Below table lists Spotify streaming of all songs from the five albums we are studying. The Comprehensive Streaming is reached by multiplying Spotify figures by 68/26. In fact, as shown in IFPI 2015 Report, there were 68 million paying subscribers to all streaming platforms by the end of 2015. While the exact count of Spotify paying subscribers by the end of 2015 is unknown, that figure reached 20 million in June 2015 and 30 million in March 2016, thus an estimated 26 million is used as of the end of 2015.
The equivalent album sales is the division of the comprehensive streaming figure by 1500 as it is now the norm in the new industry model.
Watching results of their most recent albums, one may though Linkin Park failed to correctly move into the Streaming era. This theory is completely destroyed by results of their earlier albums.
With 12 tracks at 12,5 million and more, Hybrid Theory is an absolute beast in the Streaming field. The best indicator of this situation is In The End which registered a gigantic 177 million streams as of September 27 2016, putting the track among the very best catalog hits ever. Meteora is barely lower, itself with most tracks well past 10 million streams and with one terrific smash, Numb at 150 million. As incredible as it may seem, this tally doesn’t include streams of Numb / Encore mashup that is part of the Orphan Album.
Overall a bit lower on both big hits and album tracks areas, Minutes To Midnight still has healthy results.
In terms of album sales equivalent, those three albums add for more than 2 million units together.
A Thousand Suns is the last album of the band to be released before the Streaming explosion. As it failed to get the catalog appeal of its predecessors, its plays represent only 201,000 units, well short of the Hybrid Theory 843,000 units mark. The Catalyst is the album biggest hit despite less than 22 million streams, a figure topped by as much as six tracks from their debut album.
Following two records got released during the Streaming era but met different fortunes. Living Things has tracks up to 89, 66 and 34 million, helping to build more than half a million album sales equivalent. In the other side, despite the huge increase of the market, the highest song from The Hunting Party is on 24 million only, showing the huge lack of hit from the record.
Surprisingly, Linkin Park released several of their biggest hits outside their studio albums.
The first one is the massive Numb / Encore, a mix of their classic track Numb along with Jay-Z classic Encore. At 124 million, this may be considered as one of the biggest remix of all-time, if not the biggest.
New Divide, used as a single for Transformers Soundtrack, features very well too at 56 million.
