The 50 Best-Selling Albums of the 2010s

Spotify launched in 2008, but it was in the 2010s that streaming rewired the industry. By the middle of the decade, short-lived downloads were collapsing, CDs were an afterthought, and vinyls had yet to resurface. Global hits started to be rated by Spotify and YouTube counters. Online viral moments turned into careers: Harlem Shake by Baauer and Gangnam Style by PSY became massive smashes thanks to YouTube. A few years later, TikTok’s early explosion pushed songs from Lil Nas X and Doja Cat far beyond their fanbases.

EDM opened the decade with a bonanza of global hits. Avicii‘s Wake Me Up moved units like a classic pop single, Calvin Harris racked up collaborations that ruled radio, and David Guetta blurred the line between club track and chart hit.

As years passed, the sound of the charts shifted. Rap was everywhere. Drake had new chart toppers every year, Kendrick Lamar tasted Pulitzer glory with DAMN., and Post Malone‘s hooks made melodic rap unstoppable. XXXTentacion proved how raw, lo-fi tracks could pull billions without traditional promotion.

Elsewhere, indie names and alternative music got plenty of love, too. Their flagship was Lorde‘s #1 hit worldwide, Royals. Many more artists throughout the decade proved that one could do things differently but still perform well, like the Arctic Monkeys, Lana Del Rey, and Tame Impala.

Ranking albums in this fractured landscape requires more than counting CDs. All figures presented here are ChartMasters’ estimates, based on a proprietary methodology that combines official data, market analysis, and tailored algorithms. Just as Forbes calculates net worths, we apply expert modeling to update global sales figures for each release, ensuring the most accurate and current overview possible.

Even with that broad net, some monsters don’t make the Top 50. Pink‘s The Truth About Love is out. So is The Greatest Showman soundtrack. That tells you how hard the cut line really is. At the top, though, there’s no debate. Adele‘s 21 is the defining blockbuster of the 2010s.

Pop Albums That Ruled the 2010s Charts

Adele’s 21 and 25: How Ballads Became Blockbusters

Released in 2011, 21 sold like few albums in modern history: more than 30.6 million pure copies and 55.6 million equivalent sales overall. Those numbers are staggering when set against the EDM-led charts of the time. Rolling in the Deep turned into a global anthem, Someone Like You cut through with just piano and voice, and Set Fire to the Rain extended the album’s run across pop radio.

25 arrived in late 2015, when streaming was already eroding album sales everywhere else. Adele still moved more than 21.1 million pure units, pushing the record to 34.7 million total. The single Hello broke digital download records in its first week and underscored how demand for her ballads crossed generations.

The numbers underline a simple fact: Adele sold albums at a time when albums were no longer supposed to sell. Pure sales made her totals dwarf those of peers who leaned on streaming, leaving 21 and 25 as rare blockbusters in a decade otherwise defined by new formats.

Taylor Swift’s Five Entries Prove Decade-Long Pop Dominance

Five Taylor Swift albums sit among the best-sellers of the 2010s, more than any other artist, and her entire output. Speak Now opened the decade with 21.3 million equivalent sales (#19), powered by traditional formats when downloads were peaking. Red pushed her into the global pop bracket, with We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and I Knew You Were Trouble marking her first collaborations with Max Martin. With 28.8 million equivalent album sales, it ranks at #8.

Her peak came with her fifth album,1989. Its slick synth-pop sound produced Shake It Off and Blank Space, singles that defined mid-2010s pop and helped the album climb to 42.5 million equivalent sales, including 10.8 million pure copies. To date, 1989 is the second-best-selling album of the 2010s. Reputation followed in 2017 with Look What You Made Me Do, a record that proved over time that it was just as popular as her remaining records. 2019’s Lover had fewer legs than its predecessors upon release, yet proved to be one of her biggest releases over time. Cult cut Cruel Summer became a mainstream smash in 2023, with the album selling 22.7 million copies to date, the highest-selling album issued since 2018.

The figures make clear that Swift thrived across every phase of the market shift. She sold physical albums in the early 2010s, competed in downloads at scale, and later held her ground in the streaming era. Few artists navigated all three markets with such commercial consistency, which is why her five entries impress inside the decade’s sales charts.

Ed Sheeran’s Multiply and Divide: Streaming-Era Pop Power

Multiply (x) in 2014 sold 9.2 million pure copies and finished the decade with 30.4 million equivalent sales, ranking seventh overall. Thinking Out Loud turned into the era’s slow-dance anthem, and Sing — cut with Pharrell Williams — gave Sheeran his first taste of funk-inflected pop stardom.

Three years later came Divide (÷), the blockbuster. With 37.9 million equivalent sales, it placed third among all 2010s albums. Shape of You became the biggest smash hit of the decade, Perfect spread across weddings and radio formats alike, and Castle on the Hill gave him an arena opener that matched his touring footprint.

The key to Sheeran‘s success wasn’t format or gimmick but reach. His catalogue moved seamlessly between playlists, radio, and personal milestones, embedding songs in everyday life. Multiply and Divide shows how a songwriter with an acoustic core managed to become the decade’s most universal pop presence.

Often compared to Sheeran in their early years, Sam Smith lands just outside the top 10 with In The Lonely Hour, a 24.6 million seller.

Max Martin: The Mastermind behind the Pop Stars

Max Martin wrote the soundtrack of the 2010s as much as the artists who sang it. During this decade, he delivered 16 US number ones and 50 top 10s, a run that touched almost every corner of mainstream pop. Katy Perry‘s Teenage Dream became a phenomenon with five Hot 100 chart-toppers, four of which were credited to him. The album sold 66 million downloads, the second-highest score ever, and its 30.6 million units overall put it as the sixth biggest album of the 2010s. Martin was behind three more #1s for Perry with Part of Me, Roar, and Dark Horse; these last two push Prism to #41 in the list. He gave #1 hits also to Pink (Raise Your Glass), Britney Spears (Hold It Against Me), Maroon 5 (One More Night, from Overexposed, #45), and Justin Timberlake (Can’t Stop the Feeling!).

Kesha got a severe Blow from him, similar to Ellie Goulding (Love Me Like You Do), Anne-Marie (2002), Taio Cruz (Dynamite), Justin Bieber (Beauty and a Beat), Usher (DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love), Nicki Minaj (Va Va Voom), Carly Rae Jepsen (Tonight I’m Getting Over You), Pitbull (Wild Wild Love), Shakira (Dare (La La La)), Ed Sheeran (I Don’t Care), and even Adele (Send My Love).

Ariana Grande moved from rising star to global headliner with Martin steering most of her hits, including Problem, Break Free, Bang Bang, Love Me Harder, Dangerous Woman, Side to Side, No Tears Left to Cry, God is a Woman, and Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored. While fans and media were opposing her to Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato, Martin was effectively powering all three of them, writing Hands to Myself for the former and Cool for the Summer and Confident for the latter. He was also instrumental with The Weeknd, providing him with Can’t Feel My Face, and already into the 2020s, both monster hits Blinding Lights and Save Your Tears.

The shift of Taylor Swift into a full-scale pop act carried his mark too: We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and I Knew You Were Trouble set the tone before 1989 sealed the transition. He was there for Bad Blood, Shake It Off, Blank Space, Style, …Ready for It?, among many others. Swift already announced that the upcoming The Life of a Showgirl was created with the Swedish genius.

Overall, Martin worked on 11 albums from the Top 50 list, including four in the top 8. Every artist inside the top 14 worked with him at some point. Across a decade defined by changing formats and sounds, Martin‘s consistency was striking: whichever artist topped charts, odds were he had written the hook.

Bruno Mars: The Funkier Side of Pop

Bruno Mars smashed the decade without ever sounding like anyone else. Doo-Wops & Hooligans sold 33.4 million equivalent units (#5 of the 2010s) off the back of songs like Just the Way You Are and Grenade, two songs that instantly joined the modern pop canon. Unorthodox Jukebox followed in 2012 with 22.8 million sales (#15), driven by Locked Out of Heaven and When I Was Your Man. Then 24K Magic arrived with a leaner tracklist, but still turned out 24K Magic and That’s What I Like as worldwide smashes. Across three albums, there was never a stumble.

His biggest hit, Uptown Funk, didn’t even belong to one of his own records, not adding units to his studio efforts on this ranking. Yet, it became the mid-2010s’ signature crossover anthem along with Pharrell Williams‘ Happy. Unlike most of his chart peers, Mars didn’t work with the Scandinavian producers who defined so much of the 2010s pop, like Martin, as mentioned earlier, but also Stargate, Shellback, and their frequent American collaborator Dr. Luke. He stuck with his own teams, first the Smeezingtons, then Shampoo Press & Curl, and remained the key actor in writing and production. The result was remarkable consistency: few albums, but a higher strike rate of singles that broke through all around the world than anyone else. In the vein of Michael Jackson in the past, Mars offered the funkier side of pop, a reminder that groove and showmanship still had a seat at the very top of the charts.

Rap and R&B Albums That Shaped the 2010s

Drake and The Weeknd Made Streaming the New Standard

Drake finished the decade on top of the rap game, but his success looked very different from Eminem‘s peak in the previous decade. Recovery still ranked as the decade’s biggest rap album with 22.3 million sales, proof of Eminem‘s reach across every market. Drake‘s totals came from a different dynamic: an enormous fanbase that streamed his albums endlessly, giving him scale without the same global penetration. Views (19.7M) and Scorpion (17.0M) weren’t just hit records; they were consumed at a volume that few acts in any genre could match. By 2017, he even branded More Life a playlist, dropping physical formats altogether and leaving streaming as his only real channel.

The Weeknd‘s rise had its own twists. He broke out from R&B circles with Beauty Behind the Madness (19.6M), then cemented his pop breakthrough on Starboy (23.0M, #11). Max Martin‘s hooks on Can’t Feel My Face and Starboy‘s album pulled him into the center of pop radio, a pivot that echoed Taylor Swift‘s move from country into full pop with 1989. By the end of the decade, The Weeknd was no longer boxed into a genre. He had built a catalog that carried the same R&B and Soul pop lineage as Mars, a sound that made them break Spotify’s monthly listeners records repeatedly.

Kendrick Lamar’s DAMN. and GKMC: Acclaimed Rap Landmarks

Good Kid, M.A.A.D City entered at #2 in the US in 2012, selling 242,000 copies in its first week. It didn’t dominate charts for months on end, but it refused to fade. Over the years, it kept adding steady sales and streams until it reached 15.7 million equivalent units to date. Few rap debuts hold that kind of traction over a decade later.

DAMN. in 2017 marked his sharpest commercial moment, now at 16.9 million units, powered by HUMBLE. and DNA., songs that became fixtures well beyond rap playlists. The numbers show how Lamar‘s albums aged into long-haul performers, gathering ground on titles that had opened much bigger. He never chased pop ubiquity, yet his catalog sits firmly among the decade’s best sellers because it kept working, year after year.

Post Malone and Travis Scott Closed the Decade with Streaming Rap Hits

Rap closed the decade with a demographic edge. Its core listeners were younger, with less cash to buy albums but more time to play them on repeat. When streaming replaced sales as the primary yardstick, that behavior turned into raw numbers.

Post Malone was among the clearest beneficiaries. Beerbongs & Bentleys in 2018 produced Rockstar and Psycho, two of the most played tracks on the planet, and the album has piled up 19.4 million equivalent units. A year later, Hollywood’s Bleeding shifted his sound toward pop. Circles and Sunflower became unavoidable, and the album reached 22.1 million units, with one of the decade’s heaviest streaming totals. During that time, his debut album Stoney amassed serious numbers on its own, making the list at #49.

Travis Scott‘s Astroworld in 2018 showed a different angle. Sicko Mode became a multi-part streaming monster, and the record now sits at 16.2 million units. Beyond the numbers, it set the tone for how rap albums could double as event culture, with festivals, merch drops, and arena shows tied directly to the music.

While no rap album is higher than #17, no less than ten of them enter the top 50.

EDM and Dance-Pop Albums That Fueled the Festival Era

David Guetta’s Nothing But the Beat: The EDM Boom on Record

EDM kicked the decade’s doors wide open. LMFAO had the world shuffling to Party Rock Anthem. Swedish House Mafia closed their initial run with Don’t You Worry Child, a festival anthem. Calvin Harris stacked up global hits with Rihanna, Ellie Goulding, and his own Summer. Avicii blended folk and dance on Wake Me Up. Alan Walker broke records from Norway to China with Faded. By the time The Chainsmokers landed Closer and Something Just Like This, DJs were no longer just producers; they were pop stars in their own right.

David Guetta was the constant presence. One Love was already throwing out hits like When Love Takes Over and Sexy Bitch as the 2010s began, and the momentum never stopped. Nothing But the Beat in 2011 turned into a multi-year campaign: Sweat, Where Them Girls At, Titanium, Without You, Turn Me On, She Wolf, Play Hard… Each reissue added another single to the pile, a tally that increased to 10 songs released individually. Few albums in any genre kept finding new life this way.

The numbers underline the scale. Nothing But the Beat stands at 16.0 million equivalent sales, huge for an EDM record, with massive numbers in the genre in each pure sales, downloads, and streams. Add in the rest of Guetta‘s catalogue, and the picture is clear: he turned what should have been disposable club tracks into a sustained global album presence. In a scene built on turnover, the Frenchman made EDM feel like a long game.

Katy Perry and Justin Bieber Turned Pop Into Dancefloor Anthems

The 2010s pushed pop onto the dancefloor. Rihanna made the pivot early with Loud and Talk That Talk. We Found Love and Where Have You Been were built directly on Calvin Harris beats, and both became global staples. Lady Gaga followed with Born This Way, heavier on synths and four-on-the-floor production than her earlier work. Aforementioned, Katy Perry had one hell of a run with dancefloor tunes. By the end of the decade, Dua Lipa carried that template into her debut album, showing how EDM-pop could still own both radio and streaming.

The bigger surprise came from Justin Bieber. His career looked close to finished after years of bad press and diminishing singles, but Purpose in 2015 flipped the narrative. The record sold 25.9 million equivalent units, good for #12 in the decade’s rankings, and produced a string of singles that reset his image. Where Are Ü Now, crafted with Skrillex and Diplo, gave him instant credibility in the EDM space. Sorry, and What Do You Mean? dominated global charts and collected billions of streams. Love Yourself added balance, stripping the sound down without losing reach. That run marked one of the decade’s most unlikely turnarounds: Bieber went from overexposed teen idol to adult pop powerhouse, powered by EDM-infused hits that kept scaling long after release.

Indie and Alternative Albums That Broke Into the Mainstream

Arctic Monkeys’ AM and the Indie Rock Crossover

AM dropped in 2013 and pulled Arctic Monkeys back into the spotlight. After the hype of their 2006 debut, the band had cooled commercially, but AM changed the trajectory. Do I Wanna Know? turned into their signature song, and R U Mine? confirmed their new success.

The real story is what happened afterward. 505, I Wanna Be Yours, Arabella, Snap Out of It, Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?, none were global chart smashes in 2013, yet they circulate constantly on TikTok and Spotify playlists today. AM became a catalog juggernaut, the kind of record listeners discover years later. The same pattern lifted The Neighbourhood‘s Sweater Weather, Lord Huron‘s The Night We Met, and Tom Odell‘s Another Love, songs that went viral long after their release and collected billions of streams.

AM, now a reference point for 2010s indie rock, has since moved 20.3 million equivalent units, making it one of the decade’s biggest rock records. It also underlines a larger truth: decades after the “rock is dead” refrain first surfaced, the genre remains alive on streaming platforms, with countless tracks still pulling massive numbers.

Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die: Alternative Pop’s Slow-Burn Classic

Born to Die landed in January 2012 and has since sold 23.6 million equivalent sales, making it the decade’s biggest female major label debut album. The release followed the viral success of Video Games, but it’s its staying power that impressed the most. Summertime Sadness, boosted by a remix, crossed into global pop, while Blue Jeans and the title track have streamed consistently for more than a decade.

The arc resembles AM by Arctic Monkeys. Both albums rode early buzz, then turned into catalogs that refuse to age out. Just like them, Lana Del Rey has seen several of her songs that became streaming perennials, like Ride or Born to Die. The album barely ever leaves the charts. It is the best-selling alternative record of the decade.

Imagine Dragons’ Night Visions and Evolve: Playlist-Friendly Rock

Night Visions dropped in 2012 and sold 20.7 million equivalent units, the top figure for any band album of the decade. Radioactive drove much of that success: over 8.5 million US downloads, still the third best-selling digital single of all time. Demons, and It’s Time kept the record alive on radio and in downloads, giving Imagine Dragons a run that few rock groups matched once streaming started to dominate.

The next album, Smoke + Mirrors, slipped quickly and is remembered as a commercial miss. But 2017’s Evolve turned the story around. Believer peaked at #16 on global Spotify, yet its run is unmatched: 422 weeks on the chart, the longest in the platform’s history. Add Thunder and Whatever It Takes, and the album has moved 15.1 million units. The hits were designed for constant replay, making Evolve one of the decade’s most reliable streaming rock records.

Billie Eilish Redefines the Main Pop Girls’ Template

Billie Eilish had two albums among the top global sellers of the 2010s, even though she spent less than two weeks of the decade as an 18-year-old. Don’t Smile At Me (2017) and When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019) together cleared 37.2 million equivalent sales, including 20 million for the latter, the fifth best-selling teenage album ever. That kind of output, at that age and in that short a window, had no precedent in modern pop.

Her setup was far from the industry standard. She was instructed at home, wrote and recorded with her brother Finneas in a bedroom, and leaned on ideas that cut against pop convention. Ocean Eyes started as a demo and went viral online. Bad Guy became the decade’s most unlikely chart-topping single, built around a murky bassline and near-whispered vocals. The sound was minimalist, the hooks were strange, and the result was irresistible. By the end of 2019, pop culture had adopted Eilish as a main pop girl, despite her alternative music and her very young history.

Global Phenomena and Unlikely Blockbusters of the 2010s

One Direction’s Trio of Albums Defined the Boyband Revival

By 2010, the boy band format looked finished. Backstreet Boys and NSYNC had collapsed years earlier, leaving almost a decade with no real successors. Then One Direction broke out of a UK talent show and flipped the script. Their debut Up All Night sold 16.9 million equivalent units, a massive number for a first release. Take Me Home followed at 15.6 million, and Midnight Memories matched it at 15.7 million. Few acts in the 2010s, in any genre, stacked three consecutive albums at that level. Even Four in 2014, outside the Top 50 with 12.7 million, and 2015’s Made In the A.M. with 11.0 million, underlined how solid the run was.

The catalog’s consistency is striking. Every release moved millions, carried by radio singles and a fanbase that delivered year after year. What came after was just as unusual. Past boy bands usually collapsed when the group ended; here, every member found a lane. Zayn did wonders with Pillowtalk. Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson built steady solo careers. The late Liam Payne hit with Strip That Down. And Harry Styles reached superstar status on his own, with Fine Line selling 14.9 million to join the decade’s Top 50.

BTS’ Map of the Soul: Persona Signals K-Pop’s Global Breakthrough

K-pop had brushed the global charts before, but usually as a one-off. PSY‘s Gangnam Style in 2012 was treated more as a viral oddity than a sign of things to come. The breakthrough came later. Between 2016 and 2019, BTS released five albums that each cleared 10 million equivalent sales, reminding us of One Direction‘s 2011-2015 run.

They peaked with Map of the Soul: Persona. Released in 2019, it reached 14.1 million units, the highest-selling K-pop record for the decade, narrowly missing the global Top 50. What stood out was the breakdown: huge pure CD shipments at a time when most artists had abandoned the format. BTS turned physical releases into must-own objects, driving numbers that looked out of step with the market but were very real.

The pattern repeated across every release. Wings, Love Yourself: Her, Love Yourself: Tear, Love Yourself: Answer, and Persona all turned into multi-million sellers. Streaming and digital sales added weight, but the spine of their success was physical demand on a scale that shocked industry observers. By the end of the 2010s, BTS were fighting with Taylor Swift and Drake on IFPI’s Global Record Artist of the Year lists, rewriting how global album sales could be achieved in the streaming era.

Frozen, Christmas, and the Power of Evergreen Albums

The Frozen soundtrack sold 23.6 million equivalent units, an extraordinary number for an animated film. Its centerpiece, Let It Go, carried one of the most quoted choruses of the decade — a line so familiar it may be the single most recognized musical phrase of the 2010s. Kids played it endlessly, in cars, on tablets, at home. That cycle of nonstop replay turned a soundtrack into a juggernaut, the rare family product that behaved like a pop blockbuster.

Michael Buble’s Christmas followed a different path but with the same result. Released in 2011, it reappears every December as the default background to family dinners and holiday shopping. It has logged record-breaking chart runs for more than a decade, pushing lifetime sales to 19.2 million. No other seasonal release in modern history has carved out such a reliable annual presence.

Together, these albums underline how context can drive staying power. Frozen worked because children never tired of it. Christmas thrives because families return to it every holiday season. Both became fixtures without relying on new singles or traditional promotion, proving that repetition and ritual can keep albums alive long after their release year.

The Top 50 Best-Selling Albums of the 2010s – Full List

The Top 50 Best-Selling Albums of the 2010s

1. Adele – 21 (2011) – 55,634,000
2. Taylor Swift – 1989 (2014) – 42,534,000
3. Ed Sheeran – Divide (÷) (2017) – 37,901,000
4. Adele – 25 (2015) – 34,717,000
5. Bruno Mars – Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010) – 33,371,000
6. Katy Perry – Teenage Dream (2010) – 30,578,000
7. Ed Sheeran – Multiply (x) (2014) – 30,432,000
8. Taylor Swift – Red (2012) – 28,819,000
9. Justin Bieber – My Worlds (2010) – 27,278,000
10. Justin Bieber – Purpose (2015) – 25,885,000
11. Sam Smith – In The Lonely Hour (2014) – 24,633,000
12. Various Artists – Frozen [OST] (2013) – 23,635,000
13. Lana Del Rey – Born To Die (2012) – 23,593,000
14. The Weeknd – Starboy (2016) – 22,957,000
15. Bruno Mars – Unorthodox Jukebox (2012) – 22,771,000
16. Taylor Swift – Lover (2019) – 22,727,000
17. Eminem – Recovery (2010) – 22,257,000
18. Post Malone – Hollywood’s Bleeding (2019) – 22,116,000
19. Taylor Swift – Speak Now (2010) – 21,280,000
20. Imagine Dragons – Night Visions (2012) – 20,737,000
21. Dua Lipa – Dua Lipa (2017) – 20,478,000
22. Arctic Monkeys – AM (2013) – 20,308,000
23. Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019) – 20,008,000
24. Drake – Views (2016) – 19,688,000
25. Rihanna – Loud (2010) – 19,670,000
26. The Weeknd – Beauty Behind The Madness (2015) – 19,635,000
27. Post Malone – Beerbongs & Bentleys (2018) – 19,399,000
28. Michael Bublé – Christmas (2011) – 19,204,000
29. Taylor Swift – Reputation (2017) – 18,820,000
30. Maroon 5 – V (2014) – 18,424,000
31. Ariana Grande – My Everything (2014) – 17,392,000
32. Billie Eilish – Don’t Smile At Me (2017) – 17,228,000
33. Drake – Scorpion (2018) – 17,025,000
34. Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. (2017) – 16,923,000
35. One Direction – Up All Night (2011) – 16,882,000
36. Lady Gaga – Born This Way (2011) – 16,413,000
37. Travis Scott – Astroworld (2018) – 16,187,000
38. XXXTentacion – ? (2018) – 16,093,000
39. David Guetta – Nothing But The Beat (2011) – 15,997,000
40. Rihanna – Unapologetic (2012) – 15,785,000
41. Katy Perry – Prism (2013) – 15,745,000
42. Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (2012) – 15,714,000
43. One Direction – Midnight Memories (2013) – 15,655,000
44. One Direction – Take Me Home (2012) – 15,598,000
45. Maroon 5 – Overexposed (2012) – 15,580,000
46. Drake – Take Care (2011) – 15,294,000
47. Imagine Dragons – Evolve (2017) – 15,140,000
48. Hozier – Hozier (2014) – 14,953,000
49. Charlie Puth – Nine Track Mind (2016) – 14,891,000
50. Harry Styles – Fine Line (2019) – 14,889,000

Bubbling Under

51. Post Malone – Stoney (2016) – 14,883,000
52. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist (2012) – 14,837,000
53. Bruno Mars – 24K Magic (2016) – 14,739,000
54. Twenty One Pilots – Blurryface (2015) – 14,721,000
55. Lewis Capaldi – Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent (2019) – 14,467,000
56. Ed Sheeran – Plus (+) (2011) – 14,193,000
57. BTS – Map Of The Soul: Persona (2019) – 14,108,000
58. Rihanna – Anti (2016) – 14,014,000
59. P!nk – The Truth About Love (2012) – 13,995,000
60. Lin-Manuel Miranda & Various Artists – Hamilton [OCR] (2015) – 13,748,000
61. Rihanna – Talk That Talk (2011) – 13,671,000
62. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013) – 13,547,000
63. Coldplay – Mylo Xyloto (2011) – 13,400,000
64. BTS – Wings / You Never Walk Alone (2016) – 13,399,000
65. Various Artists – The Greatest Showman [OST] (2017) – 13,335,000
66. Justin Bieber – Believe (2012) – 13,123,000
67. Ariana Grande – Thank U, Next (2019) – 13,054,000
68. XXXTentacion – 17 (2017) – 13,052,000
69. Ariana Grande – Dangerous Woman (2016) – 13,045,000
70. Shawn Mendes – Illuminate (2016) – 13,038,000
71. One Direction – Four (2014) – 12,700,000
72. BTS – Love Yourself: Her (2017) – 12,606,000
73. Coldplay – A Head Full of Dreams (2015) – 12,185,000
74. Avicii – True (2013) – 12,178,000
75. BTS – Love Yourself: Tear (2018) – 12,160,000

Best-Selling Albums by Release Year

2010 – Bruno Mars – Doo-Wops & Hooligans – 33,371,000
2011 – Adele – 21 – 55,634,000
2012 – Taylor Swift – Red – 28,819,000
2013 – Various Artists – Frozen [OST] – 23,635,000
2014 – Taylor Swift – 1989 – 42,534,000
2015 – Adele – 25 – 34,717,000
2016 – The Weeknd – Starboy – 22,957,000
2017 – Ed Sheeran – Divide (÷) – 37,901,000
2018 – Post Malone – Beerbongs & Bentleys – 19,399,000
2019 – Taylor Swift – Lover – 22,727,000

The best-selling albums of the 2010s, updated

Not too long ago, Drake‘s Views was the biggest album of 2016, while 2019’s leader was Post Malone‘s Hollywood Bleeding. In just a few months, Starboy and Lover, respectively, completely revamped their year’s ranking. As these lists evolve very quickly, it is worth keeping yourself updated.

Our sortable and filterable list of the best-selling albums of all time is the perfect way to keep track of this ranking and the evolution of sales and streams for albums.

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