Best selling artists, albums and singles of all-time
Tracks Ranking – Raw sales – Digital singles
All sales made through legal platforms are considered, as well as ringtones. The figures given here are units sold.
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.
1. 2011 – LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett & GoonRock – Party Rock Anthem [Sorry for Party Rocking] – 20,950,000
2. 2011 – Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – Moves Like Jagger [Hands All Over] – 20,790,000
3. 2010 – Adele – Rolling In The Deep [21] – 20,680,000
4. 2008 – Jason Mraz – I’m Yours [We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things.] – 19,670,000
5. 2009 – Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling [The E.N.D.] – 19,470,000
6. 2009 – Lady Gaga – Poker Face [The Fame] – 19,300,000
7. 2010 – Eminem ft. Rihanna – Love the Way You Lie [Recovery] – 18,890,000
8. 2011 – Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe [Kiss] – 18,490,000
9. 2009 – Kesha – Tik Tok [Animal] – 17,410,000
10. 2014 – Pharrell Williams – Happy [Girl / Despicable Me 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] – 17,270,000
11. 2011 – Adele – Someone Like You [21] – 17,240,000
12. 2010 – Bruno Mars – Just the Way You Are [Doo-Wops & Hooligans] – 17,030,000
13. 2012 – PSY – Gangnam Style [Psy 6 (Six Rules), Part 1] – 16,850,000
14. 2014 – Various Artists – Let It Go [Frozen] – 16,350,000
15. 2007 – Flo Rida ft. T-Pain – Low [Mail on Sunday / Step Up 2: The Streets] – 16,330,000
16. 2014 – Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk [Uptown Special] – 16,310,000
17. 2002 – Eminem – Lose Yourself [8 Mile] – 15,480,000
18. 2013 – Robin Thicke ft. Pharrell & T.I. – Blurred Lines [Blurred Lines] – 15,190,000
19. 2011 – Gotye ft. Kimbra – Somebody That I Used to Know [Making Mirrors] – 15,110,000
20. 2009 – Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow [The E.N.D.] – 15,010,000
21. 2008 – Coldplay – Viva La Vida [Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends] – 14,240,000
22. 2012 – Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – Payphone [Overexposed] – 14,000,000
23. 2007 – Timbaland & OneRepublic – Apologize [Shock Value] – 13,830,000
24. 2008 – Lady Gaga ft. Colby O’Donis – Just Dance [The Fame] – 13,490,000
25. 2012 – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Wanz – Thrift Shop [The Heist] – 13,360,000
26. 1981 – Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ [Escape] – 13,140,000
27. 2011 – LMFAO – Sexy & I Know It [Sorry for Party Rocking] – 12,920,000
28. 2010 – Katy Perry – Firework [Teenage Dream] – 12,820,000
29. 2011 – Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – We Found Love [Talk That Talk] – 12,690,000
30. 2012 – Imagine Dragons – Radioactive [Night Visions] – 12,610,000
31. 2010 – Bruno Mars – Grenade [Doo-Wops & Hooligans] – 12,470,000
32. 2007 – Rihanna ft. Jay-Z – Umbrella [Good Girl Gone Bad] – 12,400,000
33. 2011 – Fun. ft. Janelle Monáe – We Are Young [Some Nights] – 12,390,000
34. 2008 – Taylor Swift – Love Story [Fearless] – 12,310,000
35. 2009 – Lady Gaga – Bad Romance [The Fame Monster] – 12,240,000
36. 2008 – Beyoncé – Halo [I Am… Sasha Fierce] – 12,180,000
37. 2013 – John Legend – All of Me [Love in the Future] – 11,940,000
38. 2010 – Eminem – Not Afraid [Recovery] – 11,820,000
39. 2008 – Katy Perry – I Kissed A Girl [One Of The Boys] – 11,810,000
40. 2008 – Katy Perry – Hot N Cold [One Of The Boys] – 11,790,000
41. 2013 – Katy Perry – Roar [Prism] – 11,750,000
42. 2014 – Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud [x (Multiply)] – 11,750,000
43. 2007 – Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend [The Best Damn Thing] – 11,630,000
44. 2008 – Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) [I Am… Sasha Fierce] – 11,420,000
45. 2009 – Train – Hey, Soul Sister [Save Me, San Francisco] – 11,320,000
46. 2006 – Justin Timberlake ft. Timbaland – SexyBack [FutureSex/LoveSounds] – 11,310,000
47. 2015 – Adele – Hello [25] – 11,280,000
48. 2010 – Taio Cruz – Dynamite [Rockstarr] – 11,180,000
49. 2013 – Avicii – Wake Me Up [True] – 11,120,000
50. 2005 – Shakira ft. Wyclef Jean – Hips Don’t Lie / Sera Sera [Oral Fixation, Vol. 2] – 11,080,000
51. 2010 – Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg – California Gurls [Teenage Dream] – 11,060,000
52. 2009 – Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind [The Blueprint 3] – 10,900,000
53. 2012 – Bruno Mars – Locked Out of Heaven [Unorthodox Jukebox] – 10,850,000
54. 2006 – Beyoncé – Irreplaceable [B’Day] – 10,700,000
55. 2012 – Maroon 5 – One More Night [Overexposed] – 10,650,000
56. 2010 – Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris – Baby [My Worlds] – 10,610,000
57. 2008 – Rihanna – Take A Bow [Good Girl Gone Bad] – 10,480,000
58. 2010 – Cee Lo Green – Fuck You [The Lady Killer] – 10,330,000
58. 2011 – Lady Gaga – Born This Way [Born This Way] – 10,330,000
60. 2011 – Adele – Set Fire To The Rain [21] – 10,030,000
61. 2012 – Bruno Mars – When I Was Your Man [Unorthodox Jukebox] – 9,950,000
62. 2015 – Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – See You Again [Furious 7: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] – 9,920,000
63. 2014 – Taylor Swift – Shake It Off [1989] – 9,840,000
64. 2011 – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton – Can’t Hold Us [The Heist] – 9,800,000
65. 1994 – Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You [Merry Christmas] – 9,600,000
66. 2010 – Lady Gaga ft. Beyoncé – Telephone [The Fame / The Fame Monster] – 9,510,000
67. 2013 – Katy Perry ft. Juicy J – Dark Horse [Prism] – 9,470,000
68. 2017 – Ed Sheeran – Shape of You [÷ (Divide)] – 9,360,000
69. 2010 – Black Eyed Peas – The Time (Dirty Bit) [The Beginning] – 9,300,000
69. 2007 – Alicia Keys – No One [As I Am] – 9,300,000
69. 2013 – Lorde – Royals [Pure Heroine] – 9,300,000
72. 2014 – Meghan Trainor – All About That Bass [Title] – 9,260,000
73. 2014 – Maroon 5 – Sugar [V] – 9,200,000
74. 2012 – Rihanna – Diamonds [Unapologetic] – 9,130,000
75. 2012 – P!nk ft. Nate Ruess – Just Give Me a Reason [The Truth About Love] – 9,110,000
Sandy & Júnior is a brasilian duo, sold more than 2,5 million Records with “As quatro estações “ in 1999. In 2000 sold more than 3 million with “as quatro estações ao vivo”..
If the daily gains (Av and LD) are an indicator, and I extrapolate them with rounded figures for the top albums EAS, the top 20 would look something like this in 10 years: 1. Thriller 130 2. Hotel California 76 3. SNF 75 4. Rumours 72 5. Bad 71 6. Nevermind 69 7. Back in Black 68 8. 21 66 9. DSOTM 63 10. IV 62 11. Bodyguard 58 11. Grease 58 11. The Wall 58 11. SWW 58 15. AfD 57 15. Metallica 57 17. Eminem Show 54 18. Joshua Tree 53 18. The Fame / Monster 53 20.… Read more »
It’s nice to see some “newer” albums possibly entering the top spots. Adele top 10, and Lady Gaga and Eminem top 20. The top of the lists are finally changing!
And who knows how close 1989 and Divide will be by then!
1989 will be around 50m or probably higher given tht its doing 8000 daily right now and its rerecording is coming soon
That’s definitely possible, but the LD’S of newer albums are changing more than older albums, so it’s even more speculating to predict their future numbers.
I believe that today there is an error for the daily streaming for The Joshua Tree (U2), yesterday it reported 2,011,000 streams with a daily stream of 1,160 strams and today instead always 2,011,000 streams with a daily stream of only 140, therefore still less than War, The Unforgettable Fire, Rattle And Hum, Achtung Baby and All That You Can’t Leave Behind.
There is an error in today’s stream numbers for …And Justice for All (Metallica)
Hello.
Can you check the sales for singer Anastacia? Her self-titled album seems to have sold circa 10 M in Europe in 2004, being allegedly the second most successful album behind Usher’s confession.
Thank you!
It’s only 3x platinum in Europe… Her best selling album sold maybe 5 million worldwide, she had zero success in the US which is kinda weird considering she’s American!
In a few hours Nevermind replaces in eighth place current album The Dark side of the moon.
i noticed that maybe there are some errors for physical singles of some artists like Sting & Police, Metallica, U2, so maybe their total of their physical singles in their CSPC articles where there is also streaming might change, check it out I await your reply.
Of the artists studied so far, how many have sold more than 100 million albums (all types) outside the United States?
Off the top of my head there are the obvious candidates like The Beatles, Queen, MJ, Pink Floyd, Madonna, The Stones etc. U2 might sneak it?
Are there any others I’ve missed?
Cheers!
Maybe Celine Dion and Abba have also managed?
Approximately :
The Beatles 170m
MJ 155m
Queen 145m
Madonna 130m
Pink Floyd 125m
ABBA 110m
Céline Dion 110m
Rolling Stones 110m
U2 105m
Cheers! Quite a select group…
When will Melanie Martinez be on the list? She definitely has enough sales and streams…
She has sold about 6-7M albums. I doubt she even has enough for a light article.
I’m sorry, but there is an article about Zara Larsson who is in the same league as Melanie Martinez. I doubt I deserved the dislike for what I was saying. She deserves to be on the list.
its obvious that Paramore have at least +15million albums sales worldwide….they have like 60 million singles too, why not update??? 😓