Awards
September 9, 1992: “Even Better Than The Real Thing” wins Best Group Video at the MTV Music Awards.
December 9, 1992: Achtung Baby captures two awards at the Billboard Music Awards, including Number One Album Rock Track for “Mysterious Ways” and Number One Modern Rock Track for “One.” U2 wins three additional awards: Number One Album Rock Artist, Number One Modern Rock Artist and Number One Concert Tour.
February 24, 1993: Achtung Baby wins Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group at the Grammy Awards, but fails to win Album of the Year. That honor goes to Eric Clapton’s album, Unplugged. (Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois also won Grammys for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical, for their work on Achtung Baby.)
March 4, 1993: U2 takes numerous top honors in the annual Rolling Stone magazine readers poll. Achtung Baby is named Best Album and Best Album Cover, while “One” is picked as Best Single.
Album Sales Certifications
Australia: Multi-Platinum, with sales of more than 350,000.
Austria: Platinum, with sales of more than 50,000.
Brazil: Gold, with sales of more than 100,000.
Canada: Diamond, with sales of more than one million.
France: Multi-Platinum, with sales of more than 600,000.
Germany: Platinum, with sales of more than 500,000.
New Zealand: Multi-Platinum, with sales of more than 75,000.
Sweden: Platinum, with sales of more than one million.
Switzerland: Gold, with sales of more than 25,000.
United States: Multi-Platinum, with sales of more than eight million.
United Kingdom: Multi-Platinum, with sales of more than 1.2 million.
Miscellaneous
In 2001, Achtung Baby ranked 65th on VH-1’s 100 Greatest Albums of Rock ‘N’ Roll.
In December 2003, USA Today ranked Achtung Baby at No. 36 on its list of the Top 40 Albums of all-time.
In April 2006, Hot Press listed Achtung Baby at No. 21 in its 100 Greatest Albums Ever feature.
In November 2006, TIME magazine included Achtung Baby in its All-TIME 100 Albums list.
In October 2010, Spin magazine — celebrating its 25-year anniversary — named Achtung Baby the best album of the past 25 years.
In May 2012, Rolling Stone ranked Achtung Baby at No. 63 in its list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All-Time.
In 2013, Achtung Baby ranked No. 23 on Entertainment Weekly‘s “All-Time Greatest” albums list.