IFPI 2004 Best Selling Albums
1 Usher – Confessions – 12 000 000
2 Norah Jones – Feels Like Home – 9 700 000
3 Eminem – Encore – 9 000 000
4 U2 – How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb – 8 500 000
5 Avril Lavigne – Under My Skin – 6 500 000
6 Robbie Williams – Greatest Hits – 5 600 000
7 Shania Twain – Greatest Hits – 5 400 000
8 Destiny’s Child – Destiny Fulfilled – 5 000 000
9 Guns N’ Roses – Greatest Hits – 4 900 000
10 Maroon 5 – Songs About Jane – 4 900 000
11 Green Day – American Idiot – 4 700 000
12 Black Eyed Peas – Elephunk – 4 400 000
13 Britney Spears – Greatest Hits: My Prerogative – 4 400 000
14 Gretchen Wilson – Here For The Party – 3 700 000
15 Anastacia – Anastacia – 3 700 000
16 Nelly – Suit – 3 600 000
17 Ashlee Simpson – Autobiography – 3 600 000
18 D12 – D12 World – 3 400 000
19 Utada Hikaru – Utada Hikaru Single Collection Vol. 1 – 3 400 000
20 Kenny Chesney – When The Sun Goes Down – 3 400 000
21 Kanye West – College Dropout
22 Keane – Hopes And Fears
23 Various Artists – Now That’s What I Call Music! 17
24 Ray Charles – Genius Loves Company
25 OutKast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
26 Various Artists – Now That’s What I Call Music! 16
27 Rod Stewart – Stardust…The Great American Songbook III
28 Tim McGraw – Live Like You Were Dying
29 Jay Z & Linkin Park – MTV Ultimate Mash Ups Presents…
30 Norah Jones – Come Away With Me
31 George Strait – 50 #1’s
32 Josh Groban – Closer
33 Toby Keith – Greatest Hits 2
34 Hoobastank – The Reason
35 Jessica Simpson – In This Skin
36 Gwen Stefani – Love Angel Music Baby
37 Velvet Revolver – Contraband
38 George Michael – Patience
39 Joss Stone – The Soul Sessions
40 Scissor Sisters – Scissor Sisters
41 Various Artists – Now 15
42 Jay Chou – Common Jasmine Orange
43 Evanescence – Fallen
44 Big & Rich – Horse of a Different Color
45 Nelly – Sweat
46 Twista – Kamikaze
47 Diana Krall – The Girl In The Other Room
48 R. Kelly – Happy People/U Saved Me
49 Alicia Keys – The Diary Of Alicia Keys
50 Joss Stone – Mind, Body & Soul
Please do Anastacia’s article!
Hi MJD I’ve been fascinated by all the work you’ve done with Popularity/Chart analyses, especially this one, I just have a few Questions, I am very interested in the number #17 album by Ashlee Simpson and was pretty shocked to read she didn’t break into the European market and I’ve always wondered why, if she did so great in America why not there as well? Also will you be doing a Popularity analysis on her and maybe Jessica in the future if possible (Hilary duff is also an interesting case considering her sales almost mirror Miley’s and Justin Bieber’s except… Read more »
Too quiet in here. Let’s start the bets for AC/DC. 185m from me.
Hi Dan!
Don’t worry, it won’t be too quiet for too long! AC/DC’s figures for albums and single sales are complete! Only a few edits and a few word typing from the team and it’ll be for all of your viewing pleasure in a matter of a few days!
We also have a new addition to the data collector Anthony’s doing that might interest some of you!
Hey Raffi, thanks for the update. (im)Patiently waiting 🙂
Im loving this. I hope you can publish yearly album sales rankings. Tq.
Hi MJD! Nice work on this article. I just have one question regarding the top seller of the year, Usher’s Confessions. You said that the album wasn’t heavily fueled by Xmas shipments, and that it shipped 8m in the US and 4m abroad. However, the album was reissued in late 04 and the single with Alicia Keys, My Boo was a big hit in late 04/early 05. The reissue helped Confessions jump from the bottom Top 20 to #2 in the US and was Top 10 for most of Nov/Dec 04, so I was wondering perhaps there would be additional… Read more »
Hi Raffi! Clearly, Confessions had copies remaining on shelves by the end of 2004. It is all about proportions. First, it sold monster amounts all over the year, since even, say, one million extra copies, fuel it by less than 10%, while Christmas cash-ins may have from 15% to 25% of their shipments unsold by the end of the year. Second, while we got used to be reissues, back in 2004 this wasn’t a popular trend. The album had sold insane numbers already so retailers haven’t gone wild about that reissue, even if it ended up selling very well. Third,… Read more »
Thank you for posting, MJD! This was a very interesting read. I’m quite shocked Utada’s “Single Collection” sold that much. According to Oricon, it sold 2,586,347 physical copies in 2004. Was she really that global?
Hi Stephen!
Well not “global” but at least in various Asian markets she sold quite well. We tend to believe she was a Japanese seller only because she failed to break South Korea for which we know some data, but First Love for example sold half a million units in Taiwan and half a million more elsewhere in Asia!
I am surprised to see that Beyoncé’s Dangerously In Love did not make the list given that it still carried success into 2004.
Dangerously in Love by 2004 was already doing poorly on the charts all over the world. I wasn’t surprised in didn’t make it inside the top 50.
On the contrary, if the IFPI recorded sales sold to consumers rather than shipments during the year, DIL would be comfortably in the Top 50, as the album sold 1,4m in the US (based on Soundscan) and had a decent chart run in both the UK and Australia to allow it to reach 2m copies sold to consumers for the year. After all, singles Naughty Girl and Me, Myself and I were Top 5 smashes in the States and did decently abroad. However, as MJD pointed out, this list is based on the IFPI’s ranking, which counts shipments (copies sold… Read more »
And about Beyoncé’s Dangerously In Love? I expected it appears in 2004’s YTD due the release in the mid of 2003. How much it scan in these two calendar years?