Commercial Performance
Debuting at number one, the album sold 720,000 copiises in its first week, becoming the fastest selling greatest hits album ever released in the United Kingdom. The album hit the top spot in 18 countries: France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the aforementioned United Kingdom, Argentina, Colombia, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland among others. The album became the best selling album of the year in the United Kingdom, becoming the 61st best selling album in UK music history, with sales of 2 million copies, being certified 6x Platinum by the BPI. Greatest Hits also became the best selling album of the year in Europe being certified 5x Platinum for over 5 million copies sold worldwide. The album ended up selling slightly under 8.5 million copies becoming one of Williams' best selling albums ever. In Germany, the album debuted at number one and reached this position in total nine times non-consecutively, Williams' second album to do so, the other one being Swing When You're Winning. With 101 weeks on the German Albums Chart it's his second largest chart one, just behind Sing When You're Winning, with 106 weeks. By selling 900,000 copies and reaching 9x gold, Greatest Hits is the 20th best-selling album of the decade 2000-2009 in Germany and his 5th album album to reach a position in the top twenty of the best-selling album of the decade, the others being Swing When You're Winning (4th best-selling), Escapology (5th best-selling), Intensive Care (8th best-selling) and Live at Knebworth (19th best-selling).
Read more about this topic: Greatest Hits (Robbie Williams Album)
Famous quotes containing the words commercial and/or performance:
“A commercial society whose members are essentially ascetic and indifferent in social ritual has to be provided with blueprints and specifications for evoking the right tone for every occasion.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“The way to go to the circus, however, is with someone who has seen perhaps one theatrical performance before in his life and that in the High School hall.... The scales of sophistication are struck from your eyes and you see in the circus a gathering of men and women who are able to do things as a matter of course which you couldn’t do if your life depended on it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)