The most successful female singer from the 2010s, Ariana Grande continues to amass #1 albums and singles with a disconcerting ease.

Her last effort, Eternal Sunshine, continues her streak of multi-million sellers, now up to 7 as all her albums from her debut to date have made it. We break down her impressive statistics, one by one.

Looking at the big picture: Ariana Grande

A child prodigy and teen star actor (1993-2013)

Born on June 26, 1993 in Florida from a family of entrepreneurs, Ariana Grande-Butera, of Italian descent, came out as a talented vocalist from a very young age.

Performing The Star-Spangled Banner during the pre-game routine of a NHL game by the time she was only 8, it was only a matter of time until she got noticed.

She moved to Los Angeles to develop her career as a teenager, and wasted no time in making it a success. In the footsteps of Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Miley Cyrus and so many more, she first made it big through acting.

On stage, she played on a Broadway musical (13 as Charlotte, 2008-2009), and on a musical theater (A Snow White Christmas, as Snow White, 2012).

What made her a real teen star though was television channel Nickelodeon. There, she starred as Cat Valentine on the sitcom Victorious (2010-2013), and the spin-off Sam & Cat (2013-2014). She also voiced animated movies and sitcoms, namely Snowflake, the White Gorilla (2010) and Winx Club (2011-2013). Last but not least, she starred on the movie Swindle (2013).

Her first love had always been singing, and the young American star was busy seeking opportunities to start her musical career. During these acting years, she had recorded enough tracks through Nickelodeon's soundtracks and covers on her YouTube channel to be signed by Republic Records.

A perfect transition to music and to global stardom (2013-2017)

Only a few weeks after Victorious' finale airing in February 2013, Ariana Grande's proper debut single The Way arrived. It opened straight at #6 on US Hot Digital Songs, shifting an impressive 219,000 copies. The singer's first Hot 100 top 10 hit (it peaked at 9 for two weeks), it confirmed her strong potential.

The single was the lead single of her debut album, Yours Truly. It debuted at #1 in the US with 138,000 sales. At only 20, Ariana Grande was already a star both on TV and on music radio stations.

In 2014, follow up effort My Everything made her a global star. A chart topper in various countries like the US, Canada, Australia, Belgium, or Norway, the album sold well everywhere. It also spawned a string of huge hits, Problem, Break Free, Bang Bang, Love Me Harder and One Last Time.

On top of her main material, the artist was super active with participations on countless of side projects. From features with other artists to film television series' episodes to a christmas EP, including her now super popular Santa Tell Me holiday classic.

The fairytale continued with the release of third album Dangerous Woman in 2016. Home to the title track, Into You, Side to Side, and Everyday, it was another big era. During this period, her followers counts on platforms like Instagram, Twitter or Spotify went through the roof.

This immaculate rise to the top ended in dramatic fashion. On May 22, 2017, Ariana Grande sadly made headlines when her concert at Manchester Arena was hit by a suicide bombing which caused 22 deaths. The singer paused her tour to held a benefit concert, One Love Manchester, which raised $23 million for the victims' and their families.

An unstoppable hit maker (2018-now)

Self-defined as a workaholic, Ariana Grande issued her 4th album sweetener only months after the end of her previous tour. 2018's Sweetener was supported by hit singles No Tears Left to Cry, God is a Woman and Breathin.

Up to 10 Top 10 hits in the US, the diva had yet to reach the #1 spot by mid-2018. She was soon going to fix this anomaly in outstanding fashion.

Thank U, Next, the lead single of the album with the same title, was released barely 11 weeks after Sweetener. The track was a phenomenal hit, buzzing online as very few hits ever did. The song registered the highest daily streams ever on Spotify for a female song at 8.19 million, while amassing an all-time record 55.4 million views on YouTube in its first day. And, at last, Ariana Grande topped the Billboard Hot 100, debuting at 1 and remaining there for 6 weeks.

The song broke the 100 million mark on Spotify in a record-breaking 11 days, a record soon beaten by her own follow up single, 7 Rings, which took 9 days. From that point it was clear that Ariana Grande wasn't only a pop star anymore, but instead the biggest female singer of her generation.

In the following years, she was going to confirm this status again and again and again. She topped US charts no less than 3 times in 2020, with Stuck with U, Rain on Me and Positions. Two collaborations with The Weeknd increased her chart toppers tally, Save Your Tears and Die For You.

After a 3-years hiatus, Max Martin produced album Eternal Sunshine continued this flawless trajectory, having already scored two #1s in Yes, And? and We Can't Be Friends.

Ariana Grande album sales

Updated studio album sales & comments

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Having released 7 studio albums already, Ariana Grande‘s album sales stand at over 7.6 million units. Clearly, an average of barely 1 million per album doesn’t seem to be so impressive.

However, pure sales aren’t how the music industry works anymore. They are now something of the past. Artists who first debuted after the arrival of streaming never got the chance to amass fans who buy their records.

Young artists tend to attract young followers and Ariana Grande is no exception. These young followers have never been into purchasing albums in their lifetime.

That being said, one has to applaud the consistency of her album sales. For an artist who debuted in 2013 and only got truly big in recent years, these numbers are nothing to be ashamed about.

The diva’s top seller, My Everything, was the 13th best-selling album of 2014, shifting 1.8 million units that year. Though not as big, 2016’s Dangerous Woman was the 28th best-selling album that year with 0.9 million units. In an era where first-week sales were mostly pure units, her albums were still easily dominating Billboard charts, unless Drake was breaking records - Views prevented Dangerous Woman from hitting #1.

The last three albums Sweetener, Thank U, Next and Positions. came out when streaming was already inevitable. Naturally, they sold less than their predecessors although their numbers are still solid by today’s standards. We may also point out that her vinyl sales have been picking up lately, a sign of her fanbase growing throughout the years.

When looking at the pure sales of these records, one would assume Ariana Grande‘s popularity hit an all-time low since Sweetener. Is that really the case, though?

We notice once again that looking at results from every format before drawing conclusions is fundamental. Let’s continue our study with singles’ formats.

Want to compare the act's albums with others?

Ariana Grande songs sales

Below, we list down results from the artist through physical sales, digital sales and streaming.

Please be aware that when the artist is regarded as the lead act, they are rewarded with 100% of these units. However, featured acts share a 50% piece of the total.

Physical singles

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As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 3 ratio between albums and digital singles.

In our goal of accuracy and reliability we need to study physical singles sales of an artist even if this format has been dead since the start of the artist's career. This is exactly the case for Ariana Grande who has been around since 2013, years after the collapse of this market.

She still has 16 singles which have been issued in CD or LP format. Some have got regular releases in continental Europe like Problem, Bang Bang, and the recent No Tears Left To Cry, which amassed some sales mostly from Germany, estimated in 10,000, 10,000, and 5,000 respectively.

Then she had two specific releases of singles paired with a poster, The Way (10,000) in the US and Focus (5,000) in Japan. Naturally, all these releases sold very few copies.

In recent years, collectors released through her website during a limited time have been more and more frequent. All of them sold some thousands, with Rain On Me flying to 25,000 copies, and the last one Yes, and? scoring 45,000 sales.

Digital songs

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As a reminder, the weighting is done with a 10 to 1,5 ratio between albums and digital singles.

Ariana Grande started strong in the US with the 2.4 million selling single The Way. She failed to generate interest abroad though.

Her subsequent singles have not been successful even in the US. Thanks to the massive market of downloads by 2013 it was still enough to sell 7 million units from songs of Yours Truly.

The era My Everything was both more consistent and more global. She became big in various markets such as the UK, South Korea, Japan, Brazil, and Mexico. Results were amazing.

Problem featuring Iggy Azalea moved 8.6 million sales while Bang Bang with Jessie J and Nicki Minaj sold over 7.3 million. Four more songs sold well also, Break Free, One Last Time, Love Me Harder, and Best Mistake combine for an impressive 10 million units.

In total, songs from My Everything sold a sublime 27.1 million. This is all the more impressive considering that download sales were declining strongly by 2014/2015 as streaming began to take over.

Speaking about the market going downhill, by 2016 downloads were already the shadow of what they used to be 5 years earlier. This limited a lot the impact of singles from Dangerous Woman, which by themselves were also not as strong as their predecessors.

The title track, at nearly 2 million, Side To Side, at 2.5 million, and Into You at 1.6 million still moved great numbers. Remaining songs haven’t been as strong although they contribute to the era total of 7.9 million.

From Sweetener, No Tears Left To Cry sold very well, even if very well by 2018 standards is only a bit more than a million.

Impressively, the songs from Thank U, Next. have managed to match those of Sweetener in terms of total sales. Although no song has reached seven digit figures yet, these numbers are very respectable given how obsolete downloads were by 2019.

Naturally, figures from Positions and Eternal Sunshine singles are dreadful, as is the market nowadays.

Among other tracks, Santa Tell Me leads the way thanks to its huge success in South Korea and growing impact elsewhere year after year. Focus is a close runner up, pushing her million sellers tally to 13.

In total, Ariana Grande has sold 57 million downloads and ringtones – a great total for someone who missed out on the peak years of those.

Streaming

Audio Streams
– South Korea: Genie streams * 2.20 (consistent with Gaon streaming numbers)
– Japan: AWA streams * 100 / 4 (AWA has 4% of the Japanese streaming market)
– Arabic world: Anghami streams
– Sub-Saharan Africa: Boomplay + Audiomack streams
– Elsewhere: Spotify streams * Spotify market shares based on artists' market distribution

Video Streams
– China* : QQ video streams * 50 if the song is available for audio stream, QQ video streams * 5 elseway (scale built based on known figures for several major artists)
– Elsewhere : Youtube views increased by 10% to account for various local platforms

*since Chinese streaming platforms are mostly video streaming platforms, their streams are weighted on par with YouTube streams.

Audio Stream value – 1,500 plays equal 1 album unit
Video Stream value – 6,750 views equal 1 album unit

Equivalent Albums Sales (EAS) = ( Spotify * ArtistRatio + Genie * 2.20 + AWA * 100 / 4 + Anghami + Boomplay + Audiomack ) / 1500 + ( QQ views* 50(or 5) + YouTube * 1.1 ) / 6750

Top hits

This list sums up perfectly why pure album sales aren’t the be-all and end-all of success in our day and age. The three singles from Thank U, Next. are responsible for 6.7 million EAS!

On Spotify, the smash hit 7 Rings. is well past the 2.2 billion barrier, while it's even higher on YouTube at 2.6 billion. Thank U, Next single isn't too far being, closing in 2 billion on both platforms.

It's what this table is all about - billions. In fact, nobody does it better than Ariana Grande. At the moment, she has 14 tracks in 10 digits, a record. Once we add smaller versions to the main tracks, she gain a 15th billionaire, plus one more as a feature on Good as Hell.

Among these, Side to Side is the strongest on YouTube at over 2.8 billion. Bang Bang is close behind at 2.4 billion, plus enormous numbers from China as well.

Another amazing fact among these billionaire songs, is that they come from 5 distinct albums, each with at least a pair: My Everything (2 ; Bang Bang and One Last Time), Dangerous Woman (3 ; Side to Side, Into You, Dangerous Woman), Sweetener (2 ; No Tears Left to Cry, God Is a Woman), Thank U, Next (3 ; 7 Rings, Thank U Next, Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored), and positions (2 ; Positions, 34+35).

Eternal Sunshine only needs time to join these albums, as both Yes, And? and We Can't Be Friends are well over 300 million despite being very recent.

Then we need to add stand alone tracks over a billion too, Santa Tell Me, Stuck with U with Justin Bieber, Rain on Me with Lady Gaga, and Save Your Tears with The Weeknd. The former song is firmly establishing itself as the biggest Christmas song from this millennium, meaning it's poised to pay her healthy dividendes in the decades to come.

As for the latter track, Save Your Tears, it's one more evidence that the Ariana Grande / The Weeknd duo is possibly the most formidable pair of the music industry. On top of this On top of this song, they also teamed up for 2014's Love Me Harder, 2020's Off the Table, and 2023's Die For You. These tracks combine for a stunning 3.4 billion streams on Spotify.

But Ariana Grande‘s tremendous streaming power goes beyond these big hits. Impressively, songs from the bottom of her personal crack 300 million streams on Spotify.

No need to say that she crushes Asian streaming platforms as well, with amazing scores everywhere.

As mentioned, 7 Rings leads on Spotify and Side to Side on YouTube. Then, Thank U, Next dominates in South Korea, Bang Bang is China’s largest hit while in Japan the crown goes to Break Free. As an illustration of a very successful catalog, a distinct song leads on each platform.

Album-wise Thank U, Next leads at 9.8 million EAS, With My Everything and Dangerous Woman at 8.9 million and 8.3 million, respectively.

Full catalog breakdown

If you are familiar with the artist's catalog and want to check details of each and every song, you can access to all of them right here.

Keep yourself up to date

Our website provides you a fantastic tool which fetches updated Spotify streams as you request them, use it to watch these results grow day after day!

Ariana Grande compilations sales

Assigning compilation sales to original studio albums

How do you understand this table? For example, if we check the The Best line, these figures mean it sold 150,000 units worldwide. The second statistics column means all versions of all the songs included in this package add for 13,025,032 equivalent album sales from streams across all formats.

The second part (on the right of the table) shows how many equivalent streams are coming from each original album, plus the share it represents in the overall package.

Therefore, the streaming figures convey that songs from My Everything equate to 48% of The Best's tracklist attractiveness. Meaning, it generated 72,000 of its 150,000 album sales and so on for the other records.

Raw compilations sales

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Re-assigned compilation sales – Results & comments

Here is the most underestimated indicator of an album’s success – the amount of compilation sales of all kinds it generated. Due to the dependency of sales of the original studio albums on these releases, they are a key piece of the jigsaw.

These numbers are obtained by applying the method from the section The distribution process to all packages listed under Compilation sales figures listing category.

Bonus: Total album (all types) sales per country

Please note country-specific numbers may miss sales of a few minor releases, although totals are complete.

Ariana Grande: career results (CSPC)

Albums results (CSPC)

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And there we have it!

When we updated her discography in October 2019 and September 2021, Ariana Grande was up to 33.1 million EAS and 49.2 million EAS, respectively. Two years and a half later, she claims 73.9 million sales. She continues to pile about 10 million ish units per year.

At over 15 million EAS, My Everything is among the Top 5 albums released in 2014, only surpassed by blockbusters such as Ed Sheeran‘s X and Taylor Swift‘s 1989.

Thank U, Next now ranks 2nd among her albums, slightly ahead of Dangerous Woman. Both album are over 11 million. With these numbers, it’s hard to believe that the commercial reception of Dangerous Woman was often considered cold back in the day.

Sure, it is lower than My Everything, but it was easily strong enough to grant a heavy anticipation for her next era and keep her hey-days well alive. At times, it’s good to let things roll out before jumping on conclusions.

Both sweetener and positions were also seen as so-so performers at first. After the dust settled, both records stand on 7 million units, and still climbing week after week. It's always nice to record ground breaking hits, but it's maybe even worthier to move so many copies of your albums without one of them. It reflects Ariana Grande's top notch popularity.

The first time we reviewed her career back in November 2017, she was up to 18.4 million units. She was then a teen star a la Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez.

Now she is a global pop star who already surpassed the career totals of veteran divas like Kylie Minogue or Diana Ross, on par with Tina Turner and Cher. Over the next months, she is poised to top Janet Jackson and Aretha Franklin. That’s how big Ariana Grande has become.

Singles results (CSPC)

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Want to compare the act's songs with other top hits?

Discography results (ASR)

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Records & achievements

• At 73,892,000 million EAS, Ariana Grande is the most successful female artist to debut in the 2010s.
• At 46.78 billion streams on Spotify, Ariana Grande is the 2nd most streamed female artist of the platform, 8th overall.
• Ariana Grande was the most streamed female artist of the 2010s on both Spotify and Apple Music.
• At 14, Ariana Grande has the most lead tracks over 1 billion streams on Spotify.
• Ariana Grande is one of only 3 female artists with at least 5 chart toppers on all 4 US/UK albums/singles charts.
• At 7, Ariana Grande has the most US Hot 100 #1 of the 2020s so far.
• At 7.66 billion streams on Spotify, Thank U, Next is the 12th most streamed female album of the platform.
• At 6.52 billion streams on Spotify, Dangerous Woman is the 19th most streamed female album of the platform.
• At 6.43 billion streams on Spotify, My Everything is the 20th most streamed female album of the platform.
• At 15,330,000 EAS, My Everything is the 5th most successful album from 2014.
• At 11,005,000 EAS, Dangerous Woman is the 9th most successful album from 2016.
• At 11,433,000 EAS, Thank U, Next is the 7th most successful album from 2019.

Dynamic Spotify key performance indicators

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As usual, feel free to comment and / or ask a question!

Sources: IFPI, Spotify, YouTube, Discogs, Billboard, Luminate.

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