Black Sabbath’s Paranoid climbs to No. 9 on Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart and No. 14 on Top Album Sales list after an 85% sales spike, reaching new peaks. Warner Bros. Records publicity still photo of Black Sabbath circa 1975. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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Almost exactly a month ago, the world lost one of the most important rock musicians of all time. Ozzy Osbourne died in mid-July at the age of 76, just eight weeks after performing his final show both as a solo star and with Black Sabbath.
In the days and weeks following his passing, both of those musical acts appeared across charts all around the globe as sales and streams of the biggest hits and albums soared. As is the case whenever such a spike occurs, there’s always a decline, and for the most part, Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s catalogs have resettled — although the group manages to climb once more on a handful of Billboard rankings in the United States, as the outfit’s most celebrated full-length pushes to impressive new positions.
Paranoid Hits New Peaks on Several Billboard Charts
Paranoid manages to lift on two Billboard lists in the U.S. Perhaps most impressively, the Black Sabbath favorite jumps from No. 20 to No. 9 on the Vinyl Albums chart. As it leaps, Paranoid gives Black Sabbath its fourth appearance inside the highest tier on that ranking.
Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 13 and Black Sabbath
Prior to the ascent of Paranoid, Black Sabbath had cracked the top 10 on the Vinyl Albums chart three times. The band first broke into the tier in 2011 with Live at Hammersmith Odeon, which peaked at No. 8. Two years later, 13 almost gave Black Sabbath its inaugural No. 1, but the full-length stalled in the runner-up space. The group’s self-titled effort reached an all-time high of No. 6 last summer.
Sales of Paranoid Grow by 85%
Purchases of Paranoid exploded recently, which help the title vault up the Top Album Sales chart. This frame, Black Sabbath jumps from No. 32 to No. 14, thanks to a little more than 5,400 purchases of the decades-old set, Luminate reports. That figure grows by nearly 85% frame-over-frame.
Black Sabbath’s Classic Falls on Several Tallies
Black Sabbath only claims one charting album at the moment in America, and as Paranoid steps up on the aforementioned two purchase-centric rankings, it declines on several other tallies. Paranoid falls on the Top Rock Albums and Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts, and it dips a single spot on the Billboard 200. Black Sabbath manages to hold at No. 5 on the Top Hard Rock Albums roster.
“Paranoid” the Hit Single also Lives on Billboard’s Charts
“Paranoid” – the single – is also the only Black Sabbath winner present on the Billboard lists at the moment, although recently, the group surged with multiple classics and even scored several new hits on a variety of lists. “Paranoid” drops from No. 5 to No. 14 on the Hard Rock Streaming Songs chart and also tumbles by several dozen spots on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excluding U.S.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2025/08/20/black-sabbaths-famed-album-reaches-a-new-peak-weeks-after-ozzy-osbournes-death/