List of best-selling albums worldwide

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This is a list of the world's best-selling albums. The criteria are that the album must have been published (self-publishing by the artist is allowed), and the album must have sold at least 20 million copies worldwide. Groupings are based on different sales benchmarks, the highest being for claims of at least 100 million copies, and the lowest being for claims of 20–25 million copies. Albums are listed in order of number of copies sold and there-after by the artist's first name. This list contains any type of album, including studio, greatest hits, compilation, various artists, soundtrack and remix.

A number of issues make exact figures difficult to calculate, historical data before the 1980s and from developing countries are also incomplete. Additionally fans, record companies and the media are prone to exaggerating sales figures to boost the image of the relevant act.

Thriller is the best selling album of all time, though sales figures for the album vary between different sources the album is cited as selling between 45 million^[1] and 108 million copies worldwide.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The Guinness Book of World Records lists it as 65 million copies sold as of 2007.^[8]

Contents 1 100 million copies 2 38–43 million copies 3 32–37 million copies 4 26–31 million copies 5 20–25 million copies 6 See also 7 References

100 million copies

Artist	Album	Released	Genre	Sales (millions)	Source
Michael Jackson	Thriller	1982	Pop / R&B	108	[2][3][4][5][6][7]

38–43 million copies

Artist	Album	Released	Genre	Sales (millions)	Source
AC/DC	Back in Black	1980	Rock	42	[9]
Whitney Houston / Various artists	The Bodyguard	1992	Pop / R&B	42	[10]
Eagles	Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)	1976	Rock	41	[9]
Bee Gees / Various artists	Saturday Night Fever	1977	Disco	40	[9]
Pink Floyd	Dark Side of the Moon	1973	Rock	40	[11]

32–37 million copies

Artist	Album	Released	Genre	Sales (millions)	Source
Meat Loaf	Bat out of Hell	1977	Rock	37	[9]
Shania Twain	Come on Over	1997	Country / Pop	36	[12]
The Beatles	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	1967	Rock	32	[9]
Celine Dion	Falling into You	1996	Pop	32	[13]
Led Zeppelin	Led Zeppelin IV	1971	Rock	32	[13]
Mariah Carey	Music Box	1993	Pop / R&B	32	[14]
Various artists	Dirty Dancing	1987	Dance / Pop	32	[9]

26–31 million copies

Artist	Album	Released	Genre	Sales (millions)	Source
Celine Dion	Let's Talk About Love	1997	Pop	31	[15]
Alanis Morissette	Jagged Little Pill	1995	Pop	30	[16]
Backstreet Boys	Millennium	1999	Pop	30	[17]
The Beatles	1	2000	Rock	30	[13]
The Beatles	Abbey Road	1969	Rock	30	[13]
Bee Gees	Spirits Having Flown	1979	Disco / Pop	30	[18]
Celine Dion / James Horner / Various artists	Titanic	1997	Pop	30	[19]
Dire Straits	Brothers in Arms	1985	Rock	30	[20]
Fleetwood Mac	Rumours	1977	Rock	30	[21]
Michael Jackson	Bad	1987	Pop / R&B	29	[13]
Backstreet Boys	Backstreet Boys	1997	Pop	28	[22]
Bon Jovi	Slippery When Wet	1986	Rock	28	[23]
Michael Jackson	Dangerous	1991	Pop / R&B	27	[24]
ABBA	ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits	1992	Pop	26	[25]
Nirvana	Nevermind	1991	Grunge	26	[26]

20–25 million copies

Artist	Album	Released	Genre	Sales (millions)	Source
Britney Spears	…Baby One More Time	1999	Pop	25	[27]
Guns N' Roses	Appetite for Destruction	1987	Rock	25	[28]
Iron Butterfly	In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida	1968	Rock	25	[29]
Queen	Greatest Hits	1981	Rock	25	[30]
Santana	Supernatural	1999	Rock	25	[31]
Whitney Houston	Whitney Houston	1985	Pop / R&B	25	[10]
Carole King	Tapestry	1971	Pop	24	[32]
Linkin Park	Hybrid Theory	2000	Rock	24	[33]
Michael Crawford / Sarah Brightman	The Phantom of the Opera	1986	Broadway	24	[34]
Spice Girls	Spice	1996	Pop	23	[35]
Madonna	The Immaculate Collection	1990	Pop	22	[36]
Metallica	Metallica	1991	Heavy Metal	22	[37]
Dido	No Angel	1999	Pop	21	[38]
Blondie	Parallel Lines	1978	New Wave	20	[39]
Bruce Springsteen	Born in the U.S.A.	1984	Rock	20	[40]
Celine Dion	All the Way… A Decade of Song	1999	Pop	20	[15]
Celine Dion	The Colour of My Love	1993	Pop	20	[41]
Cher	Believe	1999	Dance / Pop	20	[42]
George Michael	Faith	1987	Pop / Soul	20	[43]
Lionel Richie	Can't Slow Down	1983	R&B	20	[44]
Madonna	True Blue	1986	Pop	20	[45]
Norah Jones	Come Away with Me	2002	Jazz	20	[46]
Oasis	(What's the Story) Morning Glory?	1995	Rock	20	[47]
Tina Turner	Private Dancer	1984	R&B / Rock	20	[48]
U2	The Joshua Tree	1987	Rock	20	[49]
Various artists	Grease	1978	Pop	20	[50]

See also

• Best-selling music artist
• List of best-selling singles worldwide
• List of best-selling remix albums worldwide
• List of best-selling albums in the United States
• United World Chart

References