2015 – Adele – 25
The third album of Adele broke countless records. The follow up of 21 was always going to be hyped upon release, the smash of the new single Hello only made expectations higher. 25 hasn’t disappoint, selling over 20 million pure units. It’s more than all female albums since Norah Jones‘ Come Away With Me except her own previous album.
Its TEA and SEA topped 5 million units. The album was held off streaming platforms for several months at first but has since made up for the delay with solid figures. 25 remains fairly popular so its 25 million equivalent album sales to date are far from being its final tally.
Challengers
Meghan Trainor arrived with her monster hit All About That Bass. She went on to sell more than 13 million singles downloads in the US alone from her first album Title which sold close to 2 million units on its own. With well over 1 billion streams on Spotify, the era produced more than 7 million sales in total.
How well did Femme Fatale and Blackout do?
FF had 3 international #1 hits with TTWE, IWG, and HIAMe (#1 in 6 nations), plus she had sold pretty well with her album as well, letting her catchup to Blackout. Due to the lower sales expectations of 2011, I would be surprised if Britney wasn’t close to the #5 spot for 2011.
Blackout I assume would possibly be top 10 for 2007? But I understand you likely don’t bother listing that low for a years best.