List of best-selling albums by year in the United States

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]

Taylor Swift is the first and only artist to garner the best-selling album of the year eight times. Swift is also the only artist to have the annual top-selling album in three separate decades (2000s, 2010s and 2020s).^[1]

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 this with Fearless (2009), 1989 (2014), Reputation (2017), Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), Midnights (2022), 1989 (Taylor's Version) (2023) and The Tortured Poets Department (2024). 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 album, Thriller became the best-selling record in the country for two consecutive years in 1983 and 1984. Other albums to achieve the same accomplishment included the My Fair Lady Original Cast Recording from the hit 1956 Broadway production in 1957 and 1958, the original soundtrack of West Side Story in 1962 and 1963, Adele's 21 in 2011 and 2012, and 25 in 2015 and 2016. English group Spice Girls are the only girl group to appear on the list, as their debut record Spice was the best-selling album of 1997.

1950s

Harry Belafonte's Calypso was labeled the US's top-selling record of 1956.

Year[I]	Artist(s)	Nationality	Album	Ref.
1956	Harry Belafonte	United States	Calypso	[3]
1957	Original Broadway Cast		My Fair Lady	[4]
1958				[5]
1959	Henry Mancini		Music from Peter Gunn	[6]

1960s

West Side Story's soundtrack was the best-selling album for two consecutive years.

Year	Artist(s)	Nationality	Album	Ref.
1960	Original Broadway Cast	–	The Sound of Music	[7]
1961			Camelot	[8]
1962	Soundtrack		West Side Story	[9]
1963				[10]
1964	Original Broadway Cast		Hello, Dolly!	[11]
1965	Soundtrack		Mary Poppins	[12]
1966	Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass	United States	Whipped Cream & Other Delights	[13]
1967	The Monkees		More of The Monkees	[14]
1968	The Jimi Hendrix Experience		Are You Experienced?	[15]
1969	Iron Butterfly		In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida	[16]

1970s

Two of Elton John's albums each became the best-selling record in the 1970s.

Year[I]	Performing artist(s)	Nationality	Album	Ref.
1970	Simon and Garfunkel	United States	Bridge over Troubled Water	[17]
1971	Various Artists	–	Jesus Christ Superstar	[18]
1972	Neil Young	Canada	Harvest	[19]
1973	War	United States	The World Is a Ghetto	[20]
1974	Elton John	United Kingdom	Goodbye Yellow Brick Road	[21]
1975			Elton John's Greatest Hits	[22]
1976	Peter Frampton	United Kingdom /  United States	Frampton Comes Alive	[23]
1977	Fleetwood Mac		Rumours	[24]
1978	Soundtrack / Bee Gees	–	Saturday Night Fever	[25]
1979	Billy Joel	United States	52nd Street	[26]

1980s

Michael Jackson's Thriller was the best-selling album for two years in a row.

Year[I]	Performing artist(s)	Nationality	Album	Ref.
1980	Pink Floyd	United Kingdom	The Wall	[27]
1981	REO Speedwagon	United States	Hi Infidelity	[28]
1982	Asia	United Kingdom	Asia	[29]
1983	Michael Jackson	United States	Thriller	[30]
1984				[31]
1985	Bruce Springsteen		Born in the U.S.A.	[32]
1986	Whitney Houston		Whitney Houston	[33]
1987	Bon Jovi		Slippery When Wet	[34]
1988	George Michael	United Kingdom	Faith	[35]
1989	Bobby Brown	United States	Don't Be Cruel	[36]

1990s

Whitney Houston had the best-selling albums of 1986 and 1993, with her self-titled debut studio album and the soundtrack of The Bodyguard, respectively.

Year[I]	Performing artist(s)	Nationality	Album	Sales	Ref.
1990	Janet Jackson	United States	Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814	NA[note 1]	[37]
1991	Garth Brooks		Ropin' the Wind[note 2]	4,000,000	[38]
	Mariah Carey		Mariah Carey[note 3]	3,380,000	[39]
1992	Billy Ray Cyrus		Some Gave All	4,832,000	[40]
1993	Whitney Houston (Soundtrack)	–	The Bodyguard	5,460,000	[41]
1994	Elton John (Soundtrack)	–	The Lion King	4,934,000	[42]
1995	Hootie & the Blowfish	United States	Cracked Rear View	7,020,000	[43][44]
1996	Alanis Morissette	Canada	Jagged Little Pill	7,380,000	[45]
1997	Spice Girls	United Kingdom	Spice	5,302,000	[46]
1998	James Horner / Soundtrack	–	Titanic	9,338,000	[45]
1999	Backstreet Boys	United States	Millennium	9,445,732	[47]

2000s

Eminem is the only rapper to have achieved the best-seller of the year twice; The Eminem Show and Recovery were the best-selling albums of 2002 and 2010, respectively.

Year[I]	Performing artist(s)	Nationality	Album	Sales	Ref.
2000	NSYNC	United States	No Strings Attached	9,936,000	[45]
2001	Linkin Park		Hybrid Theory	4,813,000	[45]
2002	Eminem		The Eminem Show	7,608,000	[48]
2003	50 Cent		Get Rich or Die Tryin'	6,536,000	[49]
2004	Usher		Confessions	7,979,000	[50]
2005	Mariah Carey		The Emancipation of Mimi	4,969,000	[51]
2006	Various artists	–	High School Musical	3,719,000	[52]
2007	Josh Groban	United States	Noël	3,699,000	[53]
2008	Lil Wayne		Tha Carter III	2,874,000	[54]
2009	Taylor Swift		Fearless	3,217,000	[55]

2010s

Adele's 21, 25, and 30 were the best-selling albums of 2011-2012, 2015-2016 and 2021, respectively.

Year[I]	Performing artist(s)	Nationality	Album	Sales	Ref.
2010	Eminem	United States	Recovery	3,415,000	[56]
2011	Adele	United Kingdom	21	5,824,000	[57]
2012				4,410,000	[58]
2013	Justin Timberlake	United States	The 20/20 Experience	2,430,000	[59]
2014	Taylor Swift		1989	3,661,000	[60]
2015	Adele	United Kingdom	25	7,441,000	[61]
2016				1,731,000	[62]
2017	Taylor Swift	United States	Reputation	1,903,000	[63]
2018	Various artists	N/A	The Greatest Showman	1,491,000	[64]
2019	Taylor Swift	United States	Lover	1,085,000	[65]

2020s

Year[I]	Performing artist(s)	Nationality	Album	Sales	Ref.
2020	Taylor Swift	United States	Folklore	1,276,000	[66]
2021	Adele	United Kingdom	30	1,464,000	[67]
2022	Taylor Swift	United States	Midnights	1,818,000	[1]
2023			1989 (Taylor's Version)	1,975,000	[68]
2024			The Tortured Poets Department	3,491,000	[69]

Notes

1. Annual album sales data have been revealed by Billboard since after 1992.
2. Ropin' the Wind was the best-selling album of 1991 according to a 1992 article by the Los Angeles Times.
3. Mariah Carey was the best-selling album of 1991 according to a 2019 article by The Independent.

^{^[I]} Each year is linked to the article about music that year.

• After Billboard began obtaining sales and airplay information from Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, the year-end charts are now calculated by a very straightforward cumulative total of yearlong sales points. This gives a more accurate picture of any given year's most popular titles, as an entry that hypothetically spent nine weeks at number one in March could possibly have earned fewer cumulative points than one spending six weeks at number three in January. Albums at the peak of their popularity at the time of the November/December chart-year cutoff many times end up ranked lower than expected on a year-end tally, yet are ranked on the following year's chart as well, as their cumulative points are split between the two chart years. Sometimes, the best-selling album of the year by Billboard is different than best-selling album of the year of Nielsen SoundScan, because Billboard calculates the year from December to November and Nielsen calculates the year from January to December.
• In this list, from 1956 to 1991, the Billboard year-end tracking was used. From 1992 to date, Nielsen SoundScan's year-end tracking was used.
• Since 2015, Billboard and MRC Data (formerly Nielsen SoundScan) used album-equivalent units to determine the year's top albums, thus there is a discrepancy between the best-selling album (based on pure sales) and the best-performing album (based on sales+streaming). For information regarding the best-selling albums in the MRC Data era (from 1991 to present), see List of best-selling albums in the United States of the Nielsen SoundScan era.

See also

• Record production portal

• Best-selling albums in the United States since Nielsen SoundScan tracking began
• Billboard Year-End
• List of best-selling albums
• List of best-selling albums in Argentina
• List of best-selling albums in Australia
• List of best-selling albums in Brazil
• List of best-selling albums in Canada
• List of best-selling albums in France
• List of best-selling albums in Germany
• List of best-selling albums in Japan
• List of best-selling albums in the Philippines
• List of best-selling albums in South Korea
• List of best-selling albums in Taiwan
• List of best-selling albums in the United Kingdom