Further cementing their status as the reigning thrash metal kings, Metallica‘s 1991 landmark self-titled album has just earned a double diamond certification in the United States by the RIAA. That rare milestone represents over 20 million units of the album shifted in the U.S. since its 1991 release.
Only 14 albums have managed to attain that certification so far. This latest accolade makes the so-called ‘Black Album’ the thirteenth highest selling album of all-time in the United States. If your curious, you can find the albums who have sold more via riaa.com.
That’s not all though, as Metallica have also newly been awarded another impressive sales accolade, with their third full-length album, 1986’s genre-defining “Master Of Puppets“, newly hitting 8x multi-platinum status in the United States.
Both of the aforementioned albums have since benefitted from deluxe box sets, with the “Master Of Puppets” set arriving back in 2017, and the self-titled album’s set arriving in 2021. “Master Of Puppets” also had a viral moment back in 2022, when it’s title track was used in the fourth season of the hit Netflix series ‘Stranger Things‘, introducing the song to millions of new listeners.
The band’s 1993 live set, “Live Shit Binge & Purge” has also newly obtained gold, platinum & 21x platinum status, though sales/streaming data for that that accolade is calculated differently and represents 2.1 million units sold.
Metallica were actually awarded a raft of new sales certifications today, May 28th, by the RIAA, here’s the rundown
- “Metallica” (2x diamond)
- “Live Shit Binge & Purge” (video box set) (gold, platinum & 21x platinum)
- “Enter Sandman” (9x platinum)
- “Master Of Puppets” (album) (8x platinum)
- “One” (platinum & 5x platinum)
- “Kill ‘Em All” (4x platinum)
- “Reload” (4x platinum)
- “Master Of Puppets” (single) (platinum & 3x platinum)
- “For Whom The Bell Tolls” (platinum & 3x platinum)
- “Sad But True” (gold, platinum & 2x platinum)
- “The Unforgiven” (platinum & 2x platinum)
- “Fade To Black” (platinum & 2x platinum)
- “Wherever I May Roam” (gold & platinum)
- “Turn The Page” (gold & platinum)
- “Seek & Destroy” (gold & platinum)
- “…And Justice For All” (single) (gold)
- “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” (gold)
- “The Memory Remains” (gold)
- “The Four Horsemen” (gold)
- “Ride The Lightning” (single) (gold)
- “King Nothing” (gold)
- “I Disappear” (gold)
- “Hero Of The Day” (gold)
- “Hardwired” (gold)
- “Don’t Tread On Me” (gold)
- “Creeping Death” (gold)
- “Blackened” (gold)
- “Battery” (gold)
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.
