Ranking all of Dire Straits million-plus selling albums 

What a brilliant band Dire Straits was. All the way from their amazing debut album through five more studio albums, four live albums, and earning the right for some compilation albums too. The band made a huge impression on music with their distinctive style. 

That led to some huge sales for those albums too. Around 80 million copies in total. And a load of awards and platinum, gold, and silver rankings around the world too. 

Sure it’s a bit of a foregone conclusion in terms of which of those albums sold the most. But it’s interesting to see how the others fared. The ranking here is based on Dire Straits albums which have sold more than one million copies worldwide. The sales are as recorded by bestsellingalbums.org. The list also includes the band’s live and compilation albums alongside those six studio releases. 

Ranking all of Dire Straits' albums that sold more than one million units

10 - Alchemy: Dire Straits Live - 1.2 million sales

The first album on this list of million-selling albums is this great live double album from 1984. The double album was recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon a year earlier, in July 1983. The band was in fine form and had Mark Knopfler at his finger-picking prime. I thought this might have been a higher seller, but live albums often hit lower levels, with many of the songs already owned by listeners on other albums.

9 - Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler - 1.865m

The first appearance here of a compilation album. This wasn’t the first ‘Best Of’ album the band released. But by 2005 when this was came out there was the opportunity to merge in some of the best music from Knopfler's solo career. That includes “Going Home” which had already become a crossover track between the band and Knopfler and featured on Alchemy too.

8 - Love Over Gold - 2.8m

This was Dire Straits’ fourth studio album. Released in 1982 it had a slightly different feel to it from their previous releases. Some longer tracks and more instrumental sections added to that view. The album was notable for the lengthy opening track, the very atmospheric “Telegraph Road,” and also “Private Investigations”. Another song, “Private Dancer,” was originally written for this album, but Knopfler passed it on to Tina Turner. I’d love to hear how it would sound in the band's style. 

7 - Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits - 4.48m

This compilation was released in 1998 and was their second ‘Best Of’ collection at that stage. There had been a ten year gap since the first one, a decent respectable period. But perhaps still odd to see another one at that stage. It still sold in big numbers though.

6 - Money for Nothing - 4.89m

This was the first greatest hits album from Dire Straits, released in October 1988. The album covered their first five studio albums and presented an extensive selection of their biggest hit songs. Just a month earlier Knopfler had announced the end of the band which no doubt gave this one a nice sales boost.

5 - Making Movies - 5.13m

It’ll confess to being a huge Dire Straits fan and this is one of my favourite albums from them. It was their third album release when it came out in 1980.  There was a more melodic and musical style to it, some amazing songs and pure classics. “Romeo And Juliet” a super love song, “Spanish City” a brilliant rocking romp too.

4 - On Every Street - 5.3m

The band had got back together in 1990 although only Mark Knopfler and John Illsley remained from their original lineup. On Every Street came out in 1991 and was their final and sixth studio album. I can still recall the excitement of a new album from the band and queuing up to buy it in a store at the time. It wasn’t as sharp and punchy as their previous discs but it grew over time and still had some great songs.

3 - Communiqué - 7m

I often think this is the least noticed of the band's studio albums. Yet here it is as their third best seller at around seven million copies. That’s a pretty good result for a second album after a hugely successful debut record. Communique followed the style of their debut, the songs had layers of musicality and complexity. Knopfler’s guitar playing was exquisite once again. 

2 - Dire Straits - 15m

That self titled debut album from 1978. So many great tracks, “Sultans Of Swing” the obvious stand out. There was a great atmospheric feel to the whole album. Powerful songs and lyrics, immense guitar playing and riffs. It’s still an excellent and often-played album today. In second place on total sales with an astonishing 15 million for their first album.

1 - Brothers In Arms - 30m

As I said earlier, there’s no surprise this album is in top place. It was huge at the time. It’s tracks were played over and over on the airwaves. So many variations in there and some great sax sounds introduced too. “Money For Nothing” led the new MTV world of videos and had its well known guitar riff and Sting’s add on vocals. But many other songs stand out. “Your Latest Trick” is a mellow chilled pleasure for me.

There were just three of the band's albums which didn’t reach the million mark and are not listed above. Live At The Rainbow 1979 was released as part of a special collection last year. On The Night was a live release back in 1993 and Live At The BBC was a 1995 release to meet a final album contract obligation after the band had broken up.

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