ABBA vs Queen: Who Won the US Charts in the 70s?

ABBA vs Queen usually gets settled with a documentary recap.

Or a global sales figure pulled straight from a press release.

This site already has both bands' real chart entries sitting in its own validated Billboard archive.

So skip the usual "who had bigger album sales" framing.

This is a direct head-to-head using actual US Hot 100 peak positions from 1970 through 1979.

The result is closer than the reputations suggest, and also not close at all in one specific way.

Both bands land exactly five year-end Hot 100 entries apiece in this site's archive.

But rank those ten songs against each other by peak position, and one band wins every single comparison.

Here's the full breakdown, song by song, year by year.

Queen in 1975, the year their first Hot 100 hit arrived the same decade ABBA broke through in the ABBA vs Queen chart comparison

Queen, 1975 Elektra publicity photo for A Night at the Opera.

Image credit: Photo by Koh Hasebe, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How This ABBA vs Queen Comparison Is Scored

Most ABBA vs Queen content online reaches for worldwide album sales, streaming totals, or a recent TV documentary's framing.

Those numbers are real, but they blend seven decades of catalog sales, reissues, and greatest-hits compilations into one figure.

That makes it hard to answer a narrower, more useful question.

Who actually performed better on the US charts during the decade both bands built their reputation in.

This comparison uses only this site's own validated year-end Hot 100 archive, covering 1970 through 1979.

Every song listed below made that archive's top 100 for its year.

Peak positions come from the same records.

One scope note matters here.

A year-end top 100 doesn't capture every single either band released that decade.

Only the ones popular enough to land there make the cut.

Songs that charted lower, or charted only on genre-specific charts, aren't part of this tally.

Within that real, stated scope, here's exactly how each band performed.

ABBA's Full 70s US Hot 100 Run

ABBA's American chart presence started slower than its European one and built steadily from 1974 onward.

Five singles reached this site's year-end Hot 100 archive across three consecutive years.

Waterloo (1974) — peaked at #6
Dancing Queen (1977) — peaked at #1
Knowing Me, Knowing You (1977) — peaked at #14
Take a Chance on Me (1978) — peaked at #3
The Name of the Game (1978) — peaked at #12

Dancing Queen stands alone as the only number one either band scored on the Hot 100 all decade.

It hit the top in April 1977 and held that spot for one week.

Then it slid back down the chart.

Take a Chance on Me came closest to matching it, peaking at number three the following year.

Read the full story behind that breakthrough in ABBA: The Band That Needed Permission for Its Own Name.

Queen's Full 70s US Hot 100 Run

Queen's American chart arrival came a year later than ABBA's, starting in 1975.

Its five year-end Hot 100 entries span four separate years.

Killer Queen (1975) — peaked at #12
Bohemian Rhapsody (1976) — peaked at #9
You're My Best Friend (1976) — peaked at #16
Somebody to Love (1977) — peaked at #13
We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions (1978) — peaked at #4

The double A-side of We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions was Queen's best US showing of the decade.

It peaked at number four.

Bohemian Rhapsody is the song most people assume was Queen's biggest American hit.

It actually peaked one spot lower, at number nine.

Its real chart-topping runs came later, both in the UK.

Neither happened on the 70s American Hot 100.

The full story behind that song's release lives in Bohemian Rhapsody: The Song Nobody Wanted to Release.

Two nights shaped the rest of Queen's decade.

They're covered in full in Queen Freddie Mercury: Two Nights That Defined Their 70s.

The Head-to-Head: Ranked Peak Against Ranked Peak

Ten songs, five from each band, tied exactly on count going into this part of the ABBA vs Queen breakdown.

Line each band's five peaks up from best to worst.

Compare them rank for rank, and a clear pattern shows up.

Best song: ABBA #1 (Dancing Queen) beats Queen #4 (We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions)
Second-best: ABBA #3 (Take a Chance on Me) beats Queen #9 (Bohemian Rhapsody)
Third-best: ABBA #6 (Waterloo) beats Queen #12 (Killer Queen)
Fourth-best: ABBA #12 (The Name of the Game) beats Queen #13 (Somebody to Love)
Fifth-best: ABBA #14 (Knowing Me, Knowing You) beats Queen #16 (You're My Best Friend)

ABBA wins every single rank in that comparison.

Averaged across all five songs, ABBA's mean peak position works out to #7.2.

Queen's mean peak position across its five songs works out to #10.8.

That's the real answer to who won the US charts specifically, inside this decade, inside this site's own archive.

It's ABBA, and not by a small margin once the songs are actually ranked against each other.

That result runs against most people's instinct.

Queen's reputation as an arena-rock powerhouse tends to overshadow ABBA's steadier, radio-built American run.

ABBA vs Queen: What Global Sales Figures Actually Say

Chart peaks are only half of any real ABBA vs Queen conversation.

Global sales and legacy numbers tell a different, messier story.

They deserve honest treatment rather than a single tidy number.

Queen's Figure Is Well Corroborated

Queen's worldwide sales are consistently cited at roughly 300 million records.

Billboard, Forbes, and Queen's own Wikipedia discography page all independently land on that same figure.

That level of agreement across sources is unusual and worth noting on its own.

ABBA's Figure Is Genuinely Disputed

ABBA's global sales total does not have that same agreement behind it.

Serious chart-analysis sources place the real certified and estimated figure anywhere from under 50 million to well over 100 million.

The gap comes down to methodology, and which reissues get counted.

That real disagreement is the more honest answer, rather than one rounded number sources can't agree on.

Two Compilation Albums, Decades Later

One UK chart fact is fully settled and worth including here.

Queen's Greatest Hits became the first album in Official Charts history to pass 7 million UK chart sales.

That officially makes it the best-selling album in UK chart history.

ABBA Gold sits directly behind it at number two on that same all-time list.

Both facts come from the Official Charts Company itself.

Neither album belongs to the 1970s, though.

Greatest Hits arrived in 1981, and ABBA Gold followed in 1992.

Both compilations are built entirely from songs the bands wrote and recorded during the decade this comparison actually covers.

That's the real ABBA vs Queen picture.

Dead even on 70s US Hot 100 entries.

A clear ABBA edge once those entries are ranked peak for peak.

And a genuinely split answer on global legacy, depending on which number you're asking about.

Curious how well you actually know the rest of the decade?

Try the 70s Music Trivia Quiz for a fresh round of questions.

Or find out what song topped the charts the week you were born with the Birthday #1 Song Finder.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did ABBA or Queen have more US Hot 100 hits in the 1970s?

ABBA and Queen are tied at five year-end Hot 100 entries apiece across this site's own validated 1970-1979 archive.

The real difference shows up in peak position, not entry count.

ABBA's average peak across those five songs is #7.2.

Queen's average peak is #10.8, a clear gap once you rank the songs against each other directly.

What was ABBA's only US number one single in the 1970s?

Dancing Queen is the only song by either band to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100 during the entire decade.

It hit the top in April 1977.

It spent one week there before sliding back down.

Neither Waterloo nor any Queen single ever matched that peak in the same ten-year window.

Did Bohemian Rhapsody reach number one on the US charts?

Bohemian Rhapsody peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976, according to this site's own year-end chart archive.

That surprises a lot of listeners given the song's legendary status.

Its real number one runs came later and elsewhere.

That includes a return to the UK Singles Chart top spot after Freddie Mercury's death in 1991.

Which band sold more records worldwide, ABBA or Queen?

Queen's worldwide total is consistently cited at roughly 300 million records across major outlets including Billboard and Forbes.

ABBA's global figure is far less settled.

Serious sales analyses range anywhere from under 50 million to well over 100 million depending on methodology.

That gap in source agreement is worth flagging rather than picking one number to sound definitive.

Is Queen's Greatest Hits really the best-selling album in UK history?

Yes, Queen's Greatest Hits became the first album in Official Charts history to pass 7 million UK chart sales, confirmed by the Official Charts Company.

ABBA Gold sits at number two on that same all-time list.

Both are compilation albums released after the 1970s, in 1981 and 1992, even though every song on them was written and recorded during the decade.