1 (The Beatles Album) - Sales and Chart Performance

Sales and Chart Performance

The reception of 1 surpassed all critical and commercial expectations. It reached #1 in over 35 countries, achieving the record for the album debuting at the top of the most national charts ever. It became the highest-selling of 2000 and later, of the entire decade. This achievement made The Beatles the first and only artist to have the best-selling albums of two different decades. They also had the best-selling album of the 1960s, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. No tracks from Sgt. Pepper appear on this album. With this album, The Beatles also achieved having an album hit the #1 position in the U.S. in four non-consecutive decades (1960s, 1970s, 1990s and 2000s).

In the United Kingdom, 1 became The Beatles' 17th No. 1 album with sales of 319,126 copies (achieving record sales for only one week in 2000). On 18 December 2000, Ananova.com reported that the album has "become 2000's biggest-selling album—in only five weeks." 1 was the first album to stay at the top spot for nine weeks in almost ten years (the last being the Eurythmics's Greatest Hits), the best-selling album of 2000, and the fourth best-selling album of the 2000s so far in the UK. In its eleventh week, 1 sold a total of two million copies in the UK. It spent a total of 46 weeks inside the Top 75. On 11 July 2003 it was certified 8× platinum by the BPI, for over 2.4 million copies sold in the UK. It is the 26th best-selling album in the UK—according to an assessment by the Official Charts Company and the British Phonographic Industry that counted album sales in the UK from 28 July 1956 to 14 June 2009—, and the second best-selling Beatles album in that country (only beaten by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is the second best-selling album in the UK).

In the United States, the response was similar. 1 debuted at No. 1 with a sales over 595,000 copies. In its second week, sales increased to 662,000 but it was knocked off the top spot by Backstreet Boys's Black & Blue. The album returned to the No. 1 spot the following week, and spent a total of eight weeks at No. 1, a record The Beatles share only with Creed's 2001 title, Weathered. The album sold 1,258,667 copies during Christmas week of 2000, which was its highest-selling week. With this number, The Beatles achieved a new record: it was the seventh highest one-week sales in Soundscan history, and the highest for an album not in its first week of sales. The album spent 104 weeks inside the Billboard 200 and became the sixth best-selling album in the United States in 2001. On 15 April 2005, 1 was certified Diamond in America, and 1 is included on the list of the Top 100 Albums by the Recording Industry Association of America. By July 2012, 1 had sold 12,072,000 units, and it is the best-selling album of the 21st century in the U.S. and the fifth best-selling album in the Soundscan era (1991–present).

In Canada, 1 debuted at No. 1 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 54,668 copies in its first week. The album was certified Diamond (1,000,000 units) by the CRIA in February 2001, just four months after its release. As of 2009, 1 has sold 1,103,000 units in Canada, making it the fifth best selling album ever in Canada of the Nielsen SoundScan era.

In Germany, 1 debuted at No. 1 and managed to stay there nine non-consecutive weeks. Though this, it stayed only seventeen weeks in the top ten of the German Albums Chart, but fifty weeks in the total chart. By selling 1,650,000 copies and reaching 11× Gold, it's the third best-selling album of the decade 2000–2009 and the best-selling non-German language album.

In 2009, Apple Corps, The Beatles' company, stated that worldwide sales of 1 had exceeded 31 million copies worldwide. Worldwide in 2000 the album sold 13.8 million copies with 2 million or more copies sold during 2 consecutive weeks and was the fourth best selling album behind Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP, Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again, and Santana's Supernatural.