List of best-selling albums of the 21st century
This is a list of the best-selling albums of the 21st century, 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
Year | Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Worldwide sales (in millions) |
Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011 | 21 | Adele | ![]() |
31.0 | [1] |
20–29 million copies
Year | Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Worldwide sales (in millions) |
Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2002 | Come Away With Me | Norah Jones | ![]() |
27.0 | [2] |
2002 | The Eminem Show | Eminem | ![]() |
27.0 | [3] |
2015 | 25 | Adele | ![]() |
23.0 | [4] |
2002 | Let Go | Avril Lavigne | ![]() |
20.8 | [5] |
2004 | Confessions | Usher | ![]() |
20.0 | [6] |
13–19 million copies
Year | Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Worldwide sales (in millions) |
Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2003 | Fallen | Evanescence | ![]() |
18.0 | [7] |
2006 | Back to Black | Amy Winehouse | ![]() |
16.0 | [8] |
2003 | Meteora | Linkin Park | ![]() |
16.0 | [9] |
2008 | The Fame | Lady Gaga | ![]() |
15.0 | [10] |
2004 | American Idiot | Green Day | ![]() |
15.0 | [11] |
2002 | A Rush of Blood to the Head | Coldplay | ![]() |
15.0 | [12][13] |
2005 | In Between Dreams | Jack Johnson | ![]() |
15.0 | [14] |
2001 | Take Off Your Pants and Jacket | Blink-182 | ![]() |
14.0 | [15] |
2001 | Laundry Service | Shakira | ![]() |
13.0 | [16] |
2001 | Missundaztood | Pink | ![]() |
13.0 | [17] |
2005 | X&Y | Coldplay | ![]() |
13.0 | [13] |
2005 | Curtain Call: The Hits | Eminem | ![]() |
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 2000. 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.[39] BTS's Map of the Soul: Persona would likely have been the best-selling album of 2019, with 3.7 million copies sold worldwide, according to South Korea's Gaon chart, but the sales were massively under-reported to the IFPI, whose reports that year were based on self-certified submissions from record labels. BTS's label, Big Hit Entertainment, only reported the 2.5 million sales confirmed by the Hanteo chart, which is based on sales volume in South Korea, therefore leaving a large number of overseas sales unaccounted for.[40]
Year | Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Sales (in millions) | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | Hybrid Theory | Linkin Park | ![]() |
10 | [41] |
2002 | The Eminem Show | Eminem | ![]() |
12.9 | [42] |
2003 | Come Away with Me | Norah Jones | ![]() |
16.0 | [43] |
2004 | Confessions | Usher | ![]() |
12.0 | [44] |
2005 | X&Y | Coldplay | ![]() |
7.3 | [45] |
2006 | High School Musical | Various Artists | — | 7.0 | [46] |
2007 | High School Musical 2 | Various Artists | — | 6.0 | [47] |
2008 | Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | Coldplay | ![]() |
6.8 | [48] |
2009 | I Dreamed a Dream | Susan Boyle | ![]() |
6.4 | [49] |
2010 | Recovery | Eminem | ![]() |
6.2 | [50] |
2011 | 21 | Adele | ![]() |
18.1 | [42] |
2012 | 8.3 | [51] | |||
2013 | Midnight Memories | One Direction | ![]() ![]() |
4.0 | [52] |
2014 | Frozen | Various Artists | — | 10.0 | [53] |
2015 | 25 | Adele | ![]() |
17.4 | [54] |
2016 | Lemonade | Beyoncé | ![]() |
2.5 | [55] |
2017 | ÷ | Ed Sheeran | ![]() |
6.1 | [56] |
2018 | The Greatest Showman (soundtrack) | Various Artists | ![]() |
4.0 | [57] |
2019 | 5x20 All the Best!! 1999–2019 | Arashi | ![]() |
3.3 | [58] |
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
- Best-selling albums in the United States since Nielsen SoundScan tracking began
- 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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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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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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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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'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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Releases first album I Dreamed A Dream through Simon Cowell’s label. Sells 10 million copies worldwide.
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