Talk:List of best-selling albums

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	List of best-selling albums is a former featured list candidate. Please view the link under Article milestones below to see why the nomination was archived. Once the objections have been addressed you may resubmit the article for featured list status.
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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!

Purple Rain

Purple Rain has over 32 million copies sold. The 25 million mark is outdated and needs to be changed to 32. Mistag1958 (talk) 07:00, 6 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

During the early 1990s, the media was reporting up to 14 million copies worldwide for Purple Rain [1][2][3]

By the end of the 2000s it's sales were estimated between 18-20 million copies, which would have been another 4-6 million units sold since then. I think 25 million seems appropriate at the moment. [4][5]

If it's certifications go up by 10M then it would justify a move to 32 million in my opinion Never17 (talk) 23:38, 4 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The Dark Side of the Moon exceeded 50 millions copies sold

This is the source https://www.pinkfloyd.com/tdsotm50/recordings/. I hope you can update the list. 201.182.80.26 (talk) 18:58, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I believe we need a better source than from the band's website, but I'm happy to look for one unless someone beats me to it! 43hsuls (talk) 20:44, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The certified sales of almost every album need to be updated

I was looking at this interesting page which at least for the estimated sales seems very accurate, however I can't say the same for the certified ones since they all seem quite dated

The first case I noticed is The Dark Side of the Moon, comparing it to its wikipedia page for example it sold 4.8M copies in UK instead of 4.5M, 2.5M in France instead of 400k, 1.5M in Germany instead of 1M, 1.35M in Italy instead of 300k etc, in some cases it could also be due to a different source but in any case that's more or less the same for most albums

Unfortunately I don't have permission to edit the page, so is there anyone with a lot of patience who can take a look and update them? Mg250 (talk) 17:16, 30 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I will look into this. 43hsuls (talk) 20:41, 20 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly

In the "Timeline of the best-selling albums" section of this article, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly is listed as the highest selling album starting in 1969 with 30 million listed for total sales... yet this album does not appear in the "30–39 million copies" section of the page. This information is thus contradictory or incomplete. Cb5555 (talk) 11:27, 7 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Because it has only up to 5 million certified sales. That album has incredibly bloated sales. Dhoffryn (talk) 13:13, 7 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That makes sense, but the rankings of the albums seem to be based off total sales not certified copies (e.g. Abbey Road with 16.9 million certified sales but 30 million claimed sales falling into the 30-39 million copies category). Thank you. Cb5555 (talk) 15:38, 7 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It is written in the introduction of an article that the album must be certified for at least 10 million copies. That is the requirement to get on the list and at least 20 million sold. So it is both. Dhoffryn (talk) 16:37, 7 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, appreciate the clarification! Cb5555 (talk) 16:43, 7 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]