Music Sound

List of best-selling albums worldwide

The world's best-selling album cannot be listed officially, since there is no international body to count global record sales. Historical data before the 1980s and from developing countries are also incomplete. Information is also lacking for non-English language albums.

Albums are listed in alphabetical order, rather than albums sold. Groupings are based on different sales benchmarks. Entries marked with an asterisk (*) are double albums, but they are counted once for each sale. Mutiple entries from the same artist are listed in chronological order:

Albums claimed to have sold 40 million or more units

Artist	Album	Year of release	Genre	Source
AC/DC	Back in Black	1980	Hard Rock	[1]
The Bee Gees	Saturday Night Fever (soundtrack)*	1977	Disco	[2]
The Eagles	Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)	1976	Rock	[3]
Pink Floyd	Dark Side of the Moon	1973	Rock	[4]
Michael Jackson	Thriller (This is the official greatest selling album of all time, according to guiness book of world records)	1982	Pop/R&B/Rock	[5][6]

Albums claimed to have sold 30 million or more units

Artist	Album	Year of release	Genre	Source
Whitney Houston	The Bodyguard	1992	Pop/R&B	[7]
Backstreet Boys	Millennium	1999	Pop	[8]
The Beatles	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	1967	Rock	[9]
The Beatles	1	2000	Rock/Pop	[10]
Céline Dion	Falling Into You	1996	Pop	[11]
Céline Dion	Let's Talk About Love	1997	Pop	[12]
Fleetwood Mac	Rumours	1977	Rock	[13]
James Horner	Titanic (soundtrack)	1997	Classic	[14]
Michael Jackson	Dangerous	1991	Pop/R&B	[15]

Albums claimed to have sold 25 million or more units

Artist	Album	Year of release	Genre	Source
Backstreet Boys	Backstreet Boys	1997	Pop	[16]
The Beatles	Abbey Road	1969	Rock	[17]
Céline Dion	All the Way... A Decade of Song	1999	Pop	[18]
Mariah Carey	Music Box	1993	Pop/R&B	[19]
Mariah Carey	Daydream	1995	Pop/R&B	[20]
Guns N' Roses	Appetite for Destruction	1987	Hard Rock	[21]
Michael Jackson	Bad	1987	Pop/R&B	[22]
Queen	Greatest Hits	1981	Rock
Santana	Supernatural	1999	Rock	[23]
Simon & Garfunkel	Bridge Over Troubled Water	1970	Folk/Rock	[24]
Various Artists	Grease (soundtrack)	1978	Pop	[25]
Britney Spears	...Baby One More Time	1999	Pop	[26]

Albums claimed to have sold 20 million or more units

Artist	Album	Year of release	Genre	Source
ABBA	Gold - Greatest Hits	1992	Pop	[27]
Ace of Base	Happy Nation/The Sign	1993	Pop	[28]
The Beatles	1962-1966*	1973	Rock/Pop	[29]
The Beatles	1967-1970*	1973	Rock/Pop	[30]
The Bee Gees	Spirits Having Flown	1979	Disco	[31]
Blondie	Parallel Lines	1977	Pop/Rock	[32]
Bon Jovi	Slippery When Wet	1986	Rock	[33]
Céline Dion	The Colour of My Love	1993	Pop	[34]
Dire Straits	Brothers in Arms	1985	Rock	[35]
The Eagles	Hotel California	1976	Rock	[36]
Michael Jackson	Off The Wall	1979	R&B	[37]
Norah Jones	Come Away With Me	2002	Jazz	[38]
Carole King	Tapestry	1971	Pop	[39]
Madonna	Like a Virgin	1984	Pop	[40]
Madonna	True Blue	1986	Pop	[41]
Madonna	The Immaculate Collection	1990	Pop	[42]
Ricky Martin	Ricky Martin	1999	Pop (Latin)	[43]
MC Hammer	Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em	1990	Rap	[44]
Metallica	Metallica a.k.a. The Black Album	1991	Metal	[45]
Pink Floyd	The Wall	1979	Rock	[46]
Lionel Richie	Can't Slow Down	1983	R&B	[47]
Simon & Garfunkel	Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits	1972	Folk/Rock	[48]
Britney Spears	Oops!... I Did It Again	2000	Pop	[49]
Spice Girls	Spice	1997	Pop	[50]
Bruce Springsteen	Born In The U.S.A.	1984	Rock	[51]
Tina Turner	Private Dancer	1984	Rock/Pop	[52]
U2	The Joshua Tree	1987	Rock	[53]
various artists	The Sound of Music (soundtrack)	1965	Pop	[54]
Whitney Houston	Whitney Houston	1985	Pop	[55]

Albums claimed to have sold 15 million or more units

Artist	Album	Year of release	Genre	Source
Abrar-ul-Haq	Billo De Ghar	1995	Bhangra	[56]
Christina Aguilera	Christina Aguilera	1999	Pop	[57]
The Beatles	The Beatles a.k.a. The White Album*	1968	Rock	[58]
Andrea Bocelli	Romanza	1997	Opera/Pop	[59]
Bon Jovi	Cross Road - The Best Of Bon Jovi	1994	Rock	[60]
Backstreet Boys	Black & Blue	2000	Pop	[61]
Boston	Boston	1976	Rock	[62]
Garth Brooks	No Fences	1990	Country	[63]
Mariah Carey	Mariah Carey	1990	Pop/R&B	[64]
Mariah Carey	Merry Christmas	1994	Pop/R&B	[65]
Mariah Carey	Butterfly	1997	Pop/R&B	[66]
Mariah Carey	#1's	1998	Pop/R&B	[67]
Eric Clapton	Unplugged	1992	Rock	[68]
Phil Collins	No Jacket Required	1985	Pop	[69]
Phil Collins	...But Seriously	1989	Pop	[70]
The Cranberries	No Need to Argue	1994	Rock	[71]
Bing Crosby	Merry Christmas	1957	Pop (Traditional)	[72]
Def Leppard	Hysteria	1987	Rock	[73]
Celine Dion	These Are Special Times	1998	Pop	[74]
The Eagles	The Eagles Greatest Hits, Vol. 2	1982	Rock	[75]
Eminem	The Marshall Mathers LP	2000	Rap	[76]
Eminem	The Eminem Show	2002	Rap	[77]
Enya	A Day Without Rain	2000	New Age	[78]
Evanescence	Fallen	2003	Hard Rock	[79]
Peter Frampton	Frampton Comes Alive*	1976	Rock	[80]
The Fugees	The Score	1996	Hip-Hop/R&B	[81]
Genesis	We Can't Dance	1991	Rock	[82]
Green Day	Dookie	1994	Rock (Alternative)	[83]
Green Day	American Idiot	2004	Rock (Alternative)
Guns N' Roses	Use Your Illusion I	1991	Hard Rock	[84]
Guns N' Roses	Use Your Illusion II	1991	Hard Rock	[85]
Lauryn Hill	The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill	1998	R&B/Hip-Hop	[86]
Hootie & The Blowfish	Cracked Rear View	1994	Rock	[87]
Whitney Houston	Whitney	1987	Pop/R&B	[88]
Janet Jackson	janet.	1993	Pop/R&B	[89]
Billy Joel	Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2*	1985	Pop/Rock	[90]
Elton John	Greatest Hits	1974	Pop/Rock	[91]
Elton John & Hans Zimmer	The Lion King (soundtrack)	1994	Pop	[92]
Journey	Greatest Hits	1988	Rock/Pop	[93]
Kenny G.	Breathless	1992	Jazz (Contemporary)	[94]
Avril Lavigne	Let Go	2002	Rock/Pop	[95]
Led Zeppelin	Led Zeppelin II	1969	Hard Rock	[96]
Led Zeppelin	Houses of the Holy	1973	Hard Rock	[97]
Led Zeppelin	Physical Graffiti*	1975	Hard Rock	[98]
Linkin Park	Hybrid Theory	2000	Hard Rock	[99]
Madonna	Like a Prayer	1989	Pop	[100]
Madonna	Ray of Light	1998	Pop/Dance	[101]
Madonna	Music	2000	Pop/Dance	[102]
Bob Marley	Legend	1984	Reggae	[103]
Matchbox Twenty	Yourself or Someone Like You	1996	Rock (Alternative)	[104]
Meat Loaf	Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell	1993	Rock	[105]
George Michael	Faith	1987	Pop	[106]
Nirvana	Nevermind	1991	Rock (Grunge)	[107]
No Doubt	Tragic Kingdom	1995	Rock (Ska)	[108]
'N Sync	No Strings Attached	2000	Pop	[109]
Oasis	(What's the Story) Morning Glory?	1995	Rock	[110]
Mike Oldfield	Tubular Bells	1973	Rock	[111]
Pearl Jam	Ten	1991	Rock (Grunge)	[112]
Prince	Purple Rain	1984	Pop/Rock	[113]
Queen	Greatest Hits II	1991	Rock
R.E.M.	Automatic for the People	1992	Rock	[114]
Red Hot Chilli Peppers	Californication	1999	Rock	[115]
Kenny Rogers	Greatest Hits	1980	Country	[116]
Shakira	Laundry Service	2001	Pop/Rock (Latin)	[117]
Spice Girls	Spice World	1997	Pop	[118]
Supertramp	Breakfast in America	1979	Rock	[119]
TLC	CrazySexyCool	1994	R&B	[120]
Shania Twain	The Woman in Me	1995	Country/Pop	[121]
Usher	Confessions	2004	R&B	[122]
U2	Achtung Baby	1991	Rock	[123]
Vanilla Ice	To the Extreme	1990	Rap	[124]

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Music Sound, v. 2.0, by MultiMedia

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.