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. Elvis’ Christmas 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.
