List of best-selling individual magazine covers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of some of the highest-selling magazine cover issues. It does not take into consideration centerfolds and posters. It includes any type of magazine and single special editions. Groupings are based on over 3 million newsstands copies and distribution.
Considered "The Greatest Magazine Ever Published" by David Plotz, Life magazine figures sold the most amount for decades, with a weekly circulation of 4 million copies and over 10 million readers in their prime, then-10 percent of U.S population.[1] In recent years, People became weekly's highest-seller,[1] and various single issues reached over 2 million copies.[2]
List of highest-selling singles magazine cover issues
| Date | Publication | Cover title | Cover model(s), Event |
Namesake photo | Sales (in million) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 1973 | Family Circle | N/a | N/a | N/a | 9.5[3] | |
| August 1964 | Life | "The Beatles: They're Here Again and What a Ruckus!" | The Beatles |  |
8.5 | |
| April 1965 | Life | "Drama of Life Before Birth" | N/a | N/a | 8[4] | First-four days copies according to American Society of Magazine Editors[5] |
| September 2001 | Time | "Sept.11, 2011 The Day That Shook America" | September 11 attacks | 7.5[6] | ||
| November 1972 | Playboy | N/a | Lena Söderberg | 7.16[7] | Playboy's highest-selling issue.[7] | |
| December 1994 | Weekly Shōnen Jump | N/a | Manga characters | 6.53 (in printed)[8] | New Year issue for 1995[8] Weekly Shōnen Jump's highest-selling issue[8][9] | |
| September 1984 | Penthouse | "Miss America Oh God, She's Nude!" | Vanessa Williams |  |
5.3[10] | Penthouse's highest-selling issue[11] |
| September 1985 | Penthouse | "Madonna in the Nude" | Madonna | _(cropped_2).jpg) |
5[12][13] | |
| September 1985 | Playboy | "Madonna Nude: Unlike a Virgin... For the Very First Time" | Madonna | |
5[13][12] | |
| March 1989 | Playboy | "Michael's Sister in a Thriller Pictorial" | La Toya Jackson |  |
5[14] |
| Date | Publication | Cover title | Cover model(s), Event |
Namesake photo | Sales (in million) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2001 | People | "Sept.11, 2011 The Day That Shook America" | September 11 attacks | 4.1[2] | ||
| December 1995 | Playboy | "Farrah Fawcett Holiday Pictorial" | Farrah Fawcett |  |
4[15] | Best-selling issue of the decade.[16] |
| July 1955 | Confidential | "Willie Mays' Luckiest Strikeout!" | Various | Various | 3.7[17] | |
| 1997 | People | "Diana Princess of Wales 1961—1997" | Diana, Princess of Wales | .jpg) |
3.1[18] | Tribute to Diana, special edition. |