"Chop Suey!" Is Diamond, and Heavy Music's Entire RIAA Diamond Club Is Five Songs Certified in 30 Months

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 14:20:44 +0000

System of a Down’s 2001 single peaked at #76, got pulled from radio after 9/11 and never sold ten million of anything. On August 28 it became the fifth heavy song ever to hit RIAA Diamond. The other four got there since February 2024. That timing is the whole story.

What Diamond actually counts

Diamond is the RIAA’s ten million mark. For most of its life that meant ten million copies sold, which is why the club was built out of Whitney Houston and Elton John and almost nothing with a distorted guitar in it. Then the RIAA folded downloads and streams into the count, and “ten million units” stopped describing a purchase and started describing a habit. A song can get there now without a physical copy changing hands in years.

'Chop Suey!' Goes Diamond: The Heavy Songs That Sold 10 Million in the US, and What They Share

Sat, 12 Sep 2026 13:56:13 +0000

On August 28 the RIAA certified System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!” Diamond, a week before Toxicity turned 25. The heavy songs at that level fit on one hand, and what they have in common has very little to do with 2001.

A Friday in August, one week before the birthday

On Friday, August 28, 2026, the RIAA certified “Chop Suey!” as a Diamond single: 10 million units in the United States, counting sales, downloads and streams together. It is the first Diamond single in System of a Down’s catalog. The same batch of certifications moved Toxicity up to 7× Platinum, and everything landed a few days before the album turned 25 on September 4. WMMR and Metal Injection carried the news on September 1.

Disturbed on Real Rock Lab

"Chop Suey!" Is Diamond, and Heavy Music's Entire RIAA Diamond Club Is Five Songs Certified in 30 Months

What Diamond actually counts

'Chop Suey!' Goes Diamond: The Heavy Songs That Sold 10 Million in the US, and What They Share

A Friday in August, one week before the birthday