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List of best-selling albums in the United Kingdom
Top 60 best selling albums in the UK From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The best-selling album in the United Kingdom is Greatest Hits, a compilation album by the British rock band Queen that was first released in 1981.[1] As of July 2022[update], it has sold more than seven million copies,[2] of which approximately 124,000 have been from downloads.[3][4] Queen's second greatest hits album, Greatest Hits II, has sold more than 3.9 million copies since being released in 1991,[1] which includes 50% of sales of box sets containing both albums and 33% of sales of box sets of Queen's three Greatest Hits albums.[5]
Of the UK's 40 best-selling albums, more than half are by British artists,[1] with the remaining albums being by artists from the United States, Canada, Sweden, Jamaica and Ireland.[6] Six acts feature on the chart with more than one album, with Michael Jackson being the only artist to feature three times. The most-represented record label is Epic Records with four entries, while the decade that appears the most is the 2000s, with 12 of the entries having been released during that period, despite its "general background of declining sales and internet piracy".[6][7]
According to the Official Charts Company (OCC), which collects album sales data in the UK, an album is defined as being a type of music release that features more than four tracks or is longer than 25 minutes in duration.[8] Sales of albums in the UK were first published by the music magazine Record Mirror, who compiled a weekly chart of the country's five biggest-selling records for the week of 22 July 1956.[9] Record Mirror's first number one was Songs for Swingin' Lovers! by Frank Sinatra.[10] Since then, five albums have gone on to sell more than five million copies each: Greatest Hits by Queen, Gold: Greatest Hits by ABBA, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles, 21 by Adele, and (What's the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis.[11] Since 1994, sales of albums have been monitored by the OCC, who took over compiling the weekly UK Albums Chart.[12]
Sales certifications for albums are awarded by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for shipments, physical sales and downloads of albums, and, as of June 2015[update], streaming of album tracks.[13] The BPI began awarding certifications soon after it was founded in April 1973.[14] Initially, certifications were based on the revenue received by the album manufacturers – records that generated revenue of £75,000 were awarded silver certification, £150,000 represented gold and £1 million was platinum.[14] Over the following six years, the thresholds for silver and gold certifications both grew twice – the threshold for platinum certification remained at £1 million. In January 1979, this method of certifying sales was abolished, and certifications were instead based on unit sales to retail outlets: sales of 60,000 were awarded silver, gold for 100,000 and platinum for 300,000.[14] Multi-platinum awards were introduced in February 1987;[a] digital downloads have been counted towards unit sales since 2004.[15] Certifications for albums released before April 1973 were retroactively awarded in August 2013 for sales from 1994 onwards, and then again in February 2016 for all previous sales.[16] The highest-certified album is Greatest Hits, which has been awarded platinum certification 23 times, representing 6,900,000 units.[17]
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Best-selling albums
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See also
Notes
- The record labels, dates and chart peaks are those given by the OCC.[18]
References
External links
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