56 minutes ago, Liam.k. said:

It’s ok, I’m not cool either!

Wannabe > No Scrubs

To be fair, Wannabe isn't my fave song by them by a long mile anyway. Viva Forever ALL the way! 😍

1 hour ago, Spiceboy said:

To be fair, Wannabe isn't my fave song by them by a long mile anyway. Viva Forever ALL the way! 😍

I couldn’t agree more!

To be fair, No Scrubs is equally iconic. If it was to come second to a girl group classic, I couldn't think of a better track!

5 hours ago, colinn said:

To be fair, No Scrubs is equally iconic. If it was to come second to a girl group classic, I couldn't think of a better track!

Can you all stop being so bloody nice to No Scrubs! Yes it's a great song but we all hate it overtaking Wannabe 🤭😂🤣

#teamnoscrubs. 🤭

Wannabe is now certified 5x Platinum in the UK!

Oh just seen @DanielCarey has posted it. Where was my tag!?!? 😭

Just now, Spiceboy said:

Oh just seen @DanielCarey has posted it. Where was my tag!?!? 😭

You're always located in this AF, so no tagging is needed. 🤣

7 minutes ago, DanielCarey said:

You're always located in this AF, so no tagging is needed. 🤣

Still sat in a corner sobbing right now! 😭

Not sure if you guys know wannabe was certified 5x platinum 2 weeks ago

1 hour ago, 777666jason said:

Not sure if you guys know wannabe was certified 5x platinum 2 weeks ago

Literally scroll up 3 posts lol

(Super huge post alert but I hope it's of some interest 😅)

Going back to an earlier discussion, I do find it a little hard to get my head around No Scrubs outselling Wannabe in the UK (with streaming factored in).

Clearly No Scrubs maintains an incredible presence on streaming platforms and has retained its popularity - it's for sure a bona fide classic. However, I can't help but feel that its newfound status of being "the biggest selling girl group single in the UK of all time" feels overblown somehow, even though streaming dictates that this is the case!


Wannabe

It stayed at #1 for 7 weeks in the UK singles chart and became the 2nd best-selling single of 1996 (only 1,000 copies behind the best seller!). Wannabe reportedly had sold a total of 1,268,000 in 1996. However, OCC eventually downgraded sales figures of releases from 1994-1996, which cost Wannabe some of its sales. A total of 1,194,154 was shared in November 2007, so at that point it was just a little way off reaching 1.2m (for a second time!).

Nevertheless, it did sell over a million copies within the year of 1996, making it the first girl group single to ever sell 1m in this country. As far as I'm aware, in terms of girl groups, only four songs have ever crossed that threshold in pure sales (physicals/downloads):

Wannabe
2 Become 1
Never Ever by All Saints
Whole Again by Atomic Kitten

Interestingly, Wannabe is the only one to achieve a million sales within the calendar year of release. To be fair, 2 Become 1 and Never Ever were released late on in the year (December 1996 and November 1997 respectively), while January 2001 release Whole Again came close to doing it - it sold about 935k by the end of the year.

No Scrubs
It was undeniably a big hit in 1999, peaking at #3 in the UK and becoming the 16th best seller of that year with 553,200 sales. Presumably it sold more physical copies into 2000, but it's difficult to say exactly when No Scrubs exceeded 600,000 (Platinum) because it had already been certified Platinum in July 1999 based on shipments. I would imagine it wasn't before legal downloads started counting towards sales totals, so some time between 2005 and 2014.

Its pure sales trajectory later looked like this:

March 2014: 618,000
May 2017: 677,000 (a rather impressive 59k downloads in around 3 years).

I'm taking what the OCC shared in 2017 as being pure sales, because not long afterwards, No Scrubs certified 2xPlatinum in July 2018 (1,200,000). This was already an early indication that streaming was hugely helping No Scrubs to increase its total in the modern age.

The progress of their certifications in the age of streaming:

(Firstly, it's important to note that 22nd July 2013 is the date that certifications became automatic and based purely on actual sales data. At this time, the BPI retroactively awarded every single and album a certification that matched its true sales total – provided it hadn’t already been certified higher based on old shipment rules. Therefore, 22nd July 2013 isn't the date on which Wannabe exceeded 1.2m sales. That likely happened back in 2007 or 2008, or originally in 1996 based on the official data from that time. Virgin simply didn't bother to apply to certify Wannabe 2xPlatinum, when technically they could have done so in 1996 or at any point before 2013).

Wannabe

1.2m / 2xPlatinum - 22nd July 2013 [see above]
1.8m / 3xPlatinum - 15th November 2019

2.4m / 4xPlatinum - 7th July 2023 (+600k in 190 weeks)

3.0m / 5xPlatinum - 31st July 2026 (+600k in 160 weeks)

No Scrubs

1.2m / 2xPlatinum - 5th July 2018

1.8m / 3xPlatinum - 12th March 2021 (+600k in 140 weeks)

2.4m / 4xPlatinum - 7th September 2023 (+600k in 130 weeks)

3.0m / 5xPlatinum - 29th May 2025 (+600k in 90 weeks)

Milestone comparisions:
No Scrubs achieved 3xPlat 69 weeks after Wannabe

No Scrubs achieved 4xPlat 9 weeks after Wannabe

No Scrubs achieved 5xPlat 61 weeks before Wannabe

It's kind of wild how quickly No Scrubs has most recently sold 600k - just 90 weeks (that's roughly only 1 year and 9 months). I'm sure that must be its quickest time to achieve 600k units so far.

As of 2026, No Scrubs appears to be selling almost twice as much as Wannabe does on a weekly basis.

If No Scrubs manages to sell another 600k in the 90 weeks following its 5xPlat certification, it would be on course for 6xPlatinum (3.6m) in February 2027.

If Wannabe requires another 160 weeks to reach 6xPlat, it will happen in August 2029 - two and a half years after No Scrubs. In theory, No Scrubs could achieve 7xPlat (4.2m) by November 2028, 9 months sooner than Wannabe making it to 6xPlat.

~~~

It's interesting to me how streaming has changed things. Despite No Scrubs having considerably higher streaming figures nowadays... I think when looking back at their original release years, Wannabe had way more of a massive impact and was truly a phenomenon, which I wouldn't really say No Scrubs was - that was more simply a big hit.

That's from a UK perspective though; I appreciate that No Scrubs reached #1 in the US Billboard Hot 100, just like Wannabe did. I believe that it's the influence of the US on streaming platforms that has given No Scrubs such a boost in the streaming age, and for sure I think its perceived cool factor helps it slot easily into many more playlists than Wannabe, which feels like it's regarded as being more of a cheesy/party/throwback song.

I should say that I actually do love No Scrubs! I don't resent it for outselling Wannabe, it just feels a little strange to me when considering the context of what these two singles achieved in their original years of release.

This post has entirely focused on No Scrubs vs Wannabe so far, but something that really puts things into perspective - there was a time when eight Spice Girls singles had higher UK sales totals than No Scrubs had. That being every Spice Girls UK #1 single apart from Holler/Let Love Lead the Way. No Scrubs has now left all those singles in the dust... it's quite mad.

One thing that is highly unlikely to ever change, is that Wannabe should always remain the biggest selling girl group single of all time in the UK (as in, only pure sales - physicals/downloads).

~~~

In terms of streaming being included, I hope that Wannabe at least manages to retain its current status as the bestselling girl group single by a UK girl group. The song that puts that in danger is Little Mix - Shout Out to My Ex.

That certified 4xPlatinum on 30th August 2024 (60 weeks after Wannabe) but it isn't 5xPlatinum yet. It took slightly longer for it to make the leap from 3xPlat to 4xPlat than Wannabe. Wannabe did that in 190 weeks, while Shout Out to My Ex took 198 weeks.

It'll be interesting to see how long it takes for Shout Out to My Ex to reach 5xPlat!

~~~

I find it all to be a fascinating shift in how legacy hit singles are evaluated these days. In my opinion, Wannabe will always hold the crown for cultural impact and dominance in the pure sales era, truly a phenomenon of that decade. While No Scrubs has become a juggernaut with its endurance on streaming, it’s ultimately difficult to compare streaming metrics with the era of pure sales, and therefore which song has the most impact in the here and now - but it is fair to say that both have stood the test of time.

I read recently some of billboard stats on girlbands and Wannabe actually sold more than No Scrubs in the US!

Although, I much prefer No Scrubs over Wannabe, it's maddening that a Britney song reject has now surpassed an original girlband song. They didnt even bother letting Left Eye record her rap in the album version!