List of best-selling albums of the 21st century
This is a list of the best-selling albums of the 2000s, 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, 2000.
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) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | 1 | The Beatles | United Kingdom | 35.0 | [1] |
2011 | 21 | Adele | United Kingdom | 31.0 | [2] |
29-20 million copies or more
Year | Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Worldwide sales (in millions) |
Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2002 | Come Away with Me | Norah Jones | United States | 27.0 | [3] |
2000 | The Marshall Mathers LP | Eminem | United States | 27.0 | [4] |
2002 | The Eminem Show | Eminem | United States | 25.0 | [5] |
2000 | Oops!... I Did It Again | Britney Spears | United States | 20.0 | [6] |
2000 | Hybrid Theory | Linkin Park | United States | 23.0 | [7] |
2006 | Back to Black | Amy Winehouse | United Kingdom | 20.0 | |
2015 | 25 | Adele | United Kingdom | 20.0 | [9] |
2004 | Confessions | Usher | United States | 20.0 | [10] |
2002 | Let Go | Avril Lavigne | Canada | 20.0 | [11] |
13–19 million copies
Year | Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Worldwide sales (in millions) |
Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | Black & Blue | Backstreet Boys | United States | 18.0 | [12] |
2003 | Fallen | Evanescence | United States | 17.0 | [13] |
2008 | Fearless | Taylor Swift | United States | 16.4 | [14] |
2000 | A Day Without Rain | Enya | Ireland | 16.0 | [15] |
2000 | Whitney: The Greatest Hits | Whitney Houston | United States | 16.0 | |
2008 | The Fame | Lady Gaga | United States | 16.0 | [16] |
2004 | American Idiot | Green Day | United States | 15.0 | [17] |
2004 | Breakaway | Kelly Clarkson | United States | 15.0 | [18] |
2002 | A Rush of Blood to the Head | Coldplay | United Kingdom | 15.0 | [19][20] |
2000 | No Strings Attached | NSYNC | United States | 15.0 | [21] |
2014 | X | Ed Sheeran | United Kingdom | 14.0 | [22] |
2001 | Take Off Your Pants and Jacket | Blink-182 | United States | 14.0 | [23] |
2012 | Red | Taylor Swift | United States | 13.8 | [24] |
2001 | Laundry Service | Shakira | Colombia | 13.0 | [25] |
2001 | Missundaztood | Pink | United States | 13.0 | [26] |
2005 | X&Y | Coldplay | United Kingdom | 13.0 | [20] |
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 annually since 2001. 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.[49]
Year | Album | Artist/s | Nationality | Sales (in millions) |
Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2001 | Hybrid Theory | Linkin Park | United States | 7.5 | [50] |
2002 | The Eminem Show | Eminem | United States | 12.9 | [51] |
2003 | Come Away with Me | Norah Jones | United States | 16.0 | [52] |
2004 | Confessions | Usher | United States | 10.0 | [53] |
2005 | X&Y | Coldplay | United Kingdom | 7.3 | [54] |
2006 | High School Musical | Various Artists | — | 7.0 | [55] |
2007 | High School Musical 2 | Various Artists | — | 6.0 | [56] |
2008 | Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends | Coldplay | United Kingdom | 5.8 | [57] |
2009 | I Dreamed a Dream | Susan Boyle | United Kingdom | 6.4 | [58] |
2010 | Recovery | Eminem | United States | 6.2 | [59] |
2011 | 21 | Adele | United Kingdom | 18.1 | [51] |
2012 | 8.3 | [60] | |||
2013 | Midnight Memories | One Direction | UK / Ireland | 4.0 | [61] |
2014 | Frozen | Various Artists | — | 9.0 | [62] |
2015 | 25 | Adele | United Kingdom | 17.4 | [63] |
2016 | Lemonade | Beyoncé | United States | 2.5 | [64] |
2017 | ÷ | Ed Sheeran | United Kingdom | 6.1 | [65] |
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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{{cite news}}
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- ^ "Usher Confessions". BET. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011.
The divorced father of two boys has released seven studio albums—including his 2004 classic Confessions, which sold 20 million copies worldwide—garnering six BET Awards, seven Grammys and 17 Billboard Music Awards along the way.
{{cite news}}
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- ^ "Backstreet Boys "This Is Us" 2010 China Tour". Global Times. December 2, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
In November 2000, the group released a new album, Black & Blue, with the idea of the title of the album coming from Brian as the boys were in Los Angeles for a photoshoot. (...) The album has been estimated as selling 24 million albums worldwide.
- ^ 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.
- ^ {{cite news | http://chartmasters.org/2017/10/cspc-taylor-swift-popularity-analysis-2/6/}
- ^ Duerden, Nick (November 18, 2015). "Enya interview: Ireland's most successful solo artist on being stalked, living in a castle, and why she's single". The Independent. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
A Day Without Rain, for example, which didn't feature in any critic's best-of-year polls, sold 16 million copies around the world.
- ^ "Lady Gaga adds second show in Singapore".
- ^ 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.
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Some of the wide-ranging projects Mr. Ferrera has A&R'd at RCA include: Kelly Clarkson's two-time Grammy award winning album Breakaway (15 million albums sold to date).
- ^ "Focus Group: Coldplay". Today FM. 29 January 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
- ^ a b c 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).
- ^ "Justin Timberlake – American singer and actor". World of Faces. 2015. Retrieved January 26, 2018.
The third studio album, No Strings Attached, released in 2000, was sold about 15 million copies.
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Their 2000 record, All That You Can't Leave Behind, not only sold a staggering 12 million copies, but it gave the band a renewed relevance in the wake of 9/11, when songs like "Walk On" came to symbolize an America figuring out how to pick up the pieces.
- ^ "Enrique Iglesias Discography". 27 January 2008.
- ^ 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.
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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 2000's in the UK.
- ^ Taylor, James. "What Are The 10 Highest Selling Pop Punk Albums Of All Time?". Retrieved 2017-05-15.
7) Avril Lavigne - "Under My Skin", 12 million.
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"Music," released in 2000 was mediocre at best, but it was a massive hit, selling 11 million copies worldwide.
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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.
- ^ a b 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.
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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.
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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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'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.
- ^ 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.
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Eminem's 2010 LP, Recovery, has sold almost 10m copies.
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