List_of_best-selling_albums_of_the_21st_century

List of best-selling albums of the 21st century

List of best-selling albums of the 21st century

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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.

Adele's 21 is the best selling album of the 21st century to date, with sales of over 31 million copies worldwide. Her third album 25, is also on the list with sales of over 23 million copies.

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

More information Colors ...

30 million copies or more

More information Release year, Album ...

20–29 million copies

More information Release year, Album ...

13–19 million copies

More information Release year, Album ...

10–12 million copies

More information Release year, Album ...

Best-selling album by year

See also


References

  1. "IFPI GLOBAL MUSIC REPORT 2022". globalmusicreport.ifpi.org. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  2. 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.
  3. "The best-selling album of the 21st Century". faroutmagazine.co.uk. 2022-11-06. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. "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.
  7. Fulton, Rick (January 16, 2011). "Avril Lavigne: Madonna is my idol". Daily Record. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
  8. "Life of chester Bennington". The Asian Age. January 9, 2016. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  9. Brantley, Ben (8 September 2006). "A Genial Pop Idol Plays a Legal Shark Without Teeth". The New York Times. Retrieved June 23, 2012.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. Cobo, Leila (28 May 2005). "Billboard – Shakira x2". Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. pp. 23–. ISSN 0006-2510.
  13. "Pink Renews Global Deal with EMI Music Publishing". EMI. April 2, 2012. Archived from the original on March 16, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2013.
  14. 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).
  15. "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.
  16. Wang, Daisy (November 9, 2016). "Alicia Keys discovers herself in latest album". The Daily Texan. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. Morandi, Andrea (April 22, 2012). "Norah, voce fuori dal tempo "E io ascolto Billie Holiday"". la Repubblica. Retrieved July 3, 2022.
  20. "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.
  21. Tuch, Paul (January 1, 2019). "Michael Bublé's Global 'Christmas' Sales Now North Of 12M Copies". FYI Music News. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. "The real Slim Shady stands up the fans on his European tour". The Independent. 2005-08-18. Retrieved 2019-06-12.
  25. 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.
  26. "Destined for a repeat success". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 November 2004. Archived from the original on February 16, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  27. "Spanish album an unexpected 'Plan' for Furtado". Kuwait Times. 30 August 2009. Archived from the original on 9 March 2012. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  28. Qilson, Jen (1 August 2008). "Five Rings To Rule Them All". Billboard. p. 24. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  29. "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.
  30. 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.
  31. Fulton, Rick (January 10, 2011). "Avril Lavigne: Madonna is my idol". Daily Record. Retrieved December 19, 2012.
  32. 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
  33. 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.
  34. Kaufman, Gil (June 21, 2012). "JUSTIN VS. JUSTIN: CAN BIEBER TAKE TIMBERLAKE'S CROWN?". MTV. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
  35. Kimble-Ellis, Sonya (January 1, 2012). Popular Icons: Beyonce. Chelsea House. ISBN 9781438141169. Retrieved December 14, 2021.
  36. 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.
  37. Michaels, Sean (2012-10-29). "Eminem teases new album – on a baseball cap". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-06-12.

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