Latin music has an ambiguous meaning in the music industry due to differing definitions of the term "Latin".^[2][3] For example, the Latin music market in the United States defines Latin music as any release that is mostly sung in Spanish, regardless of genre or artist nationality, by industry organizations including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Billboard.^[4][5] International organizations and trade groups such as the Latin Recording Academy include Portuguese-language music in the Latin category.^[6][7][8] Billboard categorizes an artist as "Latin" if they perform in Spanish or Portuguese.^[9]

Music journalists and musicologists define Latin music as musical styles from Spanish-speaking areas of Latin America and from Spain.^[10][11] Music from Brazil is usually included in the genre and music from Portugal is occasionally included.^[8][12]

Either definition of "Latin music" may be used for inclusion in this list. For an artist to be considered, most of their catalog must be in either Spanish or Portuguese and must have sold at least 10 million copies. This information cannot be officially listed because no organization has recorded global Latin music sales. Only Latin recordings, which are defined as a record with 51% of its content in Spanish or Portuguese,^{[lower-alpha 1]} are counted in the certified units table. Instrumental musicians may also be included if they mainly perform any Latin music genre. For recordings with multiple versions, only Spanish and Portuguese version(s) will be counted towards certified units.

The tables are listed with each artist's reported sales figure(s) and their total independently certified units, and are ranked in descending order by reported sales. If two or more artists have the same reported sales, these are then ranked by certified units. The reported sales figure and the total of certified units for each country in the provided sources include sales of albums, singles, compilation albums, music videos, and downloads of singles and full-length albums. Sales figures, such as those from SoundScan, which are sometimes published by Billboard magazine, have not been included in the certified units column.

Gold and platinum certifications issued after 2016, especially on singles, are in some cases more-than-50% streaming generated. Some 20th-century artists can also have significant amount of streaming-based certifications. The certified units of more recently active artists may sometimes be higher in the list than their listed claimed figures because RIAA and almost all other certifying bodies include streaming in the thresholds required for gold and platinum Digital Single Award certification.^[16][17][18] For this reason, some singles and albums are over-certified by hundreds of thousands of units. The over-certified figures are often in millions of units for RIAA certifications.

The certified units for some artists and bands who have multi-disc albums can be higher than their listed claimed figures because RIAA counts each unit within a set as one unit toward certification. Certified units can also be inflated by the redundancy of certifications because each track's downloads and streams contribute to the certifications of both of the single and the respective album. RIAA counts 10 downloads of individual track as well as 1,500 audio/video streams, including those from singles released prior to the album release, as an equivalent to one unit of album.^[19] Theoretically, if one song is streamed 1.5 billion times on YouTube, the single would receive diamond certification and the whole album could be certified platinum,^[20] creating a combined total of 11 million certified units without any sales.

All artists included on this list, including charts, have their available claimed figures supported by available from countries with recording certifications. With the exception of certifications from Spain prior to 2003, the certified units are sourced from countries with local music industry associations including those with online databases. Certifications from Spain prior to 2003 are listed in the book Sólo éxitos. Año a año. 1959-2002 (2005) by Fernando Salaverri.^[21] In the case of recordings RIAA has simultaneously certified standard and Latin, only the unit with the highest number of certified copies will be counted. For example, Mi Tierra (1993) by Gloria Estefan has been certified standard platinum for one millions units and 16× platinum in the Latin genre for 1,600,000 units, thus only the latter certification is counted. Albums that have been certified in both fields for the same value, such as Sueños Líquidos (1997) by Maná, which was certified platinum and 10× platinum in the Latin field, may use either certification but not both. All certified units are converted from gold, platinum or diamond certification awards based on criteria provided by certifying bodies.

Issued certifications for songs multiple artists have recorded, including featured artists, are added to each artist's total of certified units because all of the artists would have played a significant part in the song. Certifications issued for songs that have been recorded by four or more artists are not included because the artists involved would have played minor roles.^{[lower-alpha 2]}

• List of best-selling Latin albums
• List of best-selling music artists

The reported sales may include non Spanish/Portuguese recordings that are otherwise omitted from total certified units.