France Best Selling Albums Ever:
All-Time Ranking (2015)

Debut Albums

01 Louise Attaque – Louise Attaque (1997) : 2 740 000
02 Era – Era (1997) : 2 180 000
03 Garou – Seul (2000) : 1 970 000
04 Manau – Panique Celtique (1998) : 1 780 000
05 Christophe Maé – Mon Paradis (2007) : 1 610 000
06 Patricia Kaas – Mademoiselle Chante… (1988) : 1 490 000
07 Fredericks Goldman Jones – Fredericks Goldman Jones (1990) : 1 420 000
08 Carla Bruni – Quelqu’un M’A Dit (2002) : 1 405 000
09 Ace Of Base – Happy Nation (1993) : 1 400 000
10 Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman (1988) : 1 330 000

One element to notice is how recent all those albums are. No debut album released before 1988 ever sold 1 million. At the time, each artist had to make his hole before benefitting from majors promotion machines. A second key element is how most of those acts were already known prior those debut albums. Both Garou and Christophe Maé were musicals superstars, Era was a project from famous Eric Lévi, Carla Bruni was a model star and Fredericks Goldman Jones a side project of Jean-Jacques Goldman.

Christmas Albums

01 Tino Rossi – C’est La Belle Nuit De Noêl (1973) : 1 080 000

Well, this category is rather empty, but just a small congrats to legendary Tino Rossi for achieving the impossible by selling over 1 million units of a Christmas album in France.