The top 10 best-selling albums of the 21st century
Can you guess the number one? Hint: Beyoncé doesn’t feature on the list at all.
For years, various companies like Spotify, Billboard and Apple Music have been releasing ‘Best Album’ or ‘Biggest Hit’ lists.
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Every decade, we see lists compiled to showcase the biggest and most successful artists of that time.
But many of these lists use different statistics and metrics for their rankings.
In January 2025, Billboard published a list of the top-performing albums of the 21st century.
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Morgan Wallen's 'Dangerous: The Double' album has been announced as the top album of the first 25 years of the 21st century.
'Morgan Wallen’s blockbuster country collection Dangerous: The Double Album rules as the No. 1 album of the first 25 years of the 21st century, as it crowns Billboard’s Top Billboard 200 Albums of the 21st Century chart.'
The album, which has 30 songs, was released in 2021.
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It debuted at #1 on January 23, 2021, and reached its 86th week on the Billboard 200’s top 10 in September 2022.
The album is followed by Adele's album, '21' and Taylor Swift's 'Fearless'.
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The 200-position ranking was compiled by looking at the performance on the weekly Billboard 200 albums chart from the start of 2000 through the end of 2024.
However, with an album being only three years old, can it really compete with some of the most iconic albums from the last 25 years?
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According to Wikipedia, the list looks quite different.
This list of the best-selling albums of the 21st century to date is based on IFPI certification and Nielsen SoundScan sales tracking.
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The criteria:
- The album must have been published (including self-publishing by the artist).
- The album must have shipped at least 10 million units starting from January 1, 2001.
- Units sold include physical copies and digital downloads.
From 2022, IFPI reported three formats of sales charts: the newly created Global Vinyl Album Chart, the combination of physical copies and digital downloads as the Global Album Sales Chart, and the Global All Format Chart for totalling all sales.
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Here are the top 10 best-selling albums of the 21st century:
1. Adele - '21' (31-million worldwide sales)
2. Eminem - 'The Eminem Show' (27-million worldwide sales)
2. Norah Jones - 'Come Away with Me' (27-million worldwide sales)
3. Adele - '25' (22-million worldwide sales)
4. Amy Winehouse - 'Back To Black' (20-million worldwide sales)
5. Lady Gaga - 'The Fame' (18-million worldwide sales)
6. Evanescence - 'Fallen' (17-million worldwide sales)
7. Green Day - 'American Idiot' (16-million worldwide sales)
7. Avril Lavigne - 'Let Go' (16-million worldwide sales)
7. Linkin Park - 'Meteora' (16-million worldwide sales)
8. Usher - 'Confessions' (15-million worldwide sales)
9. Taylor Swift - '1989' (14-million worldwide sales)
10. Shakira - 'Laundry Service' (13-million worldwide sales)
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Image: BBC News