Well when it's put like that it's obvious that worldwide means "everywhere except the US", but generally worldwide is all over the world and would include the US
It helps them sleep at night to pretend the US isn't a part of the world (let alone the single biggest, most important market in Western mainstream music) when it comes to certain acts vs. other acts. It's stupid and transparent af, but let them have it.
Worldwide is every part of the world. However when you're comparing sales or things like those, when someone says "worldwide" it refers to everywhere else except the country you're on.
For example, whenever I say worldwide I refer to every country except Mexico.
For some reason a lot of the people base artists' success solely on the U.S and even though it's the most important music market, others exists as well.
And it's no secret that certain musicians haven't had much success outside the U.S as their peers.
Well when it's put like that it's obvious that worldwide means "everywhere except the US", but generally worldwide is all over the world and would include the US