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The 100 Best Selling Albums of All Time

Paul Resnikoff
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Platinum sales certifications for all albums compiled by the Recording Industry of America (RIAA).

16 Responses

  2. sven

    Great list but…

    The 100 Best Selling Albums of All Time IN AMERICA.

    ..because who gives a shit about the rest of the world, right? They probably don’t even count a double album twice in their sales charts. Idiots.

  3. Anonymous

    I’m assuming this is just the US, though it doesn’t say specifically. It would be interesting to see a world-wide list also for comparison.

  4. Claes Olson

    Great to see that list compiled! But, yes – this is of course “only” in the US, since Thriller must have sold like 44 millions ww. Thanks a lot for publishing the list though! But may I put “The 100 best selling albums in THE WORLD” on my wish list? (Which will have some US acts placed lower, and most European acts placed higher! ;o)

  5. John

    All you need to know about demographics, and purchasing power is that there are THREE Shania Twain albums on this list. OMG.

    • danwriter

      Another way to look at that is, along with Def Leppard, there are (at least) four Mutt Lange records on the list.

  6. George Johnson

    Where is Beyonce, Jay Z and Rhianna, oh that’s right, they don’t sell music, they stream?

  7. Matt Bunsen

    I would like to see a variation – one that excluded ‘greatest hits’ albums…

  8. Denise Nichols

    Only one since 2004 and none since 2011. That says it all, even if we don’t want to hear it.

  9. buh

    I wish there was a way to tell how many times these albums were purchased by the same individual multiple times.
    Buying thriller on LP, tape, CD and mp3? Or just multiple times cause you wore out a tape or scratched a CD.
    An mp3 never wears out. That could also have to do with the why sales are down.
    No one needs to buy stuff over and over.

  10. T. Cooke

    A beautiful time in the isle of history and man’s most monumental accomplishments veering alongside the invention of fire, the wheel, and the progress of the industrial revolution sits the recorded music from the second half of the twentieth century. WE created this.

    WE are proud.

    We are upon a new age. And in this age may we go forth and create from a new slate. We know not what has been lost. We remember in an appreciative and grateful light the residual joy brought to us by our own human spirit.

    May we have a moment of silence for the great music that is past.

  11. Anon

    There’s only 2 or 3 records on here that don’t suck balls.

    I could care less anyway about the top percentile ‘artists’ in sales, the thing is that for a little while in digital music the playing field was even enough that more and more actual artists could make a living. This is not true today with the blatant collusion of today’s ‘gatekeepers’ who are boiling down to fewer and fewer conglomerates in blatant collusion. It’s kinda like the AM radio payola days- but far worse.

  13. Anon

    What happened to Bob Seger’s Greatest Hits? It was number 1 for over 20 years and now it doesn’t show on the list at all? Something fishy……