List of best-selling albums
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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, and therefore are counted twice 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 Everyhit Bee Gees Saturday Night Fever* 1977 Soundtrack, Disco Everyhit Eagles Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) 1976 Country rock Everyhit Michael Jackson Thriller 1982 R&B, pop MJ stats site Everyhit
Albums claimed to have sold 30 million or more units
Artist Album Year of release Genre Source Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill 1995 Rock, Pop Billboard Backstreet Boys Millennium 1999 Pop Livedaily.com The Beatles Abbey Road 1969 rock Everyhit The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 1967 Rock Céline Dion Falling Into You 1996 Pop Céline Dion Let's Talk About Love 1997 Pop Fleetwood Mac Rumours 1977 Pop, Rock Led Zeppelin File:Zoso.png a.k.a. Led Zeppelin IV 1971 Hard Rock Mariah Carey Music Box 1993 Pop Fan Club Meat Loaf Bat Out of Hell 1977 Wagnerian rock Everyhit Michael Jackson Bad 1987 R&B, Pop MJ stats site Michael Jackson Dangerous 1991 R&B, Pop, Rock MJ stats site Michael Jackson HIStory* 1995 Pop MJ stats site Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon 1973 Progressive rock Everyhit Shania Twain Come on Over 1997 Country pop Everyhit Various Artists Dirty Dancing 1987 Soundtrack, pop Everyhit Whitney Houston The Bodyguard (soundtrack) 1992 Pop Everyhit
Albums claimed to have sold 20 million or more units
Albums claimed to have sold 15 million or more units
Trivia
- The record for the highest selling album in the world is Michael Jackson's Thriller with sales claims of up to 51 million copies worldwide. [3]
- Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Backstreet Boys and Céline Dion are the only artists to have sold a reported 30 million copies of two discs.
- The Beatles remain the best-selling group in history with an estimated 500 million albums sold.
- The highest-selling debut album is said to be the Backstreet Boys