Queen's 'Greatest Hits II' becomes first album to break 6 million sales in the UK

Queen's 1981 compilation Greatest Hits II just became the first album to break six million copies sold in the UK. 124,000 copies in the album's 30-plus year lifespan were sold digitally, while the rest came from physical sales.

According to the Official Charts Company, one out of every four British households can be estimated to own a copy of the album. This, of course, puts Queen at the top of the all-time best-selling list, ahead of ABBA's Gold and the Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (they are tied for second with 5.1M sold).

Relative newcomer (and Amazon's all-time bestseller) Adele comes in third with 4.7M, just ahead of Oasis whose What's The Story Morning Glory has sold 4.6M.

"Wonderful. Who would have thought it! And all due to the Great British public. Thank you. A great honour," said Roger Taylor upon hearing the news.

The insane saturation of Queen's Greatest Hits II was played for laughs in Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens. In the book, it was theorized that "all tapes left in a car for more than about a fortnight metamorphose into 'Best of Queen' albums"  and several times characters put in a tape with a different label on the outside, only to hear Freddie Mercury and Co.

(h/t to NME)