List of best-selling albums of the 21st century

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List of best-selling albums of the 21st century - Wikipedia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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.

From 2022, IFPI reported three formats of sales chart, newly created Global vinyl album chart, combination of physical copies and digital downloads as Global album sales chart and Global all format chart for totaling of all sales.^[1]

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	^[2]

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	^[3]
2002	Come Away with Me	Norah Jones	United States	27.0	^[4]
2015	25	Adele	United Kingdom	23.0	^[5]

13–19 million copies

Release year	Album	Artist/s	Nationality	Worldwide sales (in millions)	Ref(s)
2008	The Fame	Lady Gaga	United States	18.0	^[6]
2003	Fallen	Evanescence	United States	17.0	^[7]
2002	A Rush of Blood to the Head	Coldplay	United Kingdom	17.0	^[8]
2002	Let Go	Avril Lavigne	Canada	16.0	^[9]
2001	A Day Without Rain	Enya	Ireland	16.0	^[10]
2003	Meteora	Linkin Park	United States	16.0	^[11]
2006	Back to Black	Amy Winehouse	United Kingdom	16.0	^[12]
2004	Confessions	Usher	United States	15.0	^[13]
2004	American Idiot	Green Day	United States	15.0	^[14]
2014	1989	Taylor Swift	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	^[18]
2005	Curtain Call: The Hits	Eminem	United States	13.0	^[19]

10–12 million copies

Release year	Album	Artist/s	Nationality	Worldwide sales (in millions)	Ref(s)
2001	Songs in A Minor	Alicia Keys	United States	12.0	^[20]
2002	A New Day Has Come	Celine Dion	Canada	12.0	^[21]
2002	Stripped	Christina Aguilera	United States	12.0	^[22]
2003	Get Rich or Die Tryin'	50 Cent	United States	12.0	^[23]
2003	Life for Rent	Dido	United Kingdom	12.0	^[24]
2004	Feels like Home	Norah Jones	United States	12.0	^[25]
2004	Breakaway	Kelly Clarkson	United States	12.0	^[26]
2008	Fearless	Taylor Swift	United States	12.0	^[27]
2011	Christmas	Michael Bublé	Canada / Italy	12.0	^[28]
2003	Dangerously in Love	Beyoncé	United States	11.0	^[29]
2004	Back to Bedlam	James Blunt	United Kingdom	11.0	^[30]
2004	Encore	Eminem	United States	11.0	^[31]
2005	All the Right Reasons	Nickelback	Canada	11.0	^[32]
2001	Survivor	Destiny's Child	United States	10.0	^[33]
2006	Loose	Nelly Furtado	Canada	10.0	^[34]^[35]
2005	The Emancipation of Mimi	Mariah Carey	United States	10.0	^[36]
2005	Confessions on a Dance Floor	Madonna	United States	10.0	^[37]
2001	Invincible	Michael Jackson	United States	10.0	^[38]
2004	Under My Skin	Avril Lavigne	Canada	10.0	^[39]
2001	Silver Side Up	Nickelback	Canada	10.0	^[32]
2001	Britney	Britney Spears	United States	10.0	^[40]
2002	Songs About Jane	Maroon 5	United States	10.0	^[41]
2002	Justified	Justin Timberlake	United States	10.0	^[42]
2003	Number Ones	Michael Jackson	United States	10.0	^[43]
2006	FutureSex/LoveSounds	Justin Timberlake	United States	10.0	^[42]
2008	I Am... Sasha Fierce	Beyoncé	United States	10.0	^[44]
2008	Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends	Coldplay	United Kingdom	10.0	^[18]
2009	I Dreamed a Dream	Susan Boyle	United Kingdom	10.0	^[45]
2010	Recovery	Eminem	United States	10.0	^[46]
2014	Frozen	Various Artists	—	10.0	^[47]

Best-selling album by year

References

^ "IFPI GLOBAL MUSIC REPORT 2022". globalmusicreport.ifpi.org. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
^ Serjeant, Jill (31 October 2016). Osterman, Cynthia (ed.). "Adele says she battled depression, before and after son's birth". Vanity Fair. Reuters. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
^ "Eminem music to hit stock exchange in deal offered by his producers". The Music Network. 25 September 2017. Retrieved 14 April 2018.
^ "Norah Jones' 2002 debut album won six Grammys and sold 27 million copies: 'It was a a whirlwind!' she recalls". The San Diego Union-Tribune. 24 June 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
^ "The best-selling album of the 21st Century". faroutmagazine.co.uk. 2022-11-06. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
^ AP Entertainment (August 19, 2019). "ON THIS DAY - In 2008, @ladygaga released her debut album, 'The Fame,' launching a hugely successful career. #OnThisDay" – via Twitter. 'The Fame' sold over 18 million copies worldwide and won a Brit Award for best international album.
^ Baltin, Steve (October 12, 2016). "Evanescence Thank Fans With New Box Set". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-02-25. 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.
^ "Coldplay Look Back on 20th Anniversary of A Rush of Blood to the Head: The Stakes were Even Higher". Billboard. 26 August 2022. Archived from the original on 26 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
^ Fulton, Rick (January 16, 2011). "Avril Lavigne: Madonna is my idol". Daily Record. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
^ "Enya en la música ::". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2024-10-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^ "Life of chester Bennington". The Asian Age. January 9, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
^ Bliss, Karen (20 September 2018). "Amy Winehouse 'Back to Black' Documentary Offers Revealing Commentary From Mark Ronson, Salaam Remi & More". Billboard. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
^ Brantley, Ben (8 September 2006). "A Genial Pop Idol Plays a Legal Shark Without Teeth". The New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2012.
^ Kordares, Molly (20 April 2010). "Green Day Takes Broadway with "American Idiot"". CBS. Retrieved February 25, 2017. Then the music begins and I remember why Green Day sold over 15 million copies of "American Idiot" – it's a really good album.
^ Winter, Velvet (November 12, 2022). "Like The Beatles, Madonna and Kylie Minogue before her, Taylor Swift is masterful at pivoting". ABC News. Archived from the original on November 13, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
^ Cobo, Leila (28 May 2005). "Billboard – Shakira x2". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 23–. ISSN 0006-2510.
^ "Pink Renews Global Deal with EMI Music Publishing". EMI. April 2, 2012. Archived from the original on March 16, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
^ ^a ^b Kara, Scott (October 25, 2012). "Big band theory: who are the brightest stars?". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 2017-02-25. 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).
^ "WORLDWIDE ALBUM SALES OF ALL CURRENT AND FORMER SHADY RECORDS ARTISTS". 7 January 2016. Archived from the original on 8 January 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
^ Wang, Daisy (November 9, 2016). "Alicia Keys discovers herself in latest album". The Daily Texan. Archived from the original on 2017-02-26. Retrieved 2017-02-25. 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.
^ Taylor, Chuck (16 February 2008). "Queen of Hearts" (PDF). Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. p. 30. Retrieved 25 February 2017. 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.
^ "RCA Records and Legacy Recordings Celebrate 20th Anniversary of Christina Aguilera's Stripped with Deluxe Digital Edition..." RIAA. 14 October 2022. Archived from the original on October 15, 2022. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
^ "Check Out an Infographic of 50 Cent's Career By the Numbers". Complex. February 6, 2013.
^ Barker, Emily (September 23, 2014). "That's Not What We Call Music: 19 Unfathomably Popular Albums Of The 00s". NME. Retrieved 2017-02-25. 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.
^ Morandi, Andrea (April 22, 2012). "Norah, voce fuori dal tempo "E io ascolto Billie Holiday"". la Repubblica. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
^ "Kelly Clarkson and Bruno Mars to perform on 'The X Factor' results show". TV by the Numbers. Tribune Media Services. November 21, 2007. Archived from the original on November 22, 2011. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
^ Egan, Barry (April 25, 2021). "In re-recording her back catalogue, Taylor Swift is feeling the fear – and doing it anyway". Irish Independent. Retrieved September 20, 2021.
^ Tuch, Paul (January 1, 2019). "Michael Bublé's Global 'Christmas' Sales Now North Of 12M Copies". FYI Music News. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
^ Chandler, D. L. (April 5, 2011). "Jay-Z And Beyoncé Celebrate Three Years Of Wedded Bliss". MTV Rapfix. Viacom. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012.
^ McCormick, Neil (September 14, 2007). "A soldier's guide to stardom". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2017-02-25. Blunt's debut album, Back to Bedlam, has sold 11 million copies worldwide, making it the most successful British album of the new century.
^ "The real Slim Shady stands up the fans on his European tour". The Independent. 2005-08-18. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
^ ^a ^b Kara, Scott (October 25, 2012). "Big band theory: who are the brightest stars?". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 2017-02-25. 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.
^ "Destined for a repeat success". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 November 2004. Archived from the original on February 16, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
^ "Spanish album an unexpected 'Plan' for Furtado". Kuwait Times. 30 August 2009. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
^ Qilson, Jen (1 August 2008). "Five Rings To Rule Them All". Billboard. p. 24. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
^ "Mariah Carey: Come in and smell the perfume". The Daily Telegraph. March 17, 2008. Retrieved October 7, 2017. '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.
^ Corner, Lewis (July 25, 2014). "Madonna's new album: What we know so far". Digital Spy. Retrieved August 22, 2017. 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.
^ "Michael Jackson's best selling studio albums". The Telegraph. 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2024-07-14.
^ Fulton, Rick (January 10, 2011). "Avril Lavigne: Madonna is my idol". Daily Record. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
^ Porto, Bruno (January 7, 2003). "Sex Machines". O Globo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Globo.com. Archived from the original on June 3, 2020. Retrieved June 21, 2019. (...) and "Britney", released in 2001, sold 10 million copies (150,000 in Brazil). Alt URL
^ Leeds, Jeff (May 21, 2007). "Second CD by Maroon 5 Faces Great Expectations". The New York Times. Retrieved February 25, 2017. '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.
^ ^a ^b Kaufman, Gil (June 21, 2012). "JUSTIN VS. JUSTIN: CAN BIEBER TAKE TIMBERLAKE'S CROWN?". MTV. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
^ Sullivan, Randall (2012). Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson. Atlantic Books. ISBN 978-1611859935. Retrieved July 29, 2022.
^ Kimble-Ellis, Sonya (January 1, 2012). Popular Icons: Beyonce. Chelsea House. ISBN 9781438141169. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
^ Kisiel, Ryan (January 18, 2010). "Tragedies, feuds and public tantrums: Is the dream finally over for Susan Boyle?". News.com.au. Retrieved February 25, 2017. Releases first album I Dreamed A Dream through Simon Cowell's label. Sells 10 million copies worldwide.
^ Michaels, Sean (2012-10-29). "Eminem teases new album – on a baseball cap". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
^ "IFPI Digital Music Report 2015: Charting the Path to Sustainable Growth" (PDF). International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 10, 2016. Retrieved April 14, 2015.

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