The IFPI has now published the most awaited list of the year: the official Worldwide Top 10 best selling albums of 2017. Expectedly, Ed Sheeran‘s Divide leads the way. The ranking still includes several strong surprises!
Please be aware that only albums from labels which do communicate their data to the IFPI are listed. For this reason BTS, EXO and Namie Amuro are missing.
1. Ed Sheeran – ÷ – 6,1 million
2. Taylor Swift – Reputation – 4,5 million
3. P!nk – Beautiful Trauma – 1,8 million
4. Rag ‘n’ Bone Man – Human – 1,6 million
5. Sam Smith – The Thrill Of It All – 1,4 million
6. U2 – Songs of Experience – 1,3 million
7. Kendrick Lamar – Damn – 1,3 million
8. Eminem – Revival – 1,1 million
9. Harry Styles – Harry Styles – 1,0 million
10. Bruno Mars – 24k Magic – 1,0 million
Source: IFPI. Shipment figures. Physical and digital albums included. Streams excluded.
Hey do you know why IFPI has different revenue numbers throughout the years?
For example, now they’re saying the global industry revenues in 2000 were $23.4 billion
However, in 2000 they reported the global industry revenues were $30.8 billion
http://www.ifpi.org/content/library/worldsales2000.pdf
That is a huge difference. What caused that?
Hi Eric! No doubt that’s a very good question that had me perplexed for long some years ago. It all happened in their 2010 report (covering the year 2009) on which they switched of point of view. Basically, figures from earlier reports are estimated value of retail sales. In 2010, they switched of gears and started to express the size of the music industry using the “trade value”, which is the dealer-price of labels to retailers. In other words: Pre-2010: the amount of money spent by consumers Post-2010: the amount of money received by the music industry They also re-calculated… Read more »
So happy for Harry Styles in the list. He’s my favorite 1D member and has the most beautiful voice among the five. I hope he changes genre. Something more pop.
Can’t wait for Taylor Swift update. Her CSPC results will definitely receive a huge boost.
Why are Namie Amuro, SMAP, BTS and EXO out of that list? All them surprise one million copies. Namie sold almost 2 million
Surpassed* sorry for bad English
Hi Icaro!
As Al said, they are not part of the big majors, theirs decided to not report their sales to the IFPI, who knows why!
Historically, RIAJ/Japanese labels have been reporting sales data based on IFPI charts I could find from 2001 to 2016. It is odd that they skip the 2017 year.
Hello MJD,
Why are the IFPI’s numbers bigger than the real numbers?
Hi Gonzalex! They are shipment figures. Most of the time now, this doesn’t mean the gap will be big since there is no shipment error for downloads and retailers do not order anymore millions of copies of an album when it comes out. They did though for Taylor. It’s one of these cases were they got a specific agreement with retailers, like last albums of the Guns or AC/DC. Like the former, they failed to sell them though! For albums which shipped their units as sales happened instead of large initial shipment because of hype, we can see that figures… Read more »
Reputation is at 3,65 million SPS…
Definitely NOT 4,5 million pure sales!
YASS, Sam did that in just two months time.. 🤴King
MJD, do you think Taylor’s album was overshipped? Considering it’s barely at 2 million in the US I have a hard time believing she sold another 2.5 million outside!
Hi Stephen!
Yes, the album is definitely overshipped. Some 3 million units were delivered upon release in the US alone. It is already quite safe that its net shipment will be negative for 2018!
MJD,
how many of these 4.5 million copies of reputation were actually sold?
It is not possible for Taylor to carry that amount because he only carries 2 million and certifications outside of the USA, he only has about 300 thousand, as it is possible that he carries 4.5M, he must have about 3 million in pure
Do you believe the album has crossed 3m in pure sales WW?
Wait. And about Namie Amuro and BTS? Both of them sold almost 2 million confirmed by local reports. A IFPI’s mistake or their label doesn’t report the shipments? Very strange
Not all labels report their sales to the IFPI. Namie Amuro would be #3 for sure. Both BTS and EXO would be top 10 as well according to Gaon
True. For some reasons album sales in Asia and particularly China are largely ignored
WOW, despite of literally global market through all the social media and the internet as a whole, such low numbers are surprisingly ridiculous in comparison to previous decades where there was no internet and most artists relied only on tv, radio and mag sources and were able to sell tens of millions of real, physical records.
Especially if we do not consider the US or UK market to be “the only global” market…, like Asia, Africa or even Europe were unimportant.
Now, we can see the 6 million number as the max.
WTF?
Streaming has KILLED the music industry.