Anecdata alert - I grew up on the C64 in (reasonably affluent) Norway. Everybody and their dog had the C64.
For quite a while, I only knew of one household in addition to mine which had a 1541 to go along with it - when I wanted to, ahem, exchange evaluation copies of software with friends, I had to copy it onto tape.
IIRC, a 1541 retailed at 2/3 of the price of a C64. You could buy an awful lot of tape for the money you saved on going with a tape drive instead.
For quite a while, I only knew of one household in addition to mine which had a 1541 to go along with it - when I wanted to, ahem, exchange evaluation copies of software with friends, I had to copy it onto tape.
IIRC, a 1541 retailed at 2/3 of the price of a C64. You could buy an awful lot of tape for the money you saved on going with a tape drive instead.