https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?...search_section

According to the RIAA site, Pretty Hate Machine (10/3/1989) was certified:

Gold on 3/3/1992
Platinum on 3/2/1995
2x Platinum on 9/20/1995
3x Platinum on 5/12/2003

So yeah, the bulk of those sales absolutely did not take place until well after the album had already been released for many years.