It’s time to welcome the IFPI Global Top 10 Albums of 2018! It’s a good ol’ list, focusing on pure album sales. This atypical methodology leads to the most unique list ever by the IFPI since they debuted them in 2001 with soundtracks and foreign language releases all over the ranking!
The IFPI stands for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which is the only official body representing the music industry at a worldwide level. Please be aware that only albums from labels which do communicate their data to the IFPI are listed. For this reason some local or independant artists can be missing.
At #1 is The Greatest Showman which did wonders in various markets, even more so in the UK with a stunning 28 weeks at the top of the album chart. A Star Is Born at #4, Bohemian Rhapsody at #7, and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again at #10 contribute greatly into a fantastic year for soundtracks. All but the latter continue selling at a huge pace so expect them to repeat in next year’s list.
Maybe even more impressive is the presence of BTS. The K-Pop boys band manage an inconceivable performance, scoring the 2nd and 3rd top seller of the year. They add for 5 million units shipped. They did so thanks to both history-making sales in South Korea and huge global following.
Also unbelievable is the result of Johnny Hallyday. The first posthumous release of the French rocker became the fastest selling album of all-time in his native country, en route for monumental sales for the year, 1.41 million at retail locally, way ahead of the competition.
Both Ed Sheeran and P!nk chart inside the top 10 after ending #1 and #3 of 2017, respectively. Closing the list is Eminem who continues to sell extremely well in spite of a target audience largely relying on streaming.
IFPI Global Top 10 Albums of 2018
1. Soundtrack / Cast Recording – The Greatest Showman – 3,500,000
2. BTS – LOVE YOURSELF 結 ‘Answer’ – 2,700,000
3. BTS – LOVE YOURSELF 轉 ‘Tear’ – 2,300,000
4. Soundtrack / Lady Gaga – A Star Is Born – 1,900,000
5. Johnny Hallyday – Mon Pays C’est L’Amour – 1,700,000
6. Ed Sheeran – Divide – 1,300,000
7. Soundtrack / Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody – 1,200,000
8. P!nk – Beautiful Trauma – 1,200,000
9. Eminem – Kamikaze – 1,000,000
10. Soundtrack – Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – 900,000
Source: IFPI. Based on shipment . Physical and digital albums included. Streams excluded.
Hi can u please calculate the total sales of The greatest Showman soundtrack??
Hello! Sales from China (digital) are included in the chart?
Hi Nath!
There is no true rule defined by the IFPI for this chart, they only merge together numbers reported by labels. In the past we have been able to notice that some labels report these digital sales from China, others don’t.
Hello, I love the work you guys do, but I have some questions: 1. Does the IFPI release a list of best-selling albums including streamings? Or only pure sales? 2. Could you explain to me if the extrapolation formula that you use to estimate streaming figures from all audio platforms is on par with data from reality? Is there a way to check it? The current formula is: (272/157* Spotify streams/1500), which is based on the number of users of all audio streaming platforms vs number of Spotify users. But this formula assumes that all the streams are evenly distributed… Read more »
Hi John! First you can check my answer here since it is about the same theme as your question 2. We can’t “know” the estimate is correct, all we know is that it is 1) realistic 2) based on real data (Spotify streams + market data) 3) unbiased, consistent for all artists. It’s the best we can get considering the data available. About the first question, yes, their album list is still sales only although their artists list is all-inclusive. The point 3, we don’t aim to copy / paste rules from one organisation or another. We added TEA and… Read more »
Hi I’m asking about what are EXO numbers? If you have calculated them
http://gaonchart.co.kr/main/section/chart/album.gaon?nationGbn=T&serviceGbn=&termGbn=year
physical shipments
Exo is irrelevant here, dear.
Hello MJD and the rest of the Chartmasters team, are you planning an update on Lady Gaga or is it still too early for that? I´m anxious to see how successful ASIB was
MJD, do you think you’ll update Queens CSPC total soon? Thanks.
I’d give it a few more months. And I’m predicting a big jump, to over 260 mill.
I’d say after 4-5 months… Impact of the movie is still around and rather strong. 03-22 it will be released in China, and DVD&Blu-ray and streaming versions were released just recently
That’s a 22 million jump! I’d love to know. I think they’re sales have been effected indefinitely for the long term.
That looks like a no!
Hi Jules!
I was expecting to do it in early 2019 but they huge ongoing sales aren’t slowing down yet! I would prefer them to return to a more “normal” pace of sales to avoid getting outdated figures instantly, or at least that their pure sales go down before updating it. Basically, if we update it right now we will have to do it back in 3 months! For now I’m expecting to work on it by the end of Q2 but who knows how long they can retain their impressive pace of sales 🙂
MJD hi, thank you. I was thinking that might be the case. They’re doing incredibly well on iTunes Apple Music, Youtube and Spotify. plus physical sales which I’m especially interested in. You’re right, best to leave it and see where things settle. I’m interested also to see what happens with Elton John and his upcoming movie ‘Rocket man’.