List of best-selling albums of the 21st century
This is a list of the best-selling albums of the 21st century to date based on IFPI certification and Nielsen SoundScan sales tracking. The criteria are that the album must have been published (including self-publishing by the artist), and the album must have shipped at least 10 million units starting from January 1, 2001. Units sold include physical copies and digital downloads.
Legend[]
Colors | |
---|---|
Studio albums | |
Greatest hits and compilations | |
Soundtracks |
30 million copies or more[]
Release year |
Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Worldwide sales (in millions) |
Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011 | 21 | Adele | United Kingdom | 31.0 | [1] |
20–29 million copies[]
Release year |
Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Worldwide sales (in millions) |
Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2002 | The Eminem Show | Eminem | United States | 27.0 | [2] |
2002 | Come Away With Me | Norah Jones | United States | 27.0 | [3] |
2015 | 25 | Adele | United Kingdom | 23.0 | [4] |
13–19 million copies[]
Release year |
Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Worldwide sales (in millions) |
Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | Fallen | Evanescence | United States | 17.0 | [5] |
2006 | Back to Black | Amy Winehouse | United Kingdom | 16.0 | [6] |
2002 | Let Go | Avril Lavigne | Canada | 16.0 | [7] |
2003 | Meteora | Linkin Park | United States | 16.0 | [8] |
2011 | Christmas | Michael Bublé | Canada / Italy | 15.0 | [9] |
2004 | Confessions | Usher | United States | 15.0 | [10] |
2008 | The Fame | Lady Gaga | United States | 15.0 | [11] |
2004 | American Idiot | Green Day | United States | 15.0 | [12] |
2002 | A Rush of Blood to the Head | Coldplay | United Kingdom | 15.0 | [13][14] |
2001 | Take Off Your Pants and Jacket | Blink-182 | United States | 14.0 | [15] |
2001 | Laundry Service | Shakira | Colombia | 13.0 | [16] |
2001 | Missundaztood | Pink | United States | 13.0 | [17] |
2005 | X&Y | Coldplay | United Kingdom | 13.0 | [14] |
2005 | Curtain Call: The Hits | Eminem | United States | 13.0 | [18] |
10–12 million copies[]
Best-selling album by year[]
The charts of the best-selling albums by year in the world are compiled by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) annually since 2001. These charts are published in their two annual reports, the Digital Music Report and the Recording Industry in Numbers. Both the Digital Music Report and the Recording Industry in Numbers were replaced in 2016 by the Global Music Report.[41]
Year | Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Sales (in millions) |
Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | Hybrid Theory | Linkin Park | United States | 10 | [42] |
2002 | The Eminem Show | Eminem | United States | 12.9 | [43] |
2003 | Come Away with Me | Norah Jones | United States | 16.0 | [44] |
2004 | Confessions | Usher | United States | 12.0 | [45] |
2005 | X&Y | Coldplay | United Kingdom | 8.3 | [46] |
2006 | High School Musical | Various Artists | — | 7.0 | [47] |
2007 | High School Musical 2 | — | 6.0 | [48] | |
2008 | Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | Coldplay | United Kingdom | 6.8 | [49] |
2009 | I Dreamed a Dream | Susan Boyle | United Kingdom | 6.4 | [50] |
2010 | Recovery | Eminem | United States | 5.2 | [51] |
2011 | 21 | Adele | United Kingdom | 18.1 | [43] |
2012 | 8.3 | [52] | |||
2013 | Midnight Memories | One Direction | United Kingdom /Ireland | 4.0 | [53] |
2014 | Frozen | Various Artists | — | 10.0 | [54] |
2015 | 25 | Adele | United Kingdom | 17.4 | [55] |
2016 | Lemonade | Beyoncé | United States | 2.5 | [56] |
2017 | ÷ | Ed Sheeran | United Kingdom | 6.1 | [57] |
2018 | The Greatest Showman | Hugh Jackman & Various Artists | — | 3.5 | [58] |
2019 | 5x20 All the Best!! 1999–2019 | Arashi | Japan | 3.3 | [59] |
2020 | Map of the Soul: 7 | BTS | South Korea | 4.8 | [60] |
See also[]
- List of best-selling albums
- List of best-selling albums in the United States
- List of best-selling albums by country
- List of best-selling music artists
- List of best-selling singles
- List of best-selling albums in the United States of the Nielsen SoundScan era
- List of best-selling albums by year in the United States
- List of best-selling Latin albums in the United States
- IFPI Global Recording Artist of the Year
References[]
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Upon its release in 2003, Evanescence’s debut album, Fallen, became a rock phenomenon, selling 17 million copies worldwide, spending 43 weeks in the top 10 and becoming one of only eight albums to spend an entire year in the Billboard top 50.
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|url=
value (help). Retrieved December 19, 2021. Missing or empty|title=
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Then the music begins and I remember why Green Day sold over 15 million copies of "American Idiot" -- it's a really good album.
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Albums sold worldwide. Parachutes (8.5 million); A Rush of Blood to the Head (15 million); X&Y (13 million); Viva La Vida (10 million); Mylo Xyloto (6 million).
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After leaving Columbia University to pursue a singing career, Keys broke into the music scene in 2001 with her album, Songs in A Minor, which sold 12 million copies worldwide and won Keys five Grammys.
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The title track to Dion's 2002 return "A New Day Has Come" spent 21 weeks at No. 1 at AC- setting a record -while the album sold 12 million copies worldwide, according to Sony.
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Let us be frank: Dido’s debut, ‘No Angel’, wasn’t much cop either. But it was superior to follow-up ‘Life For Rent’, which sold over 12 million copies worldwide and was the seventh best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK.
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Nelly Furtado’s 2006 album Loose [...] which went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide.
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Blunt's debut album, Back to Bedlam, has sold 11 million copies worldwide, making it the most successful British album of the new century.
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World-wide album sales with All the Right Reasons the most popular selling more than 11 million copies followed by Silver Side Up with 10 million.
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(...) and "Britney", released in 2001, sold 10 million copies (150,000 in Brazil).
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That was also the last time one of her albums sold over 10 million copies, so maybe Madge is pulling out all of the stops to get another multi-million hit on her hands.
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'The Emancipation of Mimi', to be the biggest-selling album of the year worldwide (10 million copies sold), taking her career total to well over 160 million.
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'Songs About Jane' sold an estimated 10 million copies worldwide, but that was not enough to assure top executives at Sony BMG, the music giant that distributed it, that the rights to Maroon 5’s future recordings were worth the asking price.
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Releases first album I Dreamed A Dream through Simon Cowell’s label. Sells 10 million copies worldwide.
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- ^ "The Greatest Showman soundtrack named best-selling album of 2018". International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. 13 March 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
- ^ "ARASHI Awarded Global Album of 2019 for Their 20th Anniversary Compilation 5x20 All the BEST!! 1999-2019". IFPI. March 19, 2020.
- ^ "BTS Bag 'Unprecedented' 1-2 on IFPI's Global Album Sales Chart For 2020". IFPI. March 11, 2021.
- 21st century in music
- 21st century-related lists
- Lists of best-selling albums