List of best-selling Latin music artists

Gold and platinum certifications issued after 2016, especially on singles, are in some cases more-than-50% streaming generated. Some 20th-century artists can also have significant amount of streaming-based certifications. The certified units of more recently active artists may sometimes be higher in the list than their listed claimed figures because RIAA and almost all other certifying bodies include streaming in the thresholds required for gold and platinum Digital Single Award certification.^[16][17][18] For this reason, some singles and albums are over-certified by hundreds of thousands of units. The over-certified figures are often in millions of units for RIAA certifications.

The certified units for some artists and bands who have multi-disc albums can be higher than their listed claimed figures because RIAA counts each unit within a set as one unit toward certification. Certified units can also be inflated by the redundancy of certifications because each track's downloads and streams contribute to the certifications of both of the single and the respective album. RIAA counts 10 downloads of individual track as well as 1,500 audio/video streams, including those from singles released prior to the album release, as an equivalent to one unit of album.^[19] Theoretically, if one song is streamed 1.5 billion times on YouTube, the single would receive diamond certification and the whole album could be certified platinum,^[20] creating a combined total of 11 million certified units without any sales.

All artists included on this list, including charts, have their available claimed figures supported by available from countries with recording certifications. With the exception of certifications from Spain prior to 2003, the certified units are sourced from countries with local music industry associations including those with online databases. Certifications from Spain prior to 2003 are listed in the book Sólo éxitos. Año a año. 1959-2002 (2005) by Fernando Salaverri.^[21] In the case of recordings RIAA has simultaneously certified standard and Latin, only the unit with the highest number of certified copies will be counted. For example, Mi Tierra (1993) by Gloria Estefan has been certified standard platinum for one millions units and 16× platinum in the Latin genre for 1,600,000 units, thus only the latter certification is counted. Albums that have been certified in both fields for the same value, such as Sueños Líquidos (1997) by Maná, which was certified platinum and 10× platinum in the Latin field, may use either certification but not both. All certified units are converted from gold, platinum or diamond certification awards based on criteria provided by certifying bodies.

Issued certifications for songs multiple artists have recorded, including featured artists, are added to each artist's total of certified units because all of the artists would have played a significant part in the song. Certifications issued for songs that have been recorded by four or more artists are not included because the artists involved would have played minor roles.^[b]