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Best-Selling Artists of All Time

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(@mjd)
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Here you will find our up-to-date list of all-time best-selling artists.

Best-selling artists of all time

This ranking aggregates performance across multiple formats — physical sales, downloads, and streams — each assigned a specific weight to reflect its relative contribution to an artist’s success.

This approach is driven by our CSPC method. The ranking is refreshed daily.

The ranking


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Why do we assign weights to different formats?


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What ratios do we use here?

The table above shows the top artists of all time using the following ratios:

How do we get accurate best-selling artists lists?


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For decades, marketing tricks from labels and a lack of education from the media led to various myths about the best-selling artists of all time getting repeated so often that the general public assumed it was true.

Today, the same lack of education on the matter continues to be a pain for accuracy lovers. Most of these lists floating around online are either flat lists of RIAA certifications or a mere sum of all certifications from all countries. The first are given only on request, sparsely for many artists, and relate to the US only. The latter are adding together apples and oranges by mixing distinct formats and different national streaming conversion methods.

Our home-made solution: the CSPC and equivalent album sales

To solve these flaws, we introduced several years ago the Commensurate Sales to Popularity Concept (CSPC).

If you are not familiar with this concept, it consists of retrieving sales figures from every format and weighting them on par with album sales. That's what we call equivalent album sales (EAS), or simply CSPC units.

In doing so, we grant that comparisons between artists from different periods make sense, unlike lists based on raw record totals.

The method also ensures that the same formula applies to all artists. So we are avoiding issues related to the varying conversion rate used for streaming in different markets, as well as by most labels in their communications.

The sales compilation process

When applying this concept to an artist, our team goes into the tank. We analyze all data available, from charts, certifications, internal reports, and official scanning systems. Through the years, we developed various methods to fill the holes, backing all numbers with meaningful indicators. In between, we have also discovered thousands of receipts.

To make everything as transparent as it gets, all figures for sales have been detailed on each artist's article, available through the link under their name. We also show dates of updates, both for sales and for streams.

The column 'Other LPs' includes long formats made of already released material like greatest hits compilations, box sets, live records, bootlegs, and music videos.

Digital singles include both downloads and ringtones. Streaming units include both audio and video streams.


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An ongoing process


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Obviously, digging into the catalog of an artist takes time. It would be easy to simply copy/paste the RIAA's most certified artists list in a minute. Given our ambition, the largest discographies require several weeks of study, with several people involved.

Most top artists have been studied by now, but some are still missing. The main ones are Neil Diamond and the Beach Boys.

These omissions are listed on this page, which enables users to vote for the next pick. As soon as a CSPC article is released, we treat the new leader of the requests list. You can vote too!


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The automatic update of streams


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As part of our process to get all artists treated at the same time, we have been implementing tools to automatically keep numbers up to date every day, whenever it is possible.

We also developed a tool to retrieve updated Spotify streams by artist. Thus, we are able to increase accordingly the streaming units of artists part of our all-time top artists leaderboard.

For further details, feel free to use the comment section.


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Bonus: best-selling artists by era


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The most successful artists ever. Numbers in equivalent album sales through all formats. Based on the original recordings' release dates. Video created with Flourish.

Best selling artists by pure album sales

To answer the question "Who's the best-selling artist today?", the table above includes all formats. But the more traditional way to understand that question is to focus on pure sales instead.

If that's what you wonder about, here is our ranking of best-selling artists in terms of pure album sales. The records we consider are studio albums, compilations, live albums, and box sets. Music videos, EPs, and singles are not considered.


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Some artists are missing because their analysis has not been done yet, or their breakdown by country isn't available for now. Here is the complete list of covered artists.

Best selling artists by physical single sales

Want to focus on success driven by physical singles? Here you go! The table below ranks all artists by their physical single sales.


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Best selling artists by digital single sales

Want to know who are the best-selling artists in terms of digital singles? Here you are! Figures here include both downloads and ringtones.


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Most successful artists of all-time

Sales numbers – even carefully weighted sales numbers – don’t always tell the full story. That’s why we’ve created the ASR score, a smarter way to look at musical success. Let’s take a different look at success.

Best-selling doesn't always mean most successful

The following ranking doesn’t just show the best-selling artists: it highlights the most successful ones overall.

What’s the difference?

Success isn’t only about how much music is sold. It’s also about how an artist’s discography is built and presented.
Some artists release mostly studio albums, meaning fans have to buy many of them to get all the hits. Others release well-curated compilations, like Greatest hits, that deliver everything in one go.

To reflect this, we created a new way to measure success: the ASR (Artist Success Rating).

This score (out of 1000) combines:

  • EAS (Equivalent Album Sales) – which shows how many sales the artist’s catalog has generated;
  • EDS (Equivalent Discography Sales) – which reflects how often the catalog is consumed as a whole.

In short, ASR rewards both impact and efficiency. Here’s the ranking of the most successful artists, according to this unique approach!

The ranking


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Frequently Asked Questions

Who's the best-selling artist of all time?

The Beatles are the best-selling artists of all time with over 520 million equivalent album sales. More than 175 million sales behind, Michael Jackson is the runner-up ahead of Elvis Presley.

Who's the best-selling solo artist of all time?

Michael Jackson is the best-selling solo artist of all time with over 340 million equivalent album sales. Elvis Presley is a close runner-up, with Madonna completing the top 3 lower down.

Who's the best-selling female artist of all time?

Madonna is the best-selling solo artist of all time with over 250 million equivalent album sales. Taylor Swift is quickly catching up, while Celine Dion is third.

Who's the best-selling artist in terms of physical singles?

With over 135m copies sold, Elvis Presley is the best-selling artist for physical singles.

Who's the best-selling artist in terms of digital singles?

With over 257m copies sold, Rihanna is the best-selling artist for digital singles.

Who are the top artists currently?

As revealed by our most-streamed artists on digital streaming platforms list, Drake, Taylor Swift, and Bad Bunny are the biggest artists worldwide in recent years, with the addition of BTS thanks to their heavy album sales.

Are the Beatles and Elvis Presley over 1 billion records sold?

No. While their success is indeed outstanding as they rank 1st and 3rd among all-time top-sellers, the billion claims made in the early 80s were based on an old accounting method using singles equivalent, where each album sale was valued as 6 units.Under this method, each of the 22 artists with over 167 million equivalent album sales on this page would be over 1 billion "records" sold.

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(@quote)
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The notion of The Beatles selling more albums then Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley sold records is pure delusion and instantly makes this entire article irrelevant.


   
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(@sprinter)
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African artistes should be viewed with more importance, Wizkid already has about 60m+ career sales but isn't listed here, etc


   
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(@jchillemi04gmail-com)
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You added about 200 artists today, that's crazy


   
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(@wille-silva)
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What kind of madness is this? This site has gone crazy. All of this is just to put Taylor Swift in first place. Pink Floyd, a few weeks ago — and I have the screenshot — had 241 million, then it dropped to 240 and... now it's at 239. This is a huge joke. This site really shouldn't be taken seriously


   
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(@michael440)
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Joined: 5 years ago
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Whoa how did we get 200+ artists, many of them with all their physical sales accounted for in one day?


   
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(@raffi)
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Joined: 7 years ago
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@michael440 This didn't happen is just 1 day, these estimates have been made for some time now, perhaps you just happened to stumble upon them recently, but MJD has been slowly updating and adding previously untreated artists to make a more comprehensive all-time list of best-selling artists in the last month or so.


   
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(@scotjoncon01)
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Where is Steely Dan on this list? I see it frequently reported they have sold in excess of 50 Million albums worldwide ? 


   
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Landi Schorsch
(@landischorsch)
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@scotjoncon01 not all artists are included, only those being analyzed.


   
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(@Anonymous 64982)
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Paul McCartney’s solo record sales are rather low as he is currently 53rd in the ranking!


   
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(@mikko)
Making some noise
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@kipperMcCartney's solo Spotify numbers are also quite low, less than Lennon or Harrison. McCartney's result has included numbers that did not belong there. For example, Fourfiveseconds with Kanye West, Rihanna, etc. McCartney's contribution is guitar playing and, for example, Michael Jackson's song The Girl is Mine from the Thriller album and more with Kanye West. His own song Wonderful Christmas Time, 600 m streams. Howard Sounes, who wrote his biography Fab, said directly that McCartney and Lennon have been quite weak alone. They needed each other, then the best that has been heard was born. In fact, not all numbers are true. For example, 1 EAS unit album = 22 vinyl boxes price 150 dollar, so here in Chartmasters. Taylor Swift's result is much higher than 240 m EAS.


   
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Landi Schorsch
(@landischorsch)
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@mikko I think Kipper means something else. It's about the fact that until a few days ago, McCartney's total EAS was still at 118 million, and now it's been reduced to 115 million. This happens to other artists from time to time.


   
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(@mikko)
Making some noise
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I knew that, I also expanded the answer to Spotify streams. When you look at the results critically and I urge you to use media literacy. The answer was a bit off, I admit. 


   
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(@Anonymous 64982)
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The 1972 edition of “Guinness Book Of World Records”, statec The Beatles as being the world’s top-selling music act. Has this remained the same for every year since then?


   
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Landi Schorsch
(@landischorsch)
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@kipper The Beatles are still the best-selling artist of all time, with approximately 520 million (M) equivalent album sales (EAS) right now. Runner-up is Michael Jackson with approximately 345M EAS (if you add 60 million EAS of former group Jackson Five/Jacksons, then he is at 405M EAS). Number three is Elvis Presley at 324M EAS and number four is Queen at 287M EAS.

In the long run, I would say that Taylor Swift (at the moment at least 241M EAS) will surpass Queen and will therefore be the fourth successful artist of all time (behind The Beatles, MJ and Elvis). Maybe she will also surpass Elvis anytime, but I'm relatively sure, she won't surpass the still selling MJ's 405M solo plus group EAS.

My guess is The "regarding to sales permanently growing" Beatles will remain the all-time number one until the curtain falls.


   
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 esin
(@esin)
Garage singer
Joined: 2 years ago
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Will Metallica surpass Eagles?


   
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Landi Schorsch
(@landischorsch)
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@esin at the moment Eagles are about 4M EAS ahead of Metallica who are still enriching their catalog and having a more global appeal. I'm sure Metallica will surpass Eagles very soon.


   
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(@scotjoncon01)
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@landischorsch Then you should probably rename your list to something other than "best selling artists of all time" if you are going to deliberately leave off some of he best selling artists of all time


   
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Landi Schorsch
(@landischorsch)
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@scotjoncon01 at first, this isn't "my list". I am just a user here who occasionally responds to other users' comments with common sense.

And secondly, I assume this list of "Best-Selling Artists of All Time" does indeed aim to live up to its claim. However, analyzing an artist and their sales requires considerable effort on the part of the responsible editors. Thus, understandably, not all artists who have ever made music on this planet have been analyzed yet.

But as Bruce Springsteen so aptly sang, "I straighten my back, and I'm working on a dream."

   
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(@michael440)
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Joined: 5 years ago
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Hey, Mariah's daily streaming data is not pulling a few songs, including "Type Dangerous". Is it a bug?


   
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(@dweeb93)
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Hi thank you so much for adding so many new artists, that's an amazing endeavor, I think that's just about everyone on the requests leaderboard. Will The Who and Earth, Wind & Fire be added or are they getting full CSPC articles?


   
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