The Band Queen Is The First In History To Sell 7 Million Album Copies. Every Fourth Household In The UK Owns It.

British rock band Queen made history as the first band to sell seven million copies of a single album. On Tuesday, the British portal BBC News reported about it.

Queen's first greatest hits collection, Greatest Hits (1981), is now owned by one in four UK households, Official Charts said.

The album, which includes songs such as "We Will Rock You" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", has been a perennial bestseller for years.

"No album in history has ever done that. Thank you, we appreciate it," said Brian May, the band's guitarist.

"Thanks to the British public and their infinitely great taste, this album has become the best-selling in history. Thank you very much, we are honoured and humbled. We salute you," the band's drummer Roger Taylor added in a statement.

Bohemian Rhapsody leads

In 1981, when the album was released, greatest hits albums, which spanned an entire career, were relatively rare and the preserve of only the greatest artists, notes Martin Talbot, chief executive of Official Charts.

Queen's second choice album - Greatest Hits II - was released just a month before the death of lead singer Freddie Mercury. The musician died on 24 November 1991 at the age of 45.

The most streamed track from the album in question is 'Bohemian Rhapsody', which boasts 240 million streams in the UK alone.

On the web platform Spotify, Queen is currently the 31st most streamed artist in the world - ahead of other classic artists such as The Beatles, who are ranked 44th, and Michael Jackson, who is ranked 68th.

According to accounts filed by Queen Productions Ltd, sales and streaming of their music generated royalties of £39 million in the last financial year.