Pink Floyd's Blockbuster Album Gives The Band A Very Special First

Forbes

03-04-2025

Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon reenters the top 10 on the U.K.'s rock chart and hits a ... More milestone 650 weeks — the band's longest chart run yet. UNITED KINGDOM - JANUARY 01: Photo of PINK FLOYD; L-R: Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett, Rick Wright - posed, group shot, standing behind mixing desk in recording studio control room (Photo by Andrew Whittuck/Redferns)
Pink Floyd may have released The Dark Side of the Moon more than 50 years ago, but somehow, the iconic rock album remains a bestseller to this day. The band's masterpiece has long been viewed as one of the most significant and bestselling albums in music history, and it proves its commercial power over and over and over on the United Kingdom's charts. This week, the project manages another standout showing, fueled entirely by ongoing sales.
On the Official Rock & Metal Albums chart, The Dark Side of the Moon bolts from No. 14 to No. 6. The collection has topped the genre-specific tally before, so this frame is important for another reason.
The Dark Side of the Moon has now spent 650 weeks on the ranking of the bestselling rock and metal titles in the U.K. That's a major milestone, even for a group as legendary as Pink Floyd.
That 650-week achievement is more than just a huge number. It makes The Dark Side of the Moon the first Pink Floyd title to reach that mark on the Official Rock & Metal Albums chart.
The band has a handful of other releases that have performed extremely well on the tally, including Wish You Were Here and The Wall, which have racked up 544 and 503 appearances, respectively.
Neither of those collections ranks on the chart this time around, but they do return with some regularity — just not quite as consistently as The Dark Side of the Moon.
While 650 weeks on a chart is undeniably impressive, The Dark Side of the Moon isn't alone at that level. In fact, it's far from the longest-running release on the Official Rock & Metal Albums tally. A number of other iconic titles have nearly doubled or even exceeded that figure.
Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction currently stands at 1,213 total frames on the list. Nirvana's Nevermind has managed an even greater sum, with 1,444 appearances to its credit. Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory isn't too far behind, as it has now lived on the ranking for 1,023 weeks.