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. 2010 – Adele – Rolling In The Deep [21] – 20,600,000
2. 2010 – Maroon 5 ft. Christina Aguilera – Moves Like Jagger [Hands All Over] – 20,140,000
3. 2008 – Lady Gaga – Poker Face [The Fame] – 20,110,000
4. 2010 – Eminem ft. Rihanna – Love the Way You Lie [Recovery] – 18,650,000
5. 2009 – Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling [The E.N.D.] – 17,700,000
6. 2011 – Adele – Someone Like You [21] – 17,350,000
7. 2014 – Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk [Uptown Special] – 17,030,000
8. 2010 – Bruno Mars – Just the Way You Are [Doo-Wops & Hooligans] – 16,190,000
9. 2002 – Eminem – Lose Yourself [8 Mile] – 15,930,000
10. 2013 – Various Artists – Let It Go [Frozen] – 15,540,000
11. 2009 – Black Eyed Peas – Boom Boom Pow [The E.N.D.] – 14,350,000
12. 2008 – Coldplay – Viva La Vida [Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends] – 14,240,000
13. 2012 – Maroon 5 ft. Wiz Khalifa – Payphone [Overexposed] – 14,000,000
14. 2008 – Lady Gaga ft. Colby O’Donis – Just Dance [The Fame] – 13,630,000
15. 2012 – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Wanz – Thrift Shop [The Heist] – 13,360,000
16. 1981 – Journey – Don’t Stop Believin’ [Escape] – 13,140,000
17. 2008 – Beyoncé – Halo [I Am… Sasha Fierce] – 13,120,000
18. 2010 – Katy Perry – Firework [Teenage Dream] – 12,820,000
19. 2011 – Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris – We Found Love [Talk That Talk] – 12,690,000
20. 2010 – Bruno Mars – Grenade [Doo-Wops & Hooligans] – 12,470,000
21. 2007 – Rihanna ft. Jay-Z – Umbrella [Good Girl Gone Bad] – 12,400,000
22. 2008 – Taylor Swift – Love Story [Fearless] – 12,310,000
23. 2009 – Lady Gaga – Bad Romance [The Fame Monster] – 12,240,000
24. 2012 – Imagine Dragons – Radioactive [Night Visions] – 12,100,000
25. 2010 – Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris – Baby [My Worlds] – 12,070,000
26. 2008 – Beyoncé – Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) [I Am… Sasha Fierce] – 11,930,000
27. 2008 – Katy Perry – I Kissed A Girl [One Of The Boys] – 11,810,000
28. 2008 – Katy Perry – Hot N Cold [One Of The Boys] – 11,790,000
29. 2013 – Katy Perry – Roar [Prism] – 11,750,000
30. 2007 – Avril Lavigne – Girlfriend [The Best Damn Thing] – 11,630,000
31. 2010 – Eminem – Not Afraid [Recovery] – 11,610,000
32. 2014 – Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud [x (Multiply)] – 11,430,000
33. 2006 – Justin Timberlake ft. Timbaland – SexyBack [FutureSex/LoveSounds] – 11,310,000
34. 2015 – Adele – Hello [25] – 11,270,000
35. 2006 – Beyoncé – Irreplaceable [B’Day] – 11,140,000
36. 2013 – Avicii – Wake Me Up [True] – 11,120,000
37. 2005 – Shakira ft. Wyclef Jean – Hips Don’t Lie / Sera Sera [Oral Fixation, Vol. 2] – 11,080,000
38. 2010 – Katy Perry ft. Snoop Dogg – California Gurls [Teenage Dream] – 11,060,000
39. 2009 – Jay-Z ft. Alicia Keys – Empire State Of Mind [The Blueprint 3] – 10,900,000
40. 2012 – Bruno Mars – Locked Out of Heaven [Unorthodox Jukebox] – 10,850,000
41. 2012 – Maroon 5 – One More Night [Overexposed] – 10,650,000
42. 2008 – Rihanna – Take A Bow [Good Girl Gone Bad] – 10,480,000
43. 2011 – Lady Gaga – Born This Way [Born This Way] – 10,330,000
44. 2011 – Adele – Set Fire To The Rain [21] – 10,040,000
45. 2012 – Bruno Mars – When I Was Your Man [Unorthodox Jukebox] – 9,950,000
46. 2011 – Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ft. Ray Dalton – Can’t Hold Us [The Heist] – 9,800,000
47. 2014 – Taylor Swift – Shake It Off [1989] – 9,720,000
48. 1994 – Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You [Merry Christmas] – 9,600,000
49. 2013 – Katy Perry ft. Juicy J – Dark Horse [Prism] – 9,470,000
50. 2009 – Lady Gaga ft. Beyoncé – Telephone [The Fame Monster] – 9,460,000
Hey chartmasters, June 26 marks the ariana grande’s 28th anniversary. She sets major records in the music industry and is one of the most successful female artist of all time.
In celebration of that can u please update her career sales and streaming total?
She might be in the future but dont think she is right now. In this list alone there are 24 women above her. And that doesnt include acts that havent been studied yet like Diana Ross, Olivia Newton John, Donna Summer, etc. Which would probably pass her too.
Hej. MJD did a comprehensive analysis of Bob Dylan’s sales 20/10.2016, week after Dylan won the Nobel literature prize, background work had probably been done over the years.
The Nobel is the prestigious award in the world. Dylan climbed in one fell swoop with Faulkner, Heminway, Steinbeck, into heavy weight series.
Dylan is said to have earned royalties up to $20 million per year, much from cover versions, Feel my love, Watchtower, Heavens door..
It would be nice to have an estimate of Dylan own current sales.
In “Discogs” Dylan is “most collected” artist before Beatles and David Bowie.
https://chartmasters.org/2016/10/cspc-bob-dylan-popularity-analysis/
Isn’t this his sales?
I don’t think it would’ve changed by a significant amount since 2016. Especially coz streams are automatically updated.
That gets $ 15-20 million royalties per year, needs to sell quite nicely. Dylan made biggest deal ever 12/2020, amount was 400 $ million only publishing rights. Premium-rate stuff. Hardly record company charity does.
“Update Bob Dylan” is better than “Update Ariana Grande”, that said I don’t see why he should be a priority over The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd…etc.
I think an update on legacy acts should be done when an artist’s total rises enough to ensure a rise of a couple of places (or just 1 in the top 10) on the all-time best sellers list or a significant rise for a huge album. That would allow Fleetwood Mac (Rumours!), AC/DC, Bob Marley or maybe Nirvana or Oasis to be updated sooner than Beatles, Floyd or Zep, although I would like to see them be updated as well
Let me tell you one thing. Led Zeppelin royalties 2011-2016 was 58,5 dollars to 12 million per year. That is 5 year. Dylan royalties was up to 20 million per year. Many of the bands you mentions are dead. Dylan “Rough ways” realisead last year and was number one in USA, UK, Germany.. really global success. Dylan still going strong.
I’m not denying this (haven’t said anything about Dylan), but in absolute numbers, he’s not increasing that much and doesn’t have really big albums to be updated, that’s all
So he had one album last year that sold, what, 300k ? Who cares, albums like Dark Side Of The Moon, Abbey Road or Rumours sell more than that every year, not to mention their massive streaming numbers.
And Led Zeppelin’s catalog is obviously much more popular than Dylan’s. Those “$58.5m in royalties” have to do with Stairway To Heaven, and as you said yourself Dylan’s royalties have a lot to do with covers (Adele, Hendrix, Guns N Roses…etc.).
Red Hot Chilly Peppers sold publishing rights to Hipgnosis Merck Mercuriadis, most hated man business (cause he pay more than others). Chilly Peppers royalties per year was 5-6 million dollars and normal factor is 5-20, but they got 23, and 23×6= 140 million dollars. And remember Led Zeppelin annual royalties is average 12 million dollars. I looked through the European album charts. +UK and Germany, France, Netherland, Italy, Spain Sweden almost every country. Led Zeppelin last entries end just in 2016. Zeppelin Oricon charts was very strong and records was big, expencive boxs. Oasis, almost nothing but Music Week’s UK… Read more »
ok
wayyy too wrong. Dark Horse sold less than Hot N Cold and I Kissed a Girl 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Adele with the best-selling single, even digitally, in 2017 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
https://chartmasters.org/2019/06/katy-perry-albums-and-songs-sales/
Actually no. Dark horse is bigger than hot n cold as per this website. Also Dark Horse is still growing faster than Hot N Cold and it will only move further and bigger than Hot N Cold. Plus, according to Youtube views. I Kissed A Girl total official video youtube views all 220 million while Hot N Cold are at 1 billion already. So if anybody is wrong here it is u.