Loading AI tools
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of the best-selling albums by year in the United States, published by American music magazine Billboard since 1956 as year-end rankings of album sales. Until 1991, the Billboard album chart was based on a survey of representative retail outlets that determined a ranking, not a tally of actual sales. Weekly surveys and year-end charts by Billboard and other publications such as now defunct Cash Box magazine sometimes differed. For instance, during the 1960s and 1970s, the number-one album as determined by these two publications differed in 10 out of 20 years. From 1992 onwards, the Billboard year-end and weekly charts were calculated by Nielsen SoundScan. Note that this slightly differs from prior Billboard year-end album charts, which were a measure of chart performances over twelve months from around December to November (cutoff determined by Billboard's publication schedule) rather than actual total sales. In addition, certain additions post-2015 may differ from best-selling albums in the United States of the Nielsen SoundScan era, which includes album-equivalent units by means of streaming.[2]
Harry Belafonte's Calypso (1956) was the first record to be recognized as a year's top-selling album by Billboard, when it started tracking sales figures. American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift is the first and only artist to have eight of their albums become best-selling records of their respective years. She accomplished it with Fearless (2009), 1989 (2014), Reputation (2017), Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), Midnights (2022), 1989 (Taylor's Version) (2023). American acts Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Eminem, and British acts Elton John and Adele, have had two of their albums be the top-sellers in two separate years. American singer Michael Jackson's 1982 Thriller became the best-selling record in the country for two consecutive years in the 1980s. Other albums to achieve the same accomplishment included the My Fair Lady Original Cast Recording from the hit 1956 Broadway production between 1957 and 1958, the original soundtrack of West Side Story between 1962 and 1963, and Adele's 21 between 2011 and 2012. The Spice Girls are the only female group to appear on the list. Their debut album "Spice" was the best-selling album of 1997.
Year[I] | Artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1951 | Yma Sumac | Peru | Voice of the Xtabay | [3] |
1956 | Harry Belafonte | United States | Calypso | [4] |
1957 | Original Broadway Cast | My Fair Lady | [5] | |
1958 | [6] | |||
1959 | Henry Mancini | Music from Peter Gunn | [7] |
Year | Artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1960 | Original Broadway Cast | – | The Sound of Music | [8] |
1961 | Camelot | [9] | ||
1962 | Soundtrack | West Side Story | [10] | |
1963 | [11] | |||
1964 | Original Broadway Cast | Hello, Dolly! | [12] | |
1965 | Soundtrack | Mary Poppins | [13] | |
1966 | Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass | United States | Whipped Cream & Other Delights | [14] |
1967 | The Monkees | More of The Monkees | [15] | |
1968 | The Jimi Hendrix Experience | Are You Experienced? | [16] | |
1969 | Iron Butterfly | In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida | [17] |
Year[I] | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1970 | Simon and Garfunkel | United States | Bridge over Troubled Water | [18] |
1971 | Various Artists | – | Jesus Christ Superstar | [19] |
1972 | Neil Young | Canada | Harvest | [20] |
1973 | War | United States | The World Is a Ghetto | [21] |
1974 | Elton John | United Kingdom | Goodbye Yellow Brick Road | [22] |
1975 | Elton John's Greatest Hits | [23] | ||
1976 | Peter Frampton | United Kingdom / United States | Frampton Comes Alive | [24] |
1977 | Fleetwood Mac | Rumours | [25] | |
1978 | Soundtrack / Bee Gees | – | Saturday Night Fever | [26] |
1979 | Billy Joel | United States | 52nd Street | [27] |
Year[I] | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1980 | Pink Floyd | United Kingdom | The Wall | [28] |
1981 | REO Speedwagon | United States | Hi Infidelity | [29] |
1982 | Asia | United Kingdom | Asia | [30] |
1983 | Michael Jackson | United States | Thriller | [31] |
1984 | [32] | |||
1985 | Bruce Springsteen | Born in the U.S.A. | [33] | |
1986 | Whitney Houston | Whitney Houston | [34] | |
1987 | Bon Jovi | Slippery When Wet | [35] | |
1988 | George Michael | United Kingdom | Faith | [36] |
1989 | Bobby Brown | United States | Don't Be Cruel | [37] |
Year[I] | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Sales | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1990 |
Janet Jackson | United States | Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 | NA[note 1] |
[38] |
1991 |
Garth Brooks | Ropin' the Wind[note 2] | 4,000,000 | [39] | |
Mariah Carey | Mariah Carey[note 3] | 3,380,000 | [40] | ||
1992 | Billy Ray Cyrus | Some Gave All | 4,832,000 | [41] | |
1993 | Whitney Houston (Soundtrack) | – | The Bodyguard | 5,460,000 | [42] |
1994 | Elton John (Soundtrack) | – | The Lion King | 4,934,000 | [43] |
1995 | Hootie & the Blowfish | United States | Cracked Rear View | 7,020,000 | [44][45] |
1996 | Alanis Morissette | Canada | Jagged Little Pill | 7,380,000 | [46] |
1997 | Spice Girls | United Kingdom | Spice | 5,302,000 | [47] |
1998 | James Horner / Soundtrack | – | Titanic | 9,338,000 | [46] |
1999 | Backstreet Boys | United States | Millennium | 9,445,732 | [48] |
Year[I] | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Sales | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | NSYNC | United States | No Strings Attached | 9,936,000 | [46] |
2001 | Linkin Park | Hybrid Theory | 4,813,000 | [46] | |
2002 | Eminem | The Eminem Show | 7,608,000 | [49] | |
2003 | 50 Cent | Get Rich or Die Tryin' | 6,536,000 | [50] | |
2004 | Usher | Confessions | 7,979,000 | [51] | |
2005 | Mariah Carey | The Emancipation of Mimi | 4,969,000 | [52] | |
2006 | Various artists | – | High School Musical | 3,719,000 | [53] |
2007 | Josh Groban | United States | Noël | 3,699,000 | [54] |
2008 | Lil Wayne | Tha Carter III | 2,874,000 | [55] | |
2009 | Taylor Swift | Fearless | 3,217,000 | [56] |
Year[I] | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Sales | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | Eminem | United States | Recovery | 3,415,000 | [57] |
2011 | Adele | United Kingdom | 21 | 5,824,000 | [58] |
2012 | 4,410,000 | [59] | |||
2013 | Justin Timberlake | United States | The 20/20 Experience | 2,430,000 | [60] |
2014 | Taylor Swift | 1989 | 3,661,000 | [61] | |
2015 | Adele | United Kingdom | 25 | 7,441,000 | [62] |
2016 | 1,731,000 | [63] | |||
2017 | Taylor Swift | United States | Reputation | 1,903,000 | [64] |
2018 | Various artists | N/A | The Greatest Showman | 1,491,000 | [65] |
2019 | Taylor Swift | United States | Lover | 1,085,000 | [66] |
Year[I] | Performing artist(s) | Nationality | Album | Sales | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2020 | Taylor Swift | United States | Folklore | 1,276,000 | [67] |
2021 | Adele | United Kingdom | 30 | 1,464,000 | [68] |
2022 | Taylor Swift | United States | Midnights | 1,818,000 | |
2023 | 1989 (Taylor's Version) | 1,975,000 |
^[I] Each year is linked to the article about music that year.
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.