I'm curious as to the nature of this conversation. Is this to say that SOE is selling poorly? Is anyone particularly surprised by how it's selling (or not)? I can't say I follow this stuff or particularly care one way or another, but they're a band that hasn't had a legitimate hit in like 15 years at this point--they'll sell to the die-hards, and the ticket-buyers of their current tour, but not much else.
Well thats an interesting question. I'd argue that SOE is selling well or ok if were just talking about album sales(both physical and digital). The problem is that album sales for all artist are rapidly declining. Most of the general public does not purchase recorded music anymore. They obtain it for free through the internet by 1. File Sharing, 2. some form of free download, 3. or they stream it. Streaming is what is really taking over. Some of it is free, some of it is people paying into a service. Streaming is over 60% of what the recording music industry now generates money from.
U2 does poorly when it comes to streaming and also individual digital track downloads. So album sales(physical and digital) are the best way to check on how well the band is doing because that is the format that 90% of the fans of U2 are using.
I think it would be great if U2 could reach 500,000 in sales in the United States. They are 192,000 copies away from that goal. I think its the maximum they could be expected to do in terms of sales, hit or no hit. Having a hit today is not likely to increase album sales that much as it will likely just come from general public and casual fans who have long since switched to streaming all their music.
Since January 1, 2018, these are the top 20 selling albums(DIGITAL and physical combined) in the United States after 21 weeks:
01 - 949,000 - THE GREATEST SHOWMAN - Soundtrack
02 - 395,000 - MAN OF THE WOODS - Justin Timberlake
03 - 266,000 - BEAUTIFUL TRAUMA - P!nk
04 - 251,000 - REARVIEW TOWN - Jason Aldean
05 - 231,000 - ÷ - Ed Sheeran
06 - 224,000 - KOD - J Cole
07 - 210,000 - BEERBONGS & BENTLEYS - Post Malone
08 - 197,000 - BLACK PANTHER: THE ALBUM - Soundtrack
09 - 174,000 - GRAFFITI U - Keith Urban
10 - 163,000 - EVOLVE - Imagine Dragons
11 - 161,000 - INVASION OF PRIVACY - Cardi B
12 - 160,000 - FROM A ROOM: VOLUME 2 - Chris Stapleton
13 - 157,000 - M A N I A - Fall Out Boy
14 - 153,000 - REPUTATION - Taylor Swift
15 - 153,000 - BOARDING HOUSE REACH - Jack White
16 - 138,000 - 24K MAGIC - Bruno Mars
17 - 137,000 - FROM A ROOM: VOLUME 1 - Chris Stapleton
18 - 137,000 - DAMN. - Kendrick Lamar
19 - 131,000 - HAMILTON: AN AMERICAN MUSICAL - Original Cast
20 - 130,000 - THIS HOUSE IS NOT FOR SALE - Bon Jovi
Based on current sales, by week 26, the half way point of the year, there will still only be 1 album that has sold more than 500,000 copies(digital and physical).
Song Of Experience sold most of its 307,000 copies back in December 2017, so its obviously not in the top 20 for a chart that just begins with sales starting in January 2018.