first letters of their first names arranged as a palindrome. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the best-selling music acts in the history of popular music, topping the charts worldwide from 1974 to 1982, and in 2022.
Abba also sold nearly triple amount of records in Australia (Beatles 2.3, Abba 6m) and in Germany Beatles sold 7.4m, Abba sold over 10m and that wasn't even considered their biggest market.
While both albums have now sold over 5.1 million copies in the UK, the Swedish band's 1992 Best Of collection has nudged ahead of The Beatles' iconic 1967 album by nearly 15,000 copies. An estimated one in five British households owns a copy of either Gold or Sgt Pepper's.
Easily the Beatles. Abba never really even made it in America for instance (I believe they had 4 top ten hits on the billboard whereas the Beatles had 20 no 1 hit singles).
The Spice Girls (here in 2008) are the best-selling girl group in history.
25 by Adele is the fastest-selling album of all time in the UK with just over 803,000 copies sold in its first seven days.
Since the 1970s, Queen has sold 300 million records worldwide, making them one of the best-selling artists in history. Billboard ranked them as the 87th Greatest Artist of All Time.
Based on longevity, Elton was bigger, but neither was truly better, just different and yet the same… What did Elton John think of Freddie Mercury?
The Beatles
Their story and their music is legendary, and you just can't look past them as the greatest British rock band of all time.
Dire Straits had the best-selling album of the 1980s in the UK with Brothers in Arms.
In their home country of Sweden ABBA had a strong following among record-buyers from the word go, and Australia is famous for its 18 months of unrivalled ABBA frenzy.
Another One Bites the Dust
“Another One Bites the Dust” was Queen's first certified worldwide hit, holding the Billboard Hot 100 number one spot for several weeks after its release in early October of 1980.
On the Billboard Hot 100 for February 23, 1980, Queen could call themselves a No. 1 band in America for the first time. “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” which had been thwarted in its efforts to top the UK bestsellers late the year before, seized the American singles crown, and wore it for a full month.
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY by Queen
But let's face it, Bohemian Rhapsody is just impossible to sing by yourself because of those multiple voices that are essential to the song. So, we recommend you take some friends with you, grab the mic, and just bring it on.