How many albums did Bob Marley and the Wailers sell worldwide?

Answer 1

The estimates of Bob Marley and The Wailers album sales vary from a low of roughly 150-199,000,000 to as high as 300 million. Legend the posthumous 1984 greatest hits collection has sold an estimated 15-20 million worldwide with 10 million sold in the US alone. I have also recently noticed that on wikipedia's best selling artists of all time, Marley is strangely absent. To assume that Marley's album sales are anywhere under 100 million is an ubsurdity considering that between the years 1991 and 2010 Marley has sold over twenty five million records. Keep in mind that by 1991 Marley had been deceased for ten years and during his life had sold millions of records. Another factor to take in to consideration is that Bob Marley is one of the most 'bootlegged' artist in music history and many of his early works from studio one to his period with Lee "Scratch" Perry have been pirated and sold in a wide variety of compilations beginning in the later sixties(primarily in the UK) and continuing up until the present day.

To give a further indication of Marley's album sales during his life it would be helpful to look at the charting positions of his island records releases. The first two Wailers albums were not huge commercial successes, however after Marley began his ascent to international stardom both of them charted respectably. "Natty Dread" peaked at 44 on the Black Album chart and 92 on the Pop chart (North America) respectively. "Rastaman Vibration peaked at number 8(selling at least one million if not more upon release) in the billboard Top 200. "Exodus" peaked at number 20 in the US and stayed on the UK charts for 56 weeks. "Kaya" peaked at fifty in the states. "Survival was a more muted 71 and ""Uprising peaked at 41 and 45 on the Black album Charts and Pop charts respectively. These charting positions deal primarily with North American sales not taking in to account Europe, Africa, and Asia during Marley's life(he was also very popular in south America although he never played there).

In summation, it is fair to say that bob Marley's worldwide album sales are nowhere near under 100 million taking in to consideration the millions sold during his life, the 25 million sold since 91 and the ten years after Marley's death preceding the 1991 'boom'.

Answer 2

25,000,000 and rising......he has sold more than 10,000,000 in the USA alone.