released at midnight on september 17, 1991, the "use your illusion" albums were among the most anticipated in rock history. predictions in the industry were of sales reaching the likes of michael jackson's "thriller" and bruce springsteen's "born in the u.s.a.", this despite the fact that major stores k-mart and walmart refused to stock the albums due to the profanity present. estimates suggested that over 500,000 copies of the two albums were sold in just 2 hours. both albums ultimately underperformed expectations domestically but were still commercially successful, with "use your illusion i" selling 5,502,000 and both being certified 7x platinum by the riaa. "use your illusion i" debuted below "use your illusion ii" mainly due to the fact that the second album contained the main lead single of the two albums "you could be mine".