Lists of fastest-selling albums

A fast-selling album is defined as one with high sales in its first chart week following release.

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 7 days following release.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Reference
1	2015	25	Adele	305,928	[1]
2	1997	Let's Talk About Love	Céline Dion	230,212	[2][3]
3	1999	Millennium	Backstreet Boys	191,791	[4][5]
4	2003	Star Académie	Star Académie	173,000	[6]
5	2000	Black & Blue	Backstreet Boys	156,307	[4]
6	2002	A New Day Has Come	Céline Dion	151,600	[7]
7	2002	Up!	Shania Twain	150,000	[8]
8	2008	Black Ice	AC/DC	119,000	[9]
9	2006	I Think of You	Gregory Charles	109,000	[10]
10	2014	1989	Taylor Swift	107,000	[11]

France

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

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Reference
1	2018	Mon pays c'est l'amour	Johnny Hallyday	780,177	[12][13]
2	2002	À la vie, à la mort		305,634	[12][13]
3	2015	25	Adele	169,693	[14]

Germany

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

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Reference
1	2007	12	Herbert Grönemeyer	>263,000	[15]
2	2015	25	Adele	263,000	[15]
3	2019	Untitled	Rammstein	260,000	[16]

Ireland

In Ireland is The Best of 1980–1990 by U2 in November 1998.[17]

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.[18]

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Reference
1	2001	Distance	Hikaru Utada	3,002,720	[19][20]
2	2001	A Best	Ayumi Hamasaki	2,874,870	[19][20]
3	1998	The Best "Pleasure"	B'z	2,709,530	[20][21]
4	1998	The Best "Treasure"		2,500,120	[20][22]
5	2002	Deep River	Hikaru Utada	2,350,170	[20][23]
6	2000	Delicious Way	Mai Kuraki	2,218,640	[20][24]
7	1999	First Love	Hikaru Utada	2,026,870	[20][25]
8	1997	Review	Glay	2,003,150	[20][26]
9	1996	Sweet 19 Blues	Namie Amuro	1,921,850	[20][27]
10	2002	I Am...	Ayumi Hamasaki	1,751,360	[20][28]

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 7 days following release.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Reference
1	2015	25	Adele	18,766	[29]
2	2009	I Dreamed a Dream	Susan Boyle	17,435	[29]

South Korea

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This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in South Korea. Map of the Soul: 7 by BTS is the fastest-selling album of all time in South Korea with over 3.3 million copies shipped to stores in its first 7 days of release.[30]

Hanteo

This is a list of the highest weekly album sales in South Korea, as recorded by the Hanteo Information System established in 1993.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Reference(s)
1	2020	Map of the Soul: 7	BTS	3,378,633	[30][31]
2	2019	Map of the Soul: Persona		2,130,480	[32]
3	2020	Heng:garae	Seventeen	1,097,891	[33]
4	2018	Love Yourself: Tear	BTS	1,003,500	[34]
5	2018	Love Yourself: Answer		868,052	[35]
6	2018	Don't Mess Up My Tempo	EXO	789,670
7	2017	Love Yourself: Her	BTS	759,000	[36]
8	2019	An Ode	Seventeen	700,863	[37]
9	2017	The War	EXO	602,094	[38]
10	2016	Ex'Act		522,300

RIAK and Gaon

The Gaon Album Chart (and also previously the now-defunct Recording Industry Association of Korea) releases sales figures on a monthly basis.
As such, the number of days from each album's release date until the end of the first tracking month is specified, to allow adjustments for the varying amounts of time from an album's release date to the end of the first month.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Monthly sales	Days to end of month	Avg. sales per day	Reference(s)
1	2020	Map of the Soul: 7	BTS	4,114,843	9	457,204	[39]
2	2019	Map of the Soul: Persona		3,229,032	19	169,949	[40]
3	2018	Love Yourself: Answer		1,933,450	8	241,681	[41][42]
4	2000	Let Me Love	Jo Sung-mo	1,705,127	30	56,837	[43]
5	2018	Love Yourself: Tear	BTS	1,664,041	14	118,860	[44][45]
6	1999	For Your Soul	Jo Sung-mo	1,469,422	30	48,981	[46]
7	2001	Chapter 4	g.o.d	1,441,209	16	90,075	[47]
8	2020	Heng:garae	Seventeen	1,235,853	9	137,317	[48]
9	2017	Love Yourself: Her	BTS	1,203,533	13	92,579	[49]
10	2018	Don't Mess Up My Tempo	EXO	1,195,334	29	41,218	[50]
11	2000	Chapter 3	g.o.d	1,147,752	28	40,991	[51]
12	1999	I Yah!	H.O.T.	1,102,153	17	64,832	[46]
13	2001	No More Love	Jo Sung-mo	979,679	28	34,989	[52]
14	2017	The War	EXO	959,417	14	68,530	[53]
15	2000	Outside Castle	H.O.T.	840,370	30	28,012	[54]

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 7 days.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Reference
1	2015	25	Adele	803,000	[55]
2	1997	Be Here Now †	Oasis	696,000	[56]
3	2017	÷	Ed Sheeran	672,000	[57]
4	1963	With the Beatles	The Beatles	530,000	[58]
5	2010	Progress	Take That	518,601	[59]
6	2005	X&Y	Coldplay	464,471	[60]
7	2008	The Circus	Take That	432,490	[61]
8	2009	I Dreamed a Dream	Susan Boyle	411,820	[62]
9	2003	Life for Rent	Dido	400,351	[63]
10	2007	Spirit	Leona Lewis	375,872	[64]

Notes:
† Be Here Now was unconventionally released on a Thursday and debuted at number one based on three-day sales of 695,761. Sales from its first full week of availability, which went from Thursday to Wednesday were 813,000.[55]

• The second week's sales for 25 were 439,000.[65]
• The fifth week's sales for 25 were 450,000.[66]

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 7 days.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Reference
1	2015	25	Adele	3,378,000	[67]
2	2000	No Strings Attached	*NSYNC	2,416,000	[67]
3	2001	Celebrity		1,880,000	[67]
4	2000	The Marshall Mathers LP	Eminem	1,760,000	[67]
5	2000	Black & Blue	Backstreet Boys	1,591,000	[67]
6	2004	Encore	Eminem	1,500,000	[67]
7	2002	The Eminem Show		1,322,000	[67]
8	2000	Oops!... I Did It Again	Britney Spears	1,319,000	[67]
9	2014	1989	Taylor Swift	1,287,000	[67]
10	2017	Reputation		1,216,000	[68]
11	2012	Red		1,208,000	[67]
12	2005	The Massacre^[I]	50 Cent	1,141,000	[67]
13	1999	Millennium	Backstreet Boys	1,134,000	[67]
14	2011	Born This Way	Lady Gaga	1,108,000	[67]
15	2004	Confessions	Usher	1,096,000	[67]
16	1998	Double Live	Garth Brooks	1,095,000	[67]
17	2000	Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water	Limp Bizkit	1,055,000	[67]
18	2010	Speak Now	Taylor Swift	1,047,000	[67]
19	2004	Feels Like Home	Norah Jones	1,022,000	[67]
20	2008	Tha Carter III	Lil Wayne	1,006,000	[69]

Notes: ^ I The opening number denotes sales from the first four days of availability as The Massacre was unconventionally released in the middle of the week.

Additional records

Pre-SoundScan era

• John Fitzgerald Kennedy—A Memorial Album, recorded on the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination, sold 4 million copies at 99 cents each within six days of its release.[70]
• The Beatles' Rubber Soul sold 1,200,000 copies in "just the first nine days".[71]
• The Beatles' self-titled double album (often known as the "White Album") sold "almost two million in one week".[72]
• The Beatles' Let it Be allegedly had "a sale of 3,700,000 in just over 2 weeks".[73]
• Carole King's Music reportedly sold "1,300,000 copies on the day of its release in the U.S."[73]
• Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, the first album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, sold "1,400,000 in the U.S. in the first 4 days on the market".[73]
• The Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band soundtrack reportedly sold "4 million double sets" "within 2 weeks of release".[73]
• Led Zeppelin's In Through the Out Door allegedly sold "1,700,000 within days of release".[73]
• Prince's Purple Rain sold 1.5 million copies in its debut week.[74]
• In 1986, Bruce Springsteen's Live/1975–85 sold over 1.5 million copies during its first ten days.[75]
• In 1987, Michael Jackson's Bad sold at least 2 million copies during its first week.[76]

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.[77]
• Although not in its opening week, the Beatles' compilation 1 moved 1,258,667 units during Christmas week 2000.[78]
• 25 by Adele sold 1.11 million and 1.16 million copies in its second and fifth weeks of availability, respectively.
• Taylor Swift is the only artist to have four consecutive albums sell over 1 million copies in their first week.[79]

See also

• List of best-selling albums
• List of best-selling albums in Canada
• List of best-selling albums in Japan
• List of best-selling albums in the United Kingdom
• List of best-selling albums in the United States
• List of best-selling albums in the United States of the Nielsen SoundScan era
• Lists of albums

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