"promise" became the band's first album to reach number one on the us "billboard" 200, spending two weeks at the peak position. by september 1988, "promise" had sold one million copies in the united states, and on 23 july 1997, it was certified quadruple platinum by the recording industry association of america (riaa) for shipments in excess of four million copies. when sade's sixth studio album, "soldier of love", topped the top r&b/hip-hop albums chart in 2010, the group set the record for the longest gap between number-one albums on the chart ("promise" and "soldier of love" were separated by 23 years, 10 months and 2 weeks). the album has sold 983,000 copies in the united states since the introduction of nielsen soundscan albums.