Best Selling Albums of All-Time
There are numerous lists of the best selling albums of all-time around and, while they fail to agree on many things, they do all agree on one: Thriller is the no.1 best selling album ever!
Thriller is generally accepted to have shifted 59-60 million copies - nearly 20 million ahead of its nearest rivals (and that's without the 2 million plus copies Thriller 25 has added).
Albums generally estimated have sold 40-42 million copies:
Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 - The
Eagles.
Back In Black - AC/DC.
The Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd.
Saturday Night Fever - Original Soundtrack.
The Eagles compilation is usually listed as the no.2 album of all-time, and it is the no.1 best selling album - ahead of Thriller - in the States. The album is confirmed as having shifted around 31 million copies in North America, but it's difficult to see where it sold the other 10-11 million copies it's usually credited with, to give a total of around 42 million.
The figure for AC/DC's album appears high as well, given it 'only' sold around 22 million in North America.
Albums generally estimated have sold between 30-39 million copies:
Come On Over - Shania Twain.
Bat Out Of Hell - Meat Loaf.
The Bodyguard - Whitney Houston/Original Soundtrack.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Beatles.
Led Zeppelin IV - Led Zeppelin.
Dirty Dancing - Original Soundtrack.
Falling Into You - Celine Dion.
Let's Talk About Love - Celine Dion.
Rumours - Fleetwood Mac.
Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette.
Titanic - Original Soundtrack.
Millennium - Backstreet Boys.
1 - Beatles.
Michael's Bad and Dangerous albums have each sold in the region of 29-30 million copies, with Bad probably a million or so ahead of Dangerous.
Bad and Dangerous are around no.20 in the all-time list.
Other Jackson albums to have sold 10+ million copies:
20 million: Off The Wall (just outside the Top 50 of all-time).
18 million: History Past, Present And Future Book 1 (some sources claim up to 22 million).
12.5 million: janet. (some sources claim up to 19 million).
12 million: Rhythm Nation 1814 (some sources claim up to 15 million).
9-10 million: Control (some sources claim up to 15 million).
The first CD from History Past, Present And Future Book 1, released in its own right as Greatest Hits History Volume 1, has sold around 3 million copies - making around 21 million in total.