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Best-Selling Albums of All Time

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(@melanie)
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Best-selling albums by equivalent album sales (EAS)

Remember to use the searching, filtering, and sorting options to make the most out of the ranking, like top sellers per year or per decade!

The ranking


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Highlights among the best-selling albums ever

The final ranking is full of surprises.

At the top, no shocker: Thriller dominates with over 120 million sales in total. Whether you count all units or stick strictly to pure studio album sales, it’s in a league of its own. Unsurprisingly, it's also the biggest album of the 1980s, and of the entire 20th century.

Albums heavily pushed by their record labels since release, like Led Zeppelin’s IV and the iconic Dark Side of the Moon, land high at #8 and #9. Still, some might have expected them even higher. Regardless, they remain massive smashes.

Other albums rank lower here than on many other charts, especially those driven largely by U.S. popularity. Many rankings online rely heavily (and sometimes solely) on U.S. certifications, which inflates the global standing of artists like Garth Brooks. This distortion is made worse by the RIAA’s practice of multi-certifying albums with multiple discs. That’s how albums like Double Live by Garth Brooks or Greatest Hits Volume I & II by Billy Joel end up in some all-time global top 10s — which simply doesn’t hold up when looking at actual worldwide sales.

These types of compilations, which mostly recycle existing material, aren't listed as standalone albums here. Instead, their sales are credited back to the original studio albums the tracks came from. That’s why you won’t find Legend by Bob Marley & the Wailers or ABBA's Gold on this list — but you will see Exodus and Arrival in their place.

On the flip side, some albums reveal their true impact thanks to consistent sales across all formats. Hotel California by the Eagles, Saturday Night Fever by the Bee Gees, Michael Jackson’s Bad, and Rumours by Fleetwood Mac all break into the top 5. The Eagles’ classic even takes the crown as the top album of the 1970s, beating up a tough competition.

Nirvana’s Nevermind has been climbing steadily year after year. Now at #7, it stands as the most successful album of the 1990s.

There’s a lot to notice outside the global top 10 as well. ElvisChristmas Album dominates among all pre-1960 records. The Beatles are, of course, well represented with Abbey Road leading the 1960s and five more albums making the top 10.

In more recent decades, iconic female artists take the lead. The Fame by Lady Gaga tops the 2000s, while 21 by Adele clearly leads the 2010s. As for the 2020s, the race is still wide open.

And the most successful female album of all time? That depends. If you count The Bodyguard soundtrack as a Whitney Houston album, it takes the spot. If not, then Adele’s 21 leads. And given her continued success, the British powerhouse may well secure the crown in the long run.

Why do we assign weights to different formats?

Ever since we talk about the best-selling albums of all time, we refer to pure sales of a specific release. American pop legend Michael Jackson's Thriller is often listed as the #1 album ever, accurately so, although many uneducated or pro-clickbait media (see [1][2][3]) used US-only RIAA certifications to claim that the Eagles' 71-75 Greatest Hits album holds the crown.

Taking indirect sales into account

Apart from the usual US vs World confusion, a more implicit issue has been corrupting the perception of the truly best selling albums of all time for the general public. That's the difference between pure sales of a precise album, against sales of all records powered by one era.

This led the Worlds Music Awards to claim that Thriller had sold 104 million units as of 2006. In reality, these were total sales of all albums which included the song Thriller on their tracklist at that point, rather than sales of the 1982 pop LP.

It highlights the importance of indirect sales to gauge the real success of an album. For example, let's take the fact that Pink Floyd's Dark side of the moon charted for roughly 740 weeks between 1973 and 1988. It's true, but it's only one part of the story.

Many studio albums would remain longer in charts if they weren't replaced by subsequent compilation albums. This creates an unfair environment, where albums which were never challenged by subsequent best of albums seem much stronger than they really were, and vice versa.

That's why we introduced our original CSPC approach, to put all albums on par, we account for every sale generated by one studio album, weight them on par with albums, and see which ones are indeed the best selling albums of all time.

It means we take streaming into account, as well as compilations which are linked to the studio albums they cover.

Conversion ratios between formats

The table above shows the best-selling albums ever using the following ratios:

  • Studio album: sales of the original album (ratio 1/1)
  • Other LPs: sales of compilations generated thanks to the album (ratio 1/1)
  • Physical singles: sales of physical singles from the album (added to CSPC total with a ratio 3/10 for 2-tracks, 5/10 for EPs and Maxis)
  • Digital singles: sales of digital singles from the album (ratio 1.5/10 for CSPC total)
  • Streaming: EAS of all the album tracks (ratio 1/1500 for Audio stream and 1/6750 for Video stream)

Sales figures reflect the value as collected at the time of the artist’s respective articles while streams are updated daily. Albums from unstudied artists which gained significant streams are listed but miss the sales component.

Best-selling studio albums in pure sales

For those of you who'd like to now focus on studio albums pure sales, this list reflects the top album based on pure sales. Studio albums alone are considered here. Compilations, lives, and box sets are not.


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Best-selling studio album of the year (since the 1940s)

This final list is about the biggest album of every year. What was the one release that outsold all others each year?


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We have more for you

This topic was modified 2 weeks ago 9 times by Melanie Vieira
This topic was modified 2 days ago by Melanie Vieira

   
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(@Denysanatol)
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Which animated movie soundtrack is the most suссesful in history : "Frozen" or "Lion King" ?


   
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(@analord)
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The Lion King by far, twice more pure sales (18m vs 9m) and a little more EAS from singles and streaming for Frozen (maybe 2m).


   
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(@Denysanatol)
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On this site "Frozen" had 10.900.000 pure sales and 21.5 millions EAS . What about "The Lion King" ?


   
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 Al
(@al)
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Earlier estimates had it at 17.5m. It's probably a bit higher than that though due to new data like over 1m in China etc. For CSPC it depends a lot on what we include. Hundreds if not thousands of Disney compilations have been released through the years all over the World. If these are added I'm not sure Frozen's 2nd spot is secured tbh.


   
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(@denysanatol)
Making some noise
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I'm understand ! Maybe someday we'll see that article .Thanks !


   
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(@analord)
Hyped artist
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Yeah but it includes translated versions like the 1m-selling Japanese one for example, to me they're not the same albums... A similar case would be The Sound Of Music soundtrack, 18m sales but about 2m from translated versions (the French one was called "La Mélodie du Bonheur").


   
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(@denysanatol)
Making some noise
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I mean among animation soundtracks .


   
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(@denysanatol)
Making some noise
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About "Sound of Music" . Where did the information come from that it sold 18 million copies ?


   
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 Dan
(@Dan)
Making some noise Guest
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Hi, why u down the sales to a lot albums? Thanks.


   
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(@denysanatol)
Making some noise
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And what happens with an updates ?


   
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(@denysanatol)
Making some noise
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Almost week with no updates ! It's sad .


   
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 0908
(@0908)
Garage singer Guest
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there is on this page,but not on artist's pages


   
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(@Denysanatol)
Hyped artist Guest
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What is wrong with list ? Double "Divide" , "Multiply" by Ed Sheeran , Adele's "25".



   
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(@Denysanatol)
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Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 308
 

Updated pure sales of an albums not included in total sales . For example :
Taylor Swift - "Midnights" _ 11.384.000 EAS as of 07/17/23 . With an updates must be at 11.416.000 EAS .


   
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(@nickthemusicman)
Garage singer
Joined: 2 years ago
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Could you add a feature that can let you exclude say soundtracks would be helpful if you dont wanna include a soundtrack or christmas album


   
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 Jsak
(@Jsak)
Signing a deal Guest
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It's impossible Come on over is below 50 million


   
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(@James)
Garage singer Guest
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I miss when it showed the images of the albums on portrait mode 🙁


   
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(@Alex Scott)
Got his first mic Guest
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I love Adele


   
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(@Analord)
Hyped artist Guest
Joined: 5 years ago
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A question about Future's I Never Liked You (2022) EAS total: 2.7m while the US total is around 2.4m, meaning 90% or so... It seems like a lot considering even US-centric rappers like Kendrick or Juice Wrld's US totals represent 65% or so of their totals. Something I'm missing?


   
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Meca76
(@meca76)
Viral on Spotify
Joined: 4 years ago
Posts: 142
 

Top albums (EAS) - Why isn't it updating?


   
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(@mjd)
Member Admin
Joined: 9 years ago
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Well spotted Meca76, it's fixed now!


   
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(@Jonas)
Garage singer Guest
Joined: 4 years ago
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Is there any chance of getting updated EAS numbers for Billie Eilish now that her new album is out?


   
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(@Alphon)
Got his first mic Guest
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We should separate 1989 and 1989 TV


   
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 Gigi
(@Gigi)
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Can y’all fix Avril under my skin skin worldwide sales it’s been surpassed 10 million it’s 14 million worldwide and her 3rd album is 12 million WW and let go is 23 or 24 and her last two are at 1 million


   
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