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List of best-selling albums in the United Kingdom

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Colour photograph of all four members of Queen performing live in 1981.
Queen's Greatest Hits (1981) is the best-selling album in the UK. Their 1991 follow-up Greatest Hits II is the UK's tenth highest-selling album.

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, 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 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] Thirteen albums have each sold at least four million copies.[12] Since 1994, sales of albums have been monitored by the OCC, who took over compiling the weekly UK Albums Chart.[13]

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, streaming of album tracks.[14] The BPI began awarding certifications soon after it was founded in April 1973.[15] 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.[15] 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.[15] Multi-platinum awards were introduced in February 1987;[a] digital downloads have been counted towards unit sales since 2004.[16] 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.[17] The highest-certified album is Greatest Hits, which has been awarded platinum certification 23 times, representing 6,900,000 units.[18]

Best-selling albums

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Best-selling albums in the UK
No. Album Artist Record label[b] Released[b] Chart
peak[b] 		Sales[c] No. of times
Platinum[d]
1 Greatest Hits Queen EMI October 1981 1 7.0 million+[20] 23×
2 Gold: Greatest Hits ABBA Polydor September 1992 1 6.3 million+ 21×
=3 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band The Beatles Parlophone June 1967 1 5.4 million+ 18×
=3 21 Adele XL January 2011 1 5.4 million+ 18×
5 (What's the Story) Morning Glory? Oasis Creation October 1995 1 5.1 million+ 17×
=6 The Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd Harvest March 1973 2 4.5 million+ 15×
=6 Rumours Fleetwood Mac Warner Bros. February 1977 1 4.5 million+ 15×
=6 Thriller Michael Jackson Epic November 1982 1 4.5 million+ 15×
=9 Legend Bob Marley and the Wailers Island/Tuff Gong May 1984 1 4.2 million+ 14×
=9 Brothers in Arms Dire Straits Vertigo May 1985 1 4.2 million+ 14×
=9 Bad Michael Jackson Epic August 1987 1 4.2 million+ 14×
=9 Back to Black Amy Winehouse Island October 2006 1 4.2 million+ 14×
=9 ÷ Ed Sheeran Asylum March 2017 1 4.2 million+ 14×
=14 The Immaculate Collection Madonna Sire November 1990 1 3.9 million+ 13×
=14 Greatest Hits II Queen EMI/Parlophone October 1991 1 3.9 million+ 13×
=14 1 The Beatles Apple November 2000 1 3.9 million+ 13×
=14 x Ed Sheeran Asylum June 2014 1 3.9 million+ 13×
=14 25 Adele XL November 2015 1 3.9 million+ 13×
19 Stars Simply Red East West September 1991 1 3.6 million+ 12×
=20 Bridge over Troubled Water Simon & Garfunkel CBS January 1970 1 3.3 million+ 11×
=20 Bat Out of Hell Meat Loaf Epic October 1977 3 3.3 million+ 11×
=20 Urban Hymns The Verve Hut September 1997 1 3.3 million+ 11×
=20 Come On Over Shania Twain Mercury November 1997 1 3.3 million+ 11×
=20 Back to Bedlam James Blunt Atlantic November 2004 1 3.3 million+ 11×
=20 Curtain Call: The Hits Eminem Interscope December 2005 1 3.3 million+ 11×
=20 The Fame Lady Gaga Interscope January 2009 1 3.3 million+ 11×
=20 Christmas Michael Bublé Reprise November 2011 1 3.3 million+ 11×
=28 The Joshua Tree U2 Island March 1987 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 Dirty Dancing Original soundtrack RCA August 1987 4 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 Jagged Little Pill Alanis Morissette Maverick June 1995 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 Spice Spice Girls Virgin November 1996 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 White Ladder David Gray IHT/East West November 1997 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 I've Been Expecting You Robbie Williams Chrysalis October 1998 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 No Angel Dido Arista October 2000 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 A Rush of Blood to the Head Coldplay Parlophone August 2002 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 Number Ones Michael Jackson Epic November 2003 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 Spirit Leona Lewis Syco November 2007 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 Only by the Night Kings of Leon Hand Me Down September 2008 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 Crazy Love Michael Bublé Reprise October 2009 1 3.0 million+ 10×
=28 In the Lonely Hour Sam Smith Capitol June 2014 1 3.0 million+ 10×

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ As an example, a 2× Platinum certification would reflect 2 × 300,000 = 600,000 sales.
  2. ^ a b c The record labels, dates and chart peaks are those given by the OCC.[19]
  3. ^ Unless otherwise cited, sales are based on the certifications given by the BPI as of January 2025.[18]
  4. ^ The certifications are those given by the BPI as of January 2025.[18]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Copsey, Rob (4 July 2016). "The UK's 60 official biggest selling albums of all time revealed". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 9 July 2016. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  2. ^ Smith, Carl (11 July 2022). "Queen's Greatest Hits becomes first album in Official Charts history to reach 7 million UK chart 'sales'". Official Charts Company. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
  3. ^ Jones, Alan (17 November 2014). "Official Charts analysis: Wake Me Up returns to singles summit as Children in Need charity track". Music Week. (subscription required)
  4. ^ "Queen reach six million album sales in UK". BBC News. 11 February 2014. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  5. ^ Jones, Alan (19 September 2009). "How the All Time Charts were compiled". Music Week.
  6. ^ a b "Queen retain UK album sales crown". BBC News. 9 April 2012. Archived from the original on 11 April 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  7. ^ Murison, Krissi, ed. (9 April 2012). "'Queen's Greatest Hits' named biggest-selling UK album of all time". NME. ISSN 0028-6362. OCLC 317997735. Archived from the original on 13 April 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
  8. ^ "Rules For Chart Eligibility – Albums" (PDF). Official Charts Company. May 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 September 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  9. ^ Mawer, Sharon (2008). "1956". The Official UK Charts Company. Archived from the original on 8 March 2009. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
  10. ^ "Albums chart: 50 chart facts". Music Week. 5 August 2006. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2011. (subscription required)
  11. ^ Gumble, Daniel (4 January 2017). "Adele's 21 breaks five million sales barrier". Music Week. Archived from the original on 5 January 2017. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  12. ^ "Adele overtakes Dire Straits to become UK's sixth biggest selling album of all-time". Official Charts Company. 23 March 2012. Archived from the original on 8 May 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  13. ^ "Official UK Albums Top 100". Official Charts Company. 2010. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  14. ^ "About Us". British Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original on 1 May 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  15. ^ a b c "Certified Awards – A Timeline" (PDF). British Phonographic Industry. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 April 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  16. ^ "Certified Awards". British Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original on 1 May 2012. Retrieved 18 April 2012.
  17. ^ "Beatles albums finally go platinum". BBC News. 2 September 2013. Archived from the original on 10 April 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2014.
  18. ^ a b c "Certified Awards". British Phonographic Industry. Archived from the original on 25 June 2014. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  19. ^ "Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company. 2010. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 10 April 2012.
  20. ^ Smith, Carl (19 July 2021). "Queen's Greatest Hits becomes first album in Official Charts history to reach 7 million UK chart 'sales'". Official Charts. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
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