The official list of album sales is comprised of physical only formats, e.g. Compact disc’s, cassettes and vinyl records.
To appear on the list an album must have at least 20 million record sales and 10 million certified sales.
This list can contain any types of album, including studio albums, extended plays, greatest hits, compilations, various artists, soundtracks and remixes.
The recorded figures are for the initial sales, not resale or used / non-new albums.
The top ten certified selling albums of all time:
The following list is comprised of the certified physical sales of pop record around the world, as of 2024:
- Michael Jackson – Thriller -1982 - 51.3 Million
- Whitney Houston - The Bodyguard -1992 - 28.7 Million
- Shania Twain- Come On Over -1997 - 30.4 Million
- Adele – 21 – 2011 - 27.4 Million
- ABBA - Gold: Greatest Hits – 1992 - 21.9 Million
- Michael Jackson – Bad - 1987 - 21.2 Million
- Celine Dion - Falling into You - 1996 - 21.1 Million
- Madonna - The Immaculate Collection – 1990 - 20.8 Million
- Celine Dion - Let's Talk About Love – 1997 - 20.5 Million
- Mariah Carey - Music Box – 1993 - 17.8 Million
The top ten reported selling pop albums of all time:
In addition to the official certified list, the following list shows the reported number of estimated sales by each pop artist, this differs from the audited certifies list.
- Michael Jackson – Thriller -1982 - 70 Million
- Whitney Houston - The Bodyguard -1992 - 40 Million
- Shania Twain- Come On Over -1997 - 40 Million
- Michael Jackson – Bad - 1987 - 35 Million
- Celine Dion - Falling into You - 1996 - 32 Million
- Adele – 21 – 2011 - 31 Million
- Celine Dion - Let's Talk About Love – 1997 - 31 Million
- ABBA - Gold: Greatest Hits – 1992 - 30 Million
- Madonna - The Immaculate Collection – 1990 - 30 Million
- Mariah Carey - Music Box – 1993 - 28 Million
Which Pop artist has sold the most records:
According to the official certified records, Micheal Jackson is the biggest selling pop artist of all time.
Thriller, by Micheal Jackson is estimated to have sold over 70 million copies, which is 20 million for than the official sales record.
The biggest selling artists behind Micheal Jackson are Celine Dion, The Beatles and Madonna.
In total Michael Jackson has five albums in the official record album sales of all time.
In which decade was the most pop records sold?
The 1990’s hold the record for the most copies sold by all artist. This is was the decade when there were the most physical formats available and long before digital media and streaming were introduced.
This is also the decade when compact discs (CD’s) were introduced and mass produced in multiple variations, increasing the number of sales.
Is a double album classed as a single copy sold?
According to two of the biggest music sale certification bodies, The RIIA and Music Canada, each disc in a multi album set counts as one copy, so sales of double albums, such as Pink Floyd’s The Wall, counts as two copies in the official statistics.
