Lists_of_fastest-selling_albums

List of fastest-selling albums

List of fastest-selling albums

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This is a list of the world's fastest-selling albums of recorded music. To appear on the list, the figure must have been published by a reliable source and all sales must have occurred in the first week of release.[1] This list can contain any type of album, including studio albums, extended plays, greatest hits, compilations, various artists, soundtracks and remixes. Market order within the article is ranked alphabetically. Albums within each table are listed in order of number of copies sold and thereafter by the artist's first name.

Argentina

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in Argentina.

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Cameroon

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Canada

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in Canada since Nielsen SoundScan tracking began in 1995. 25 by Adele is the fastest-selling album of all time in Canada with over 305,928 copies sold in its first seven days of release.

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China

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in China.

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Colombia

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in Colombia.

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Denmark

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France

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in France.

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Germany

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in Germany.

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Greece

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Ireland

In Ireland, the fastest-selling album is The Best of 1980–1990 by U2 in November 1998.[32]

Japan

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in Japan since Oricon was founded in November 1967. The top two sales records were achieved in the same week, on March 28, 2001, as both albums were promoted as a direct competition between J-pop singer-songwriters Hikaru Utada and Ayumi Hamasaki.[33]

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Mexico

Luis Miguel holds several of the fastest-selling albums in Mexico. His seventh studio album Cómplices sold 320,000 units in its first day alone.[44]

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New Zealand

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in New Zealand since the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand, later renamed as Recorded Music NZ, was founded in 1972. 25 by Adele is the fastest-selling album of all time in NZ with over 18,766 copies sold in its first seven days following release.

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Spain

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South Korea

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in South Korea as recorded by the Hanteo Information System[lower-alpha 1] established in 1993.[55] Seventeenth Heaven by Seventeen is the fastest-selling album of all time in South Korea with 5,091,887 copies shipped to stores in its first seven days of release.[56]

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  1. The Hanteo chart provides real-time daily, weekly, and monthly sales updates, but only accounts for data received from affiliated stores and therefore does not reflect the total sales of a given release. The Circle Album Chart (formerly Gaon), counts albums shipped to all stores regardless of affiliation, so there is always a noticeable difference between its figures and Hanteo's. Gaon, however, only began providing realtime data from 2019. Given this article's scope, and the limitations of existing sources, Hanteo's numbers alone are used.

United Kingdom

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in the United Kingdom. 25 by Adele is the fastest-selling album of all time in the UK with just over 803,000 copies sold in its first seven days.

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Notes:

  • Be Here Now was unconventionally released on a Thursday and debuted at number one based on three-day sales of 696,000 copies. Sales accumulated during its first full week of availability, which went from Thursday to Wednesday, totaled 813,000 copies, which remains the most an album has sold in its first week on sale.[65]
  • 25 sold 439,000 copies in its second week.[74]
  • 25 sold 450,000 copies in its fifth week.[75]

United States

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums (pure sales) in the United States since Nielsen SoundScan tracking began on March 1, 1991. 25 by Adele is the fastest-selling album of all time in the US with 3,378,000 copies sold in its first seven days.

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Notes:

  1. denotes sales from The Eminem Show's second week of availability, which was its first full week of activity. In its opening week, only one day of sales—284,000 copies—was recorded as the album's release date was pushed up due to bootlegging.
  2. denotes sales from The Massacre's first four days of availability as the album was unconventionally released in the middle of an ongoing tracking week.

Additional records

Pre-SoundScan era

The following albums predate the introduction of Nielsen SoundScan, and are possibly subject to manipulation or inflation as sales were self-reported by record labels:[81]

SoundScan era

  • Although not in its opening week, Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album moved 1,061,000 units during Christmas week 1992.[90]
  • Although not in its opening week, the Beatles' compilation 1 moved 1,258,667 units during Christmas week 2000.[91]
  • 25 by Adele sold 1.11 million and 1.16 million copies in its second[92] and fifth weeks of availability respectively.[93]
  • Encore by Eminem sold 1.58 million copies in its first ten days of availability, after an abbreviated three-day first week.[94]

See also


References

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