List of best-selling albums in the United Kingdom

Data as of 2011 shows the United Kingdom (UK) ranked as the fourth largest music market in the world.

The formula for counting album sales in the UK has changed over time. Until the end of 1977, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) counted the monetary value received by the manufacturer of a given album. Starting in 1978, the BPI counted the number of units of an album delivered to retailers. Since 2004, they have included the units of an album that had been purchased as a digital download. Since 1978, the BPI certifies an album as platinum for 300,000 units shipped in the UK. and in 1987, they introduced the concept of multi-platinum albums to signify multiples of 300,000 units delivered. Certifications in the UK are for shipments to retailers and are updated only on request by the labels, so also included here are retail sales, compiled by The Official Charts Company (OCC) weekly since 1956 to draw charts.

The two tables below present only the albums that have data of at least 3 million units, equal to 10x platinum (10 x 300,000 units) on the BPI Certified Award list.

List of best-selling albums in the UK based on OCC retail sales

The last list of best-selling albums in the UK covered sales up to June 14, 2009. Since then three further albums have crossed three million sales; 21 (2011) by Adele with 3,955,741 sales,, Back to Black (2007) by Amy Winehouse with 3,395,000 sales, and Spirit (2007) by Leona Lewis with 3,034,653 sales.

Rank	Released	Title	Artist	Retail Sales
1	1981	Greatest Hits	Queen	5,678,610
2	1967	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	The Beatles	4,908,288
3	1992	ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits	ABBA	4,610,813
4	1995	(What's the Story) Morning Glory?	Oasis	4,421,505
5	1985	Brothers in Arms	Dire Straits	4,069,764
6	1973	The Dark Side of the Moon	Pink Floyd	3,956,177
7	1982	Thriller	Michael Jackson	3,825,857
8	1991	Greatest Hits II	Queen	3,746,404
9	1987	Bad	Michael Jackson	3,554,301
10	1990	The Immaculate Collection	Madonna	3,402,160
11	1991	Stars	Simply Red	3,401,092
12	1998	Come on Over	Shania Twain	3,358,941
13	1977	Rumours	Fleetwood Mac	3,253,818
14	2005	Back to Bedlam	James Blunt	3,172,069
15	1997	Urban Hymns	The Verve	3,167,875
16	1999	No Angel	Dido	3,048,208
17	1970	Bridge Over Troubled Water	Simon & Garfunkel	3,047,242
List current to 14 June 2009

List of best-selling albums in the UK based on BPI certifications

Rank	Released	Title	Artist	Certification	Shipment Sales
1	1995	(What's the Story) Morning Glory?	Oasis	14× Platinum	4,200,000
2	2011	21	Adele	14× Platinum	4,200,000
3	1992	ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits	ABBA	13× Platinum	3,900,000
4	1985	Brothers in Arms	Dire Straits	13× Platinum	3,900,000
5	1987	Bad	Michael Jackson	13× Platinum	3,900,000
6	1990	The Immaculate Collection	Madonna	12× Platinum	3,600,000
7	1991	Stars	Simply Red	12× Platinum	3,600,000
8	1977	Rumours	Fleetwood Mac	11× Platinum	3,300,000
9	1982	Thriller	Michael Jackson	11× Platinum	3,300,000
10	1981	Greatest Hits	Queen	11× Platinum	3,300,000
11	2005	Back to Bedlam	James Blunt	10× Platinum	3,000,000
12	1998	I've Been Expecting You	Robbie Williams	10× Platinum	3,000,000
13	1995	Jagged Little Pill	Alanis Morissette	10× Platinum	3,000,000
14	1998	Come on Over	Shania Twain	10× Platinum	3,000,000
15	1996	Spice	Spice Girls	10× Platinum	3,000,000
List current to 2011

See also

• List of artists by total number of UK number-one albums
• List of best-selling albums by year (UK)
• Lists of best-selling albums by countries
• List of one-hit wonders on the UK Albums Chart
• List of UK Albums Chart Christmas number ones
• List of UK Albums Chart number ones