Someone (JAY!) needs to update the figures on PopJustice Spice Girls thread because those huns over there are quite far behind :P

Someone (JAY!) needs to update the figures on PopJustice Spice Girls thread because those huns over there are quite far behind :P

Done! :w00t:

Precise first week sales for 'Stop': 115,423 (page 22 for source)

Thank you for sharing! Great to know the precise figure. Funny to think that this was published 20 years ago but (as far as I’m aware) was never shared before now!

Thank you for sharing hun! It is WILD that a single that sold 115,000 in its first week would ever be considered a flop... But it was, and that is f***ing crazy to me

Wondering if they had added b-sides to it, could that have helped with the sale?

On chartplus pdf I found:

 

05/02/2000 What I Am (12") #158

11/03/2000 Bag It Up (12") #146

 

Probably promotional remix.

They are excluded formats (From memory I think only 3 formats could contribute to a chart position and most record labels chose 2 CD's and cassettes at that point) so any 12" release would have charted seperately.

Interestingly for What I Am it was released on one CD, Cassette and two 12" vinyl! I wonder why it charted that late, was the second vinyl not released until January 2000? Or maybe it was on sale :thinking:

I strongly suspect sale haha

Random fact that Music Week shared in the week that Viva Forever charted in July 1998:

 

"The Spice Girls are the only act in the whole of chart history to have seven consecutive records spend at least 15 weeks in the Top 75 chart. Tom Jones comes closest, having six consecutive hits of 15 weeks or more in 1967/9. To be fair to Jones, the chart was only 50 positions long then, otherwise he would very likely have had an even longer sequence. And to be fair to the Spice Girls, competition is much more intense these days, and longevity is harder to come by than ever."

 

Funnily enough Viva Forever fell short of the 15 weeks or more streak they'd built up. It managed 13 - actually their second shortest chart run, only longer than Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) which stayed in for 5 weeks.

 

It does make me wonder if any other artists have outdone this. Singles can spend significantly longer in the chart these days, but whether any artists have been consistent enough to build up a consecutive streak of long runners, I'm not sure. Artists such as Adele and Ed Sheeran have songs charting for a short time amongst their long running hits, so neither had 7 entries in a row manage 15+ weeks.

The radio peaks for the girls are an interesting read !!

Edited March 10Mar 10 by vibe

We have a new update for Wannabe from the Official Charts Company, it's now on 2,740,000! Source: https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/spice-girls-reunion-world-tour/

Last update we had was 2,400,000 back in July 2023. It's currently selling at a rate that would have it on course to go 5xPlatinum (3,000,000+ sales) by July 2026, which would be rather fitting given that is the 30th anniversary month.

Good! please new updates on group and solo sales 🙏

On 24/03/2025 at 22:12, -Jay- said:

We have a new update for Wannabe from the Official Charts Company, it's now on 2,740,000! Source: https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/spice-girls-reunion-world-tour/

Last update we had was 2,400,000 back in July 2023. It's currently selling at a rate that would have it on course to go 5xPlatinum (3,000,000+ sales) by July 2026, which would be rather fitting given that is the 30th anniversary month.

Thank you Jay!

Hopefully around the end of the year when we +hopefully+ get a Forever25 release, we will get some updated numbers!

I'd love love to know if:

Spice has gone over 3,300,000 copies yet - making it 11xPlatinum

How close is Spiceworld to 6xPlatinum and how close is Forever to 300,000 copies (jfc...)

If Goodbye and Who Do you Think You Are are yet over 1million each??!! I would imagine that Goodbye is already over that and I hope they use that as a metric for the Forever25 campaign!

And has Stop broken the 800,000 barrier and if Viva Forever has gone over 900,000? These two seemed to get a boost during the Spiceworld25 campaign so I wouldnt be surprised if its numbers have gone up a bit more than usual...

I would also love to know if Greatest Hits is still selling well? It is still in print both in CD and Vinyl so I assume it's ticking on nicelly... I hope it is getting close to 3x platinum at least

Sadly I don't think any of their studio albums will reach those targets any time soon. To the point we might not see it happen until the 2040s, lol, unless a reunion gives their music a very impactful and long lasting boost.

I doubt Spice has even made it to 3.1m yet. I estimate around 3,080,000 for it currently. In a normal period of inactivity from them, Spice sells less than 300 units a week.

Spiceworld does less than that, usually under 150 units a week. I think it would be on 1,650,000 at the very most at the moment, but 6xPlatinum is 1.8m.

If we're generous Forever might have made it to 280,000 by now but I think it would be more like 278k. It was only managing roughly 20 copies a week on average.

I do think it's likely that both Goodbye and M/WDYTYA have exceeded 1m by now but it would be lovely to have official confirmation!

If Stop is still selling as well as it was from 2022 to 2023, it would be on 928k now. Viva Forever might have exceeded 900,000 by now too.

Is this true? I couldnt find anything else online about it to confirm...

It would mean that No Scrubs has definitely overtaken Wannabe as the best selling girl band single in the UK 😮‍💨

Weird how it became so popular on streaming when our girls’ answer to it (Holler) doesn’t get any respect at all! Holler is so underrated I just don’t get it.

It's true! No Scrubs took just 90 weeks to improve from 4xPlatinum to 5xPlatinum. It seems like it might "sell" double what Wannabe does each week.

I suppose it's all down to heavy playlisting to go alongside its popularity, which boosts it even more - but it's a little odd to me that No Scrubs has become "the chosen one" of all girl group singles, in the streaming age. Of course it was a big hit that has stood the test of time, but I personally don't feel like that's to the extent of becoming the biggest girl group song of all time...

Wannabe could still be a year away from achieving 5xPlatinum...

Crazy thing is that in terms of pure sales (physicals, downloads), Wannabe literally sold twice as much as No Scrubs. So not only has No Scrubs managed to overcome that gap with digital sales, it has now sprinted ahead.

Jesus, that's crazy that is is mostly down to more powerful playlisting.... I suppose the Netflix documentary also really helped... It is odd because No Scrubs is a huge song of course, but it does not feel as iconic and as successful as Wannabe, still today, at least to me...