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Yeah. And I've always thought Madonna is an album artist. It was surprising for me that people don't think so and buy greatest hits. She doesn't have a reputation of being a "real musician" and singer-songwriter like Adele. People considered her being a bitch and slut. And that's why it's really hard for her now, without radio support and MTV. But even in 80s Cher was asking Madonna to write songs for her because "she can't sing herself". Maybe Madonna trubute-albums of alternative music like "Through the Wilderness" help a little bit to conquer slut-shaming narrative. But since I remember myself "whore Madonna" wasn't "cool" among schoolchildren and students of 90s and 00s. I hope she reconciled with the idea of low sales and won't blame Interscope or Universal for that like Michael Jackson did with Sony (according to Tommy Mottola).
How many years (or decades) it will take for Rebel Heart to become Gold in US according to its current catalogue sales trend?
Hi MJD!
I have question!
Ray Of Light in France don't have diamond album yet? Because her album sold more than million copies there!
And one more thing! You can update Madonna's achievements please?
Thank you so much!
Hi Mat!
Indeed, Ray of Light was never awarded a Diamond cert in France. It broke the million mark in recent years, after the change of criteria which dropped the Diamond level in 2009.
Feel free to share more relevant achievements if you think at some, I'll add them!
Thank you so much!
I found this:
Madonna:
Like A Virgin 1984 (10 M) USA
The Immaculate Collection 1990 (10 M) USA
Like A Virgin 1984 (1 M) Canada
True Blue 1986 (1 M) Canada
True Blue 1986 (1 M) Francia
The Immaculate Collection 1990 (1 M) Francia
Confessions On A Dance Floor 2005 (700 K) Francia
All Madonna's diamond award. But i think she has more... maybe. You can help me with this?
I love your site! Is sooo interesting!
I want made the list and show you the Madonna achievements! But you can tell me that is a record or not!
Please?
Thank you thank you thank you!
This article is reading for a lot people. Like a Madonna fan i want it to be complete this article.
I've noticed that a lot of albums are lower in sales than in previous version of this page. http://web.archive.org/web/20170401233053/http://chartmasters.org:80/2016/06/cspc-madonna-popularity-analysis/18/
Did people give away albums or you've found more reliable sources?
Hi Anna!
There isn't one unique reason for variations, each album has been updated as per up to date information available which may led to slight changes. The main reasons of the small changes were:
- for late 80s albums, the poor results proportionaly speaking that she got in off radar (that were thus calculated by automatic formulas) countries like South Africa, India or Indonesia.
- for American Life and post-2008 albums, change of policy in regards to returns. I used to stick to certifications as the minimum amount shipped for albums that most likely sold less, the most obvious example is American Life in the US, certified Platinum which a third of those copies that were quickly returned. I decided to focus on real shipments to date since some time, which is why some figures can be lower than certified amounts. As all her post-2008 albums had lower than expected results, they all had optimistic shipments upon release and all of them have at least a few countries with certifications higher than their real sales to date.
- for post-2003 albums, most notably COADF, I decreased formulas for continental Asia. They were too high in the past, we noticed lately that markets like South Korea or Taiwan collapsed much more and much faster than Japan after early 00s, which led mid-00s albums to be a bit overstated there.
Hi MJD!
Do you have the total sales for Rebel Heart Tour 2CDs, Blu-Ray + DVD:????
USA
Canada
Brazil
Mexico
America:
UK
France
Germany
Italy
Spain
Poland
Portugal
Europe:
Australia
Oceania:
Thanks you!
1). Are the totals for The Immaculate Collection based purely on physical and digital sales? I thought the Immaculate Collection only sold 10 million in the United States
2). Just wondering why compilations are not included in your ranking of the biggest selling albums? If they were included, I'm wondering where The Immaculate Collection would be in the ranking.
It's in the article! Total = 28,100,000 (physical + digital) + 470,108 (streaming) =28,570,108
Interesting--I had no idea Immaculate basically went twelve times platinum in the United States. I'm wondering if it just needs to be re-certified? And I do think it should be included on the list of biggest selling albums.
Hi Hexar!
10 million is the number of units certified way back in October 2001, TIC continued to sell ever since especially from 2001 to 2009 prior the release of Celebration.
Compilations aren't included since the objective is to define which albums created the most value and the value is created by studio albums rather than compilations. Their sales are spread into each original studio album which is why Madonna's 80s albums are so high!
Thanks MJD, I'm surprised Immaculate Collection hasn't been re certified, it has been 17 years.
I get what you are saying, but I feel like it would be really cool to make a list of pure album sales with compilations thrown in. Just to put things in perspective.
Can I ask a question cause I'm confused. According to your list Madonna is the 3rd best selling artist with 241,135,000 sales. These are just her album sales right? Not including singles?
