Artists Ranking – CSPC – Total per decade
Here is the sum of all the value released by the artists during each decade. The figures are given in EAS (equivalent album sales).
Please keep in mind that some artists are missing, because their analysis has not been done yet. The complete list is available here. All figures reflect the value as collected at the time of the artist’s respective articles.
1950s
1. Elvis Presley – 127,149,000
1960s
1. The Beatles – 376,924,000
2. Elvis Presley – 131,658,000
3. The Rolling Stones – 110,801,000
4. Simon & Garfunkel – 89,796,000
5. Bob Dylan – 72,934,000
6. The Doors – 72,455,000
7. Led Zeppelin – 57,592,000
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival – 52,246,000
9. Barbra Streisand – 31,384,000
10. Johnny Hallyday – 29,793,000
11. Bee Gees – 27,358,000
12. Pink Floyd – 21,773,000
13. Stevie Wonder – 17,580,000
14. Santana – 16,834,000
15. Cher – 14,854,000
1970s
1. Pink Floyd – 171,695,000
2. Eagles – 163,422,000
3. Led Zeppelin – 138,828,000
4. Queen – 129,623,000
5. Elton John – 129,344,000
6. Abba – 125,972,000
7. Rod Stewart & Faces – 108,674,000
8. Bob Marley – 107,997,000
9. Bee Gees – 104,914,000
10. Fleetwood Mac – 95,398,000
11. Santana – 75,660,000
12. The Rolling Stones – 73,368,000
13. Billy Joel – 72,103,000
14. David Bowie – 68,914,000
15. AC/DC – 67,824,000
16. Paul McCartney – 65,482,000
17. Stevie Wonder – 63,036,000
18. Black Sabbath – 62,946,000
19. Aerosmith – 60,765,000
20. Supertramp – 58,979,000
1980s
1. Michael Jackson – 181,681,000
2. Madonna – 131,613,000
3. Phil Collins – 119,105,000
4. U2 – 111,861,000
5. Queen – 107,789,000
6. Prince – 93,149,000
7. AC/DC – 84,857,000
8. Bruce Springsteen – 82,382,000
9. Bon Jovi – 79,146,000
10. George Michael & Wham! – 69,617,000
11. Dire Straits – 67,720,000
12. The Police – 64,978,000
13. Metallica – 64,948,000
14. Billy Joel – 62,280,000
15. Journey – 61,102,000
16. Van Halen – 60,076,000
17. Guns N’ Roses – 58,419,000
18. Whitney Houston – 56,494,000
19. Sade – 46,991,000
20. Bryan Adams – 46,495,000
1990s
1. Celine Dion – 160,090,000
2. Mariah Carey – 144,462,000
3. Garth Brooks – 108,309,000
4. Whitney Houston – 88,381,000
5. Nirvana – 80,179,000
6. Michael Jackson – 78,755,000
7. Metallica – 75,261,000
8. Backstreet Boys – 74,905,000
9. Madonna – 66,562,000
10. Shania Twain – 65,863,000
11. Guns N’ Roses – 56,524,000
12. Red Hot Chili Peppers – 55,552,000
13. Alanis Morissette – 50,237,000
14. Oasis – 47,347,000
15. Spice Girls – 47,339,000
16. Green Day – 44,616,000
17. The Cranberries – 42,810,000
18. U2 – 42,021,000
19. TLC – 38,447,000
20. Sting – 37,855,000
2000s
1. Eminem – 123,624,000
2. Linkin Park – 67,608,000
3. Coldplay – 66,326,000
4. Britney Spears – 62,135,000
5. Beyoncé – 50,503,000
6. Pink – 48,326,000
7. Norah Jones – 48,153,000
8. Robbie Williams – 47,775,000
9. Nickelback – 46,375,000
10. Black Eyed Peas – 45,631,000
11. Alicia Keys – 43,142,000
12. Michael Bublé – 42,346,000
13. Ayumi Hamasaki – 40,263,000
14. U2 – 38,338,000
15. Madonna – 37,931,000
16. Avril Lavigne – 36,931,000
17. Rihanna – 36,818,000
18. Lady Gaga – 35,949,000
19. Usher – 34,775,000
20. Shakira – 34,227,000
2010s
1. Adele – 73,356,000
2. Justin Bieber – 66,066,000
3. Taylor Swift – 61,511,000
4. Ed Sheeran – 61,066,000
5. Rihanna – 55,886,000
6. Bruno Mars – 52,339,000
7. Drake – 52,256,000
8. BTS – 49,048,000
9. One Direction – 44,466,000
10. Eminem – 38,691,000
11. Maroon 5 – 37,803,000
12. Katy Perry – 35,012,000
13. The Weeknd – 34,942,000
14. Ariana Grande – 33,108,000
15. Lady Gaga – 30,122,000
16. Post Malone – 28,844,000
17. Coldplay – 28,500,000
18. Kendrick Lamar – 26,660,000
19. Imagine Dragons – 24,676,000
20. Selena Gomez – 23,749,000
2020s
1. BTS – 7,737,000
2. The Weeknd – 4,070,000
3. Justin Bieber – 3,462,000
4. Taylor Swift – 3,181,000
5. Dua Lipa – 2,884,000
6. Lady Gaga – 2,249,000
7. Selena Gomez – 1,958,000
I don’t believe Metallica’s Black album has outsold Guns ‘n’ Roses Appetite for Destruction.
Thank you for your contribution.
Will Taylor‘s rerecordings make her the winner in the race for the 100 Million in the 21st century?
Nah eminem has sold more records
Eminem debuted in the 90s though
Bahaha what!? Taylor has sold more Albums & Digital Singles than Eminem just in the US ALONE!
RIAA Certified Albums:
Eminem – 64.5m
Taylor – 64m (and that’s not including Any Album sales from 2018 to Today, Big Machine refuses to have them audited or allow her to she’s been due to pass him for years they’ve been back to back unmoving)
RIAA Digital Singles:
Taylor – 134m (3rd most and again without any sales from 2018 to Today and she is due for more diamond certifications)
Eminem – 107.5m (6th he’s recieved certification in 2020 & 2021)
Eminem has 20m plus us albums yet to be certified
Certifications are out of date for most artists. Labels have to choose to update them, and most don’t. It’s not automatic like in some countries. So certifications only show the MINIMUM sales of an artists, not the total sales.
I think Coldplay and Rihanna were already over 100 Million before her
if you update the pure sales of the 3 of them Taylor Swift is already at 100m while Coldplay and Rihanna are around 99.5m currently
This is over 4yrs old so
Eminem obviously crushed everybody during the 21st century with 175 million EAS. Then you have Coldplay, Rihanna and Taylor with a respectable total of 100 million.
Is there any act who could break the top 5 best selling digital single artist? Maybe Kanye West?? In top 10 maybe Nicki Minaj?
If you have time, please update Blackpink’s! It’s been quite a while since the last update. Thank you!
I think they haven’t been studied since not that many album releases yet and there are obviously older acts who sold more and are in need to be studied more. It would be cool if they were added though, since they are pretty big when it comes to streaming
Shouldn’t Sting and The Police totals be combined ? Considering “Rod Stewart & Faces”, “George Michael & Wham”, Bon Jovi’s total including Jon’s solo album… I mean, Sting basically WAS The Police, writing the songs and singing them.
I disagree they are two distinct and separate acts, I also disagree with Rod Stewart & Faces being combined.
I think Bon Jovi is different because Jon’s album sold because he was in Bon Jovi and all they did was add three letter before the bands name.
And its impossible to split George Michael and Wham! because there are solo Michael works on Wham! albums and George Michael compilations that dont contain Wham! songs still contain those songs
Was wondering have you guys considered adding a devoted page to a running list of best-selling compilation albums for artists that have been studied? Would be nice to have as a reference since they get excluded out from the Studio Albums page.
And now Paul Simon has sold publishing rights to Sony’s for 200 $ million. Fleetwood Mac (Lyndsey Buckinham and Steve Nicks), Richie Sambora (Bon Jovis), Dylan, Neil Young, Ryan Tedder (200 $ million) and now P.Simon and many others songwrites have recieved hundres million dollars in compensation for their work. Biggest deal at this time Bob Dylan’s 400 $ millions. But i think that Madonna and many others pop singers finds difficult to sell her or his music, cause of the songwrites as many as ten. Beyonce Lemonades record had about 40 authors(! )said Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis. The authentic… Read more »
Business is changing. Hipgnosis founder Merck Mercuriadis has been great gift to songwriters, who are most important in the business. Spotify payment to artists and expecially the songwrites is non-existent. Now Dylan, Young, Paul Simon, Calvin Harris, Ryan Tedder, Fleerwood Mac, Shakira and dozens others got a decent reward for their work. 80-400 $ million ballpark. Spotify is rude and the most important thing for them is to make money. Founder Daniel Ek net worth 4,5 billion dollars and his friends in Spotify are billionaires too. This seam was struck by this Mr. Mercuradius. For him music is most important… Read more »
I would like do you all count/esitmate Apple Music US streaming data, because it’s A LOT of affect for US charts?
Hi Tommy!
There’s an article on them already. Of course it would be great to include them, but it’s their choice to hide their numbers.
i think Lana needs an update… she released two albums since her article was last updated