The cash-in album or a celebration of the first three years? Sometimes it’s not a binary choice (it usually isn’t, folks, but that doesn’t make for such a snappy, trite opening).
UK Charts
The Wild Boys
First charted: 3 November 1984at no 5
Peak position : no 2 n 17 November 1984
Weeks in top 40: 12
Weeks on chart: 14 (top 100)
Sales: Silver status (250,000 copies)
Arena
First charted: 24 November 1984 no 6
Peak position: no 6 on 24 November 1984
Weeks in top 40: 15
Weeks on chart: 31
Last charted: no 90 on 3 August 1985
Sales: Platinum status (300,000 copies)
Est sales: 600,000
USA
The Wild Boys:
First charted: 3 November 1984 at no 38
Peak position : no 2 on 15 December 1985 (for 4 weeks)
Weeks in top 40: 14
Weeks on chart: 18 (top 100)
Sales: 500,000
Save A Prayer
First charted: 2 February 1985 at no 53
Peak position: no 16 on 16 March 1985
Weeks in top 40: 8
Weeks on chart: 14
Arena:
First charted: 1 December 1986 at no 49
Peak position : no 4 on 6 January 1985
Weeks in top 40: 14
Weeks on chart: 20 (top 100)
Sales: Platinum x2 (2,000,000)
Est sales: 2.6 million
Selected others:
The Wild Boys
Germany #1 (3 weeks, 500,000 sales)
South Africa #1
Italy #1
Austria #2
Belgium #2
Ireland #2
Switzerland #2
Australia #3
Spain #3
Denmark #3
The Netherlands #3
Canada #4 (50,000 sales)
New Zealand #5
Finland #5
Norway #6
France #13
Poland #15
Sweden #19
Japan #47
Save A Prayer
The Netherlands #17
Belgium #20
Canada #24
Germany #27
Japan #81
Arena:
Germany #1 (4 weeks, 250,000 sales)
Italy #1
Belgium #2
New Zealand #3 (33 weeks)
Japan #3
Switzerland #4
The Netherlands #6
Austria #7
Australia #8
Finland #8
Portugal #9
Canada #10 (200,000 sales)
Norway #16
Sweden #16
Statistics taken from:
UK Charts Official UK Charts
US charts www.durancompilations.com
Selected Others www.ukmix.org
and acharts