The Grateful Dead Closes Out 2025 With Yet Another Bestselling Album
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BusinessHollywood & EntertainmentThe Grateful Dead Closes Out 2025 With Yet Another Bestselling AlbumByHugh McIntyre,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Hugh McIntyre covers music, with a focus on the global charts.Follow AuthorDec 15, 2025, 11:00am ESTThe Grateful Dead's new release The Warfield immediately becomes another bestseller for the band on a Billboard chart — the group's ninth of 2025.
The Grateful Dead, 1970 (clockwise): Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Mickey Hart and Jerry Garcia during the Music File Photos - The 1970s - by Chris Walter at the Music File Photos 1970's in Various Cities, United Kingdom. (PWireImageDespite the fact that the Grateful Dead officially split 30 years ago in 1995, the jam band has proved to be one of the most successful acts on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart in 2025. The group has scored more new placements on the tally throughout the calendar year than perhaps any other artist, as live recordings and re-releases of popular favorites have all become bestsellers for at least a short time.
The Grateful Dead took part in Record Store Day’s Black Friday 2025 celebration, delivering The Warfield, San Francisco, CA Oct. 4 & 6, 1980, another in an extremely long line of live albums. Superfans of the outfit turn essentially everything released into a top performer, and the troupe scores a new chart win in America as its latest offering debuts.The Grateful Dead’s The Warfield Debuts as a BestsellerThe Warfield — for short — opens on the Top Album Sales chart at No. 30. The list ranks the bestselling projects, either EPs or full-lengths, in the U.S., and the tally factors in both digital downloads as well as purchases on CD, cassette, and especially vinyl.
The Grateful Dead’s latest sold just under 6,150 copies during its first tracking frame of availability, per Luminate.The Grateful Dead’s Record Store Day ContributionUNSPECIFIED - JANUARY 01: Photo of GRATEFUL DEAD (Photo by Gems/Redferns)RedfernsThe Grateful Dead was one of dozens of well-known musical acts that released something special for fans to purchase in record stores around the world as part of Record Store Day’s semiannual event. The Warfield was released as a double LP and also a two-CD collection, and the collection features acoustic sets recorded in 1980 on the specified dates at The Warfield in San Francisco. No other band has been quite as successful when it comes to selling live albums, and The Warfield once again shows that there is an intense demand for any piece of music from the long-defunct outfit.MORE FOR YOUThe Grateful Dead Celebrate a Prolific 2025Throughout 2025, the Grateful Dead has debuted nine different projects on the Top Album Sales chart. Half of those sets have cracked the top 10, and a pair even missed out on adding to the group’s list of champions by just one space. Four installments in the treasured Dave’s Picks series entered inside the uppermost region, as Volumes 54 (officially titled Dave's Picks Volume 54: Baltimore Civic Center, Baltimore, MD - 3/26/73) and 53 (Dave's Picks, Volume 53: Riverfront Coliseum, Cincinnati, OH - 10/2/76) both peaked at No. 2. Members of the rock group Grateful Dead are Bill Kreutzman (striped shirt), Jerry Garcia (black shirt and jacket), Mickey Hart ("God is Sound" T-shirt), Phil Lesh (white T-shirt), Bob Weir (Duke sweatshirt), and Brent Mydland. (Photo by © Roger Ressmeyer/CORBIS/VCG via Getty Images)Corbis/VCG via Getty ImagesDave's Picks, Vol. 56: Rainbow Theatre, London, England, 3/20/81 & 3/21/81 and Dave's Picks, Volume 55: Le Zenith, Paris, France - 10/28/90 climbed to Nos. 3 and 4 respectively. A fiftieth anniversary deluxe edition of Blues for Allah also opened at No. 8.The Warfield Becomes One of the Lower-Peaking New Wins of 2025Among all nine titles by the Grateful Dead that have broken onto the Top Album Sales chart in just 2025 alone, The Warfield stands out as the second-lowest peaking.
Only Greatest Hits, which finally appeared on the roster recently years after its release, came in lower, as it lifted to No. 35. Two other efforts — The Music Never Stopped and Beacon Theatre - New York, NY - June 14, 1976 — peaked at Nos. 19 and 27 respectively.The Grateful Dead Dominate Billboard’s Sales ChartThe Grateful Dead has now accumulated an astounding 136 appearances on the Top Album Sales chart. 49 of those projects have earned at least a single stay inside the top 10, and amazingly, only one release has ruled the ranking. Dave’s Picks, Volume 49 debuted at No. 1 in February 2024, ascending above the 10 releases that have missed the mark by just one spot.Editorial StandardsReprints & PermissionsLOADING VIDEO PLAYER...FORBES’ FEATURED Video