Just over a month after receiving its 26th multi-platinum certification in the United States, AC/DC‘s landmark 1980 hard rock opus “Back In Black” has newly been certified 27 multi-platinum in aforementioned territory. The numbers for the album were likely helped by a series of gold-colored vinyl releases of the legendary Australian band’s catalog, which have been surfacing throughout this year in celebration of the group’s 50th anniversary.
This album’s latest certification has it now definitively claiming its place as the third highest selling album of all-time in the United States, trailing only behind the Eagles‘ “Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)” and Michael Jackson‘s “Thriller“. “Back In Black” had previously been tied for #3rd place with the Eagles‘ 1976 album “Hotel California” at 26x multi-platinum status.
A platinum album/single in the United States represents 1,000,000 units, while gold signifies 500,000 units. Outside of traditional physical/digital sales, the certifications factor in digital streams/downloads with 10 permanent track downloads counting as 1 unit and 1500 on-demand audio/video streams from a particular album also counting as as a unit.
