List of best-selling music albums in the United States

The compilation Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) by the band Eagles is the best-selling music album in the USA with 38 million sales

The list of best-selling music albums in the United States includes music albums that have been recognized by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for over ten million copies since 1952 , or have a proven record of selling over ten million copies. As a representative of the interests of the American music industry, this association has been awarding phonogram awards since 1958. The most successful award-winning work comes from the Eagles from 1976. Their compilation Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) sold over 38 million copies.

Notes on interpreting the statistics listed

Calculating the album equivalent in the USA

This list includes artists whose music albums have been recognized by the RIAA for over ten million units sold or who have been proven to have sold over ten million units. The RIAA has been giving awards for the delivery of music albums since March 14, 1958. Since March 1, 1991, the US company Billboard has been using the Nielsen SoundScan system to record album charts . The data recorded by the system are not used for the audio recording awards. Exact sales figures are not known for albums that were released before 1991, which is why they can only be verified via the audio recording awards.

The albums can be found in the following table in descending order of their volume of sound carrier sales and in descending order of their release date. The table also contains further information such as the amount of the award (15 × platinum, 20 × platinum, etc.) and the album type (studio album, compilation, etc.). The information in the column Amount of certified sound carrier sales is a minimum number of sound carriers sold for the corresponding album. The information in the "Certified sales" column is a minimum number of phonograms sold for the respective work. Since there are fixed lending limits for the awards, the actual sales of the respective sound carriers can be somewhat higher - i.e. between the awarded and the next awarding limit.

In addition, music streaming has also been included in the sales statistics of music albums since February 1, 2016 . While the BVMI only uses "premium streams" from the corresponding online music services , the RIAA also counts views on free services such as YouTube. The premium streams determined in this way are offset with a factor of 1500: 1. Since 2016, awards are no longer based on deliveries of physical sound carriers such as CDs, but also on streaming: e. B. Shania Twain's studio album Come on Over went platinum 20 times for 20 million units, but only sold 17.6 million copies.

Distribution of audio record awards

The RIAA has officially been giving awards for the delivery and use of music albums , singles and video albums in the United States since March 14, 1958 . The record companies concerned must apply for the certifications; the awards are not automatically assigned. The following number of units must be exceeded:

Award	until December 31, 1975	until December 31, 1983	until December 31, 1998	since January 1, 1999
gold	500,000
platinum	-	1,000,000
2 × platinum	-		2,000,000
...
diamond	-			10,000,000

Albums sorted according to record sales

• Rank: shows the order of the music albums. This is determined by the amount of "certified sales".
• Year: the year the music album was first released.
• Title: shows the title of the music album.
• Type: indicates what type of music album it is:
  • Compilation (Ko.)
  • Concept album (Ka.)
  • Soundtrack (Sun.)
  • Studio album (St.)
• Artist: indicates which artists are involved in the music album.
• Award: reflects the highest award of the gold and platinum awards awarded.
• Certified sales: indicates the limit of the "Awards" given.

20 million or more units

rank	year	Album title	Art	Interpreter	Award amount	Amount of certified phonograms sales
1	1976	Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)	Ko.	Eagles	38 × platinum	38 million
2	1982	thriller	St.	Michael Jackson	33 × platinum	33 million
3	1971	Led Zeppelin IV	St.	Led Zeppelin	23 × platinum	23 million
4th	1980	Back in Black	St.	AC / DC	22 × platinum	22 million
5	1977	Rumors	St.	Fleetwood Mac	20 × platinum	20 million

15 million or more units

rank	year	Album title	Art	Interpreter	Award amount	Amount of certified phonograms sales
6th	1987	Appetite for Destruction	St.	Guns n 'Roses	18 × platinum	18 million
7th	1997	Come on over	St.	Shania Twain	20 × platinum	17.6 million
8th	1974	Greatest hits	Ko.	Elton John	17 × platinum	17 million
	1976	Boston	St.	Boston
	1990	No fences	St.	Garth Brooks
11	1991	Metallica	St.	Metallica	16 × platinum	16.4 million
12	1991	Hotel California	St.	Eagles		16 million
	1976	Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Sound Track	So.	Bee Gees / Various Artists
14th	1995	Jagged Little Pill	St.	Alanis Morissette		15.3 million
15th	1973	The Dark Side of the Moon	Ka.	Pink Floyd	15 × platinum	15 million
	1984	Legend	Ko.	The Wailers
	1984	Born in the USA	St.	Bruce Springsteen
	1988	Greatest hits	Ko.	Journey

10 million or more units

rank	year	Album title	Art	Interpreter	Award amount	Amount of certified phonograms sales
19th	1994	Cracked rear view	St.	Hootie and the Blowfish	16 × platinum	14.5 million
20th	1972	Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits	Ko.	Simon & Garfunkel	14 × platinum	14 million
	1977	Bat out of hell	St.	Meat loaf
	1978	Greatest Hits 1974-78	Ko.	Steve Miller
23	1999	millennium	St.	Backstreet Boys	13 × platinum	13.8 million
24	1992	The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album	So.	Whitney Houston / Various Artists	18 × platinum	13.4 million
25th	1992	Supernatural	St.	Santana	15 × platinum	13.1 million
26th	1984	Purple Rain	St.	Prince and The Revolution	13 × platinum	13 million
	1985	Whitney Houston	St.	Whitney Houston
28	2000	1	Ko.	The Beatles	11 × platinum	12.8 million
29	2000	No strings attached	St.	NSYNC		12.6 million
30th	2000	The Marshall Mathers LP	St.	Eminem	1 × diamond	12.5 million
31	1999	... Baby One More Time	St.	Britney Spears	14 × platinum	12.2 million
32	1969	Abbey Road	St.	The Beatles	12 × platinum	12 million
	1969	Led Zeppelin II	St.	Led Zeppelin
	1980	Greatest hits	Ko.	Kenny Rogers
	1985	No jacket required	St.	Phil Collins
	1986	Slippery When Wet	St.	Bon Jovi
	1987	Hysteria	St.	Def Leppard
	1992	Breathless	St.	Kenny G
39	1997	Backstreet Boys	St.	Backstreet Boys	14 × platinum	11.9 million
40	2011	21st	St.	Adele		11.8 million
41	1996	Falling into you	St.	Celine Dion	11 × platinum	11.7 million
	1999	Human clay	St.	Creed
43	1979	The Wall	Ka.	Pink Floyd	23 × platinum	11.5 million
	1985	Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II	St.	Billy Joel
45	1997	Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture	So.	Various Artists	11 × platinum	11.1 million
	2000	Hybrid theory	St.	Linkin Park
	2002	Come away with me	St.	Norah Jones	1 × diamond
48	1967	Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	St.	The Beatles	11 × platinum	11 million
	1973	Houses of the Holy	St.	Led Zeppelin
	1973	Greatest hits	Ko.	James Taylor
	1980	Greatest hits	Ko.	Aerosmith
	1982	Eagles Greatest Hits, Vol. 2	Ko.	Eagles
	1987	Dirty Dancing	So.	Various Artists
54	1997	Let's talk about love	St.	Celine Dion	10 × platinum	10.7 million
	2002	The Eminem Show	St.	Eminem	1 × diamond
56	1991	Nevermind	St.	Nirvana	10 × platinum	10.6 million
	1998	Devil Without a Cause	St.	Kid rock	11 × platinum
58	2000	Oops! ... I did it again	St.	Britney Spears	1 × diamond	10.4 million
59	1998	'N Sync	St.	NSYNC	10 × platinum	10.3 million
	2004	Confessions	St.	Usher	1 × diamond
61	1998	Wide open spaces	St.	Dixie Chicks	12 × platinum	10.1 million
62	1991	Ten	St.	Pearl Jam	13 × platinum	10 million
63	1967	Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits	Ko.	Patsy Cline	10 × platinum
	1970	Elvis' Christmas Album	St.	Elvis Presley
	1971	Tapestry	St.	Carole King
	1976	Chronicle - The 20 Greatest Hits	Ko.	Creedence Clearwater Revival
	1976	Best of The Doobies	Ko.	Doobie Brothers
	1977	The Stranger	St.	Billy Joel
	1978	Van Halen	St.	Van Halen
	1981	Hi Infidelity	St.	REO Speedwagon
	1983	Pyromania	St.	Def Leppard
	1983	Can't slow down	St.	Lionel Richie
	1983	Eliminator	St.	ZZ top
	1984	Like a virgin	St.	Madonna
	1984	1984	St.	Van Halen
	1985	The Best of The Doors	Ko.	The Doors
	1986	Licensed to Ill	St.	Beastie Boys
	1987	bath	St.	Michael Jackson
	1987	Faith	St.	George Michael
	1987	The Joshua Tree	St.	U2
	1989	Garth Brooks	St.	Garth Brooks
	1990	The Immaculate Collection	Ko.	Madonna
	1990	Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em	St.	MC hammer

Leaderboards

Country of origin number nation 60  United States 13.5  United Kingdom 3.5  Canada 2 Various Artists 1  Australia 1  Jamaica 1  Ireland If two countries are given for an artist, this counts as half a point for both countries.

Album type number Art 63 Studio albums 16 Compilations 4th Soundtracks

See also

• List of the best-selling music albums certified by BVMI in Germany
• List of best-selling music albums in South Korea

Individual evidence

1. ^ RIAA debuts Album Award with Streams . In: RIAA . February 1, 2016. Accessed March 24, 2018.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} About the Awards . In: Recording Industry Association of America . Retrieved November 21, 2016. 
3. ↑ Top 100 Albums . In: RIAA . Retrieved March 24, 2018.
4. ↑ Taylor Weatherby: Shania Twain's 'Come On Over' Turns 20: The Singer Reflects on Going From Country Sweetheart to Best-Selling Pop Superstar . In: Billboard . November 1, 2017. Accessed March 24, 2018.
5. ↑ Christa Titus and Keith Caulfield: 7 Fast Chart Facts About Metallica's 'Black Album,' 25 Years Later . In: Billboard . August 12, 2016. Accessed March 24, 2018.
6. ↑ Keith Caulfield: Billboard 200 Chart Moves: Alanis Morissette's 'Jagged Little Pill' Hits 15 Million in US Sales . In: Billboard . June 26, 2015. Accessed March 24, 2018.
7. ↑ Keith Caulfield: Best Selling Albums Since 1991 (Soundscan Era): Adele Joins Elite Club . In: Billboard . November 29, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
8. ^ The rise and fall of the Columbia House record club - and how we learned to steal music . Boston Phoenix . November 18, 2011. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} SHANIA, BACKSTREET, BRITNEY, EMIMEN AND JANET TOP ALL TIME SELLERS . In: MI2N . Archived from the original on July 3, 2003.
10. ↑ ^{a b c d} Keith Caulfield: Billboard 200 Chart Moves: The Weeknd's Back in the Top 40, George Carlin Returns to Chart After Nearly 32 Years . In: Billboard . September 29, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
11. ↑ ^{a b c} Keith Caulfield: Adele's '21' Surpasses 11 Million In US Sales . In: Billboard . October 10, 2014. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
12. ↑ Keith Caulfield: Billboard 200 Chart Moves: Twenty One Pilots' 'Blurryface' Hits 100th Consecutive Week on List . In: Billboard . April 21, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
13. ↑ Keith Caulfield: Billboard 200 Chart Moves: Adele's '25' Hits 100th Consecutive Week on Chart . In: Billboard . October 27, 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
14. ↑ ^{a b} Paul Grein: Week Ending Feb. 17, 2013. Albums: Mumford’s . March 20, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
15. ↑ ^{a b} 10 Surprising Albums That Sold Over 10 Million Copies . In: Billboard . October 2, 2015. Accessed March 25, 2018.
16. ↑ Ask Billboard: With Nico & Vinz, Norway Continues US Chart Invasion . In: Billboard . June 25, 2014. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
17. ↑ ^{a b} Keith Caulfield: Adele's '25' Sales Surpass 8 Million in the US . In: Billboard . July 2, 2016. Retrieved March 25, 2018.
18. ^ Paul Grein: Week Ending Oct. 27, 2013. Albums: Katy Perry Takes Female Record . October 13, 2013. Accessed March 26, 2018.