Yes, based on sales. I've been reading old Billboard magazines.
PS - Dallas and Boston also always supported Queen after 84 based on based on radio playlists. VH1... respected Queen when their LEGENDS documentary came out in the late 90's... before that, videos never got active rotation. Night Tracks or whatever in LA aired that nice interview of Freddie (the one that mentioned Bowie and Jackson) with Freddie's interviewer friend, but they totally ignored Queen videos.
Here's the kicker... MTV put Queen videos in rotation even if the songs weren't selling and didn't chart... aside from Innuendo videos when shit really hit the fan with rap and crap.
Based on radio play 1984-1991, Queen were an east coast and southern band for the USA... forget California even. A lot of their hits of the 80's weren't even on active rotation on LA radio playlists. Crazy shit. Huge in Texas, huge in Boston, active in Florida, but how could they not make it in LA?
I think Elton made a good point years ago "you have to be continually touring in the States to still sell or be relevant in any way" as he was talking about there not being much fan loyalty if you don't keep touring there as opposed to say the UK or Europe, it was something like that as it was years ago, explains why he keeps doing shows in the US. That is in my opinion why Queen lost a lot of the US in the 80s they stopped touring. Slightly a bit off topic but related to sales etc.
Shouldn't be the case touring wise, but I guess it could be true. MCR were big in 2006 but couldn't get a gold record after three years without touring in 2009. Took them 8 years to get Danger Days approved.