Songs like “Take It Easy,” “Lyin’ Eyes,” “Take It to the Limit,” and “The Best of My Love” have made the freshly-certified quadruple diamond hits collection a commercial blockbuster into the 21st century.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – AUGUST 20: The Eagles album “Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975” is displayed at Amoeba Music on August 20, 2018 in San Francisco, California. The Eagles album Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 has surpassed Michael Jackson’s Thriller album as the best-selling album of all time. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) recalculated sales of the Eagles hits collection and certified the LP as 38x platinum compared to Thriller’s 33x platinum. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
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New sales certifications from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) confirm that the Eagles’ album, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), has now sold over 40 million copies and has become the first record in history to reach quadruple diamond status. Released on February 17, 1976, the fifty year old release confirms the band’s astonishing longevity as it moves even further ahead as the best-selling album of all time in America. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and received Kennedy Center honors in 2016, but this new sales recognition places them in an even more rarified pop music stratosphere.
Streaming was incorporated into the RIAA’s sales calculations in 2013, though notably it requires 1,500 streams of an album to be equivalent to one physical album sale. With diamond status recognizing sales of 10 million copies, the colossal commercial success of the Eagles’ hits compilation prior to the existence of streaming underscores the scope of the group’s popularity.
Their Greatest Hits also holds another unique place in popular music history as the first record to receive an RIAA platinum certification in 1976, foreshadowing its status in 2026.
UNITED STATES – JANUARY 01: Photo of EAGLES; L-R: Glenn Frey, Don Felder and Joe Walsh performing live onstage on Hotel California tour (Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns)
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The Road to Sales Success
Despite its historic value, Their Greatest Hits only spent a comparatively short five weeks at #1, but the album has proven to be a mega-platinum success in the decades since its release, providing the core of the group’s identity in a single record. At the time of its record-breaking certification, the compilation sat at #188 on the Billboard 200, underlining its sales consistency across 514 non-consecutive weeks on the chart.
Remarkably, when Their Greatest Hits was issued, the Eagles had only released four albums: their self-titled debut, Eagles (1972), now platinum; Desperado (1973), now double platinum despite only peaking at #41; On the Border (1974), also double platinum; and One of These Nights (1975), quadruple platinum. While the band scored an impressive run of hits up to the mid-1970s, few imagined that a collection of those singles would be breaking records fifty years later and fueling large attendances at the immersive Las Vegas Sphere venue. High demand means that shows have been added and they extend into March 2026, so far. Reports state that the band has reached over 700,000 fans at the venue in 44 performances. The band’s website notes that the upcoming Eagles shows at the Sphere will establish a new record for the longest residency there.
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – SEPTEMBER 27: Don Henley of the Eagles performs at MGM Grand Garden Arena on September 27, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
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Hotel California Achieves New Certification
The new RIAA certifications also place the group’s best-selling studio album, Hotel California (1976) as America’s third biggest album in history with sales exceeding 28 million copies, preceded by Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1982) that remains at 34x platinum. The “record’s title track became the Eagles’ fourth #1 hit, following up the album’s previous single, “New Kid in Town” to the chart summit. “Hotel California” also became their longest chart-topper at over six minutes, despite ignored record company pleas to edit the track to improve airplay possibilities.
While later albums such as 1979’s The Long Run also ascended to the platinum sales plateau before the group’s temporary dissolution in 1980, the content of Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) and Hotel California provides the foundation on which the Eagles’ long-term success has been built.
Celebrating Survival & Success
The Associated Press (AP) reports that founding member Don Henley is “amazed and grateful” for the success of Their Greatest Hits. “In an age, in a culture, where everything seems to become more ephemeral, by the day, it is gratifying to have been part of something that endures, even for fifty years,” said Henley.
The RIAA certification anticipates a clear vinyl reissue of the record to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its release.
Their only other album to even vaguely rival the band’s two top-selling releases is Eagles Greatest Hits, Volume II (1982) which has sold 11 million copies to date. Their last album of new studio material was 2007’s Long Road Out of Eden, emphasizing just how well their older catalog material has served the band.