‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is now the most streamed track from the 20th century

Queen’s six-minute classic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ has, since its mid-70s release, marked out its claim as being one of the highest selling rock tracks of all time.

It’s sold 6 million physical copies and was the UK’s third best selling single of all time after returning to the charts a number of times.

In Australia it reached #1 in 1976, then #5 when its sequence in Wayne’s World brought it to another generation, and now again in the wake of the Freddie Mercury biopic of the same name.

This week the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack is at #2 on the ARIA Albums Chart with Queen’s Greatest Hits at #3.

Also this week, the band’s record company Universal Music Group announced that the song is officially the most-streamed track from the 20th century having generated more than 1.6 billion global streams.

It is also the most-streamed classic rock song of all time. In the US alone, it hit 13.3 million streams by last month.

Queen guitarist and founding member Brian May quipped, “So the River of Rock Music has metamorphosed into streams!

“Very happy that our music is still flowing to the max!”

Added Lucian Grainge, chairman and CEO of UMG: “‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is one the greatest songs by one of the greatest bands in history.

“We are so proud to represent Queen and are thrilled to see the song still inspiring new fans around the world more than four decades after its release.

“My congratulations to Queen and [manager] Jim Beach on an incredible achievement that is a testament to the enduring brilliance of Queen.”

In taking the top spot, the song pulled ahead of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, Guns N’ Roses’s ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘November Rain’, as well as A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’.

The movie Bohemian Rhapsody became the highest-grossing music biopic in history five weeks after its release.

It has now taken $US596.1 million at the global box office, according to Twentieth Century Fox.