Rumours officially 20xplatinum from RIAA!

[tabruns]

Originally Posted by MikeVielhaber

They aren't necessarily higher. I'm sure it's a case by case basis. Rumours was just certified 20 times platinum. Because that certification is up to date it's likely higher than the amount sold. After all, these are certifications for shipments, not sales.

Example, I was looking at a few of those other top albums. Double Live by Gartha Brooks is 21X platinum. It counts twice because it is a double album so that's really 10.5 million shipped. The actual Nielsen soundscan number is about 6 million.

True, sometimes it is the case that album sales are actually lower, because a record company has an album certified based on shipments. So Stevie's Street Angel has been certified Gold although it hasn't yet actually passed 500,000 in sales.

Most of the time however certification lags behind sales, so normally certifications do indicate the bare minimum of what a record sold. Say You Will, for example, is definitely closer to 1,000,000 in sales than 500,000....but if you went by certification alone, you'd think 500,000 because it's only been certified Gold.