Sunday 20 December 2009

Christmas Number One Sales Figures

Rage Against The Machine: 502,672

Joe McElderry : 450,838

Lady Gaga: 61,677

Peter Kay: 52,605

Pogues: 18,457

Mariah Carey: 16,449

If these figures are wrong I will stand corrected :).

Previous X Factor Winner Sales Figures + Show Viewer Averages:

(Series 1) Steve Brookstein - 250,000 (6.90 mill viewers)

(Series 2) Shayne Ward - 742,180 (8.72 mill viewers)

(Series 3) Leona Lewis - 571,253 (8.02 mill viewers)

(Series 4) Leon - 490,000 (8.35 mill viewers)

(Series 5) Alexandra Burke - 576,000 (10.50 mill viewers)

(Series 6) Joe McElderry - 450,838 (13.31 mill viewers)

RATM vs Joe McElderry


A month or so back, who could've predicted such a close, and particularly unusual christmas number one battle would be looming. It seems that the great British tradition of crazy christmas number ones happenings was not only put on hold by X Factor (year on year) but also eventually spurred on by it.

Many have suggested that Cowell probably loves the idea of this chistmas battle, but I'm not so sure. Publicity for the show and Joe himself is surely at saturation point, so unless this battle results in hundreds of thousands of additional sales (which by the stats so far it hasn't), I don't see it as a plus for Cowell that Joe may miss out of the number one spot.



The midweeks:

Joe McElderry

Tuesday Mid Week Sales: 77,000
Wednesday Mid Week Sales: 110,000 (+33,000)
Thursday Mid Week Sales: 216,000 (+116,000)
Friday Mid Weeks: 297,000 (+81,000)

Rage Against The Machine

Tuesday Mid Week Sales: 83,000
Wednesday Mid Week Sales: 175,000 (+92,000)
Thursday Mid Week Sales: 253,000 (+78,000)
Friday Mid Weeks: 306,000 (+53,000)

The RATM campaign has been phenomenally successful, but Joe has been catching up towards the weekend. On the face of these numbers, you'd think this was Joes for the taking. At time of writing though RATM stand at odds of 1.18 and Joe 6 on betfair. A complete turn around from last night. A leak? Or do punters think the snow may have harmed Joe's physical sales (O rly?). His digital sales were low the day before the physical CD went on sale. It's hard to wrap an MP3 :). Have thousands of Rage fans have been holding out towards the weekend to buy the single? An intriguing situation.

Roll on the top 40.....

EDIT: Based on their sales the CEO of 7digital.com thinks that RATM may have sold 100,000 units on saturday. Enough to swing it?