Talk:List of best-selling albums

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April 8, 2008	Featured list candidate	Not promoted
May 30, 2008	Featured list candidate	Not promoted
January 28, 2011	Articles for deletion	Kept

Current status: Former featured list candidate

Albums

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Albums, an attempt at building a useful resource on recordings from a variety of genres. If you would like to participate, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.AlbumsWikipedia:WikiProject AlbumsTemplate:WikiProject AlbumsAlbum articles

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edit

It is essential to provide reliable sources when editing this article. For examples, see the references section. Unsourced or unreliably sourced additions will be removed immediately.

The list is frequently edited in good faith; however, sales figures published by reliable sources may need to be verified with certification databases to avoid inflated figures.

Albums without sufficient certifications to support published claimed figures may not be added to the list.

Editors should expect all albums' claimed figures be supported by the following specified amount of certified units.

To be on this list, albums must have:

Sold at at least 20 million copies
Certified at least 10 million units

Whilst we encourage editors to be bold, it is highly recommended to discuss changes on this talk page before editing.

USA RIAA
Japan RIAJ
UK BPI
Germany BVMI
France SNEP, Infodisc
Mexico Amprofon
Canada Music Canada
Brazil ABPD
Australia ARIA
Italy FIMI
Spain PROMUISCAE
The Netherlands NVPI
Sweden IFPI
Switzerland SwissCharts
Belgium Ultratop
Norway IFPI
Argentina CAPIF
Austria IFPI
Denmark IFPI
Poland ZPAV
Ireland IRMA
Finland IFPI
New Zealand RIANZ
Hong Kong IFPI
Hungary Mahasz

Let's skip to the facts, please!

Certified sells are the real deal, anything else is just pure speculation and it shouldn't even be referred. I can say I've heard this album sold like 50 million copies around the world, but without the certified proof, that's just rubbish!

Idea: New Section

Would anyone be interested in a section for albums that sold the most units from singles and albums? We would take the certified single sales which we have a page for and then take the claimed sales figures for the album and then you'd get a article showcasing the albums which have sold the most total units. It might have to be made specifically for albums before the age of digital streaming since those would inflate numbers. Never17 (talk) 07:01, 12 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This is just a spitball though, i think it's potentially interesting. But i want a consensus first Never17 (talk) 07:03, 12 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What is this stuff about Himesh Reshammiya?

So recently, I've been seeing on Reddit and other Wikipedia pages that this Indian Artist called Himesh Reshammiya, has the '2nd Best-Selling Album Of All Time' with his album "Aap Kaa Surroor", as it apparently has 55 million sales, which puts it behind Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'.

Obviously I'm in serious doubt of this as I've never heard a single mention of him or his album, which came out in 2006, but other media articles say it is the 2nd best selling album of all time, although it's worth noting that they're mostly news articles from India or other Asian countries.

I wondered if anyone has heard of him and/or his album, and whether they've heard these claims before. ThomBaxter (talk) 10:33, 6 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It needs to be certified at least 10 million copies to be in this list anyway. Erick (talk) 04:53, 12 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, he's quite a popular playback singer with his album being popular in India. Adry9509 (talk) 14:01, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Green Day's "American Idiot" claimed at 23 million

Green Day's claimed that American Idiot has sold 23 million (seen on their website [1] and recent advertisements) and has been certified at 16 million worldwide (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Idiot#Certifications_and_sales). I believe this warrants them being added to the 20-29 million section. 43hsuls (talk) 16:55, 26 August 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Linkin Park's "Hyrbid Theory" has sold 32 million copies worldwide

Many recent sources including the album's wikipedia page claim Hybrid Theory has sold 32 million copies worldwide, but it seems it's still listed here as 25 million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_Theory. This should probably mean this album moves up to 30-39 million copies. FribzsEditor (talk) 06:29, 21 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]