Data Collector – Singles (all formats combined)

The list of top sellers in each single-oriented format has been published during this week. It’s time to merge these three rankings to see who are the best selling singles artists of all time. Do Rihanna, The Beatles and Drake, who respectively top Digital Singles, Physical Singles and Streaming lists, lead this one too? Do other well-placed artists in each one beat them to the punch? You will find the answer in the list below!

Please keep in mind some artists with strong results in each single format haven’t been studied so far, e.g. Elvis Presley, Kendrick Lamar or Nicki Minaj. All figures reflect the value as collected at the time of the artist’s respective articles. This precision is very important because of the fast increase of Streaming figures for now.

A lot of lists like this one are available in the Data Collector, so feel free to read them to gauge how your favorite artist ranked in it.

Reminder of the formulas:

Equivalent Albums Sales (EAS) = 0.3 * Physical Single Sales

Equivalent Albums Sales (EAS) = 0.15 * Digital Single Sales

Equivalent Albums Sales (EAS) = 212/132 * Spotify streams / 1500 + YouTube views / 11750

Artists Ranking – Singles (all formats)

1. Rihanna – 53,246,000 (as of Nov 2017)
2. Drake – 42,105,000 (as of Aug 2017)
3. Beatles – 41,695,000 (as of Mar 2017)
4. Michael Jackson – 39,144,000 (as of Sep 2017)
5. Eminem – 38,029,000 (as of Aug 2016)
6. Beyoncé – 31,037,000 (as of Dec 2016)
7. Rolling Stones – 30,840,000 (as of Dec 2016)
8. Madonna – 30,264,000 (as of Aug 2017)
9. Bruno Mars – 30,253,000 (as of Oct 2017)
10. Taylor Swift – 26,313,000 (as of Oct 2017)
11. Maroon 5 – 26,230,000 (as of Oct 2016)
12. Queen – 25,820,000 (as of Oct 2017)
13. Ed Sheeran – 25,481,000 (as of Jan 2018)
14. Bee Gees – 24,872,000 (as of Apr 2017)
15. Katy Perry – 22,627,000 (as of Jul 2016)
16. Coldplay – 21,948,000 (as of Jun 2017)
17. Usher – 21,132,000 (as of Sep 2017)
18. Whitney Houston – 20,918,000 (as of May 2017)
19. Britney Spears – 19,993,000 (as of Jun 2017)
20. Justin Bieber – 19,852,000 (as of Aug 2016)
21. ABBA – 19,832,000 (as of Nov 2016)
22. Mariah Carey – 19,821,000 (as of Apr 2017)
23. Lady Gaga – 19,512,000 (as of Aug 2016)
24. Black Eyed Peas – 19,120,000 (as of Aug 2017)
25. George Michael & Wham! – 18,393,000 (as of May 2017)