List of fastest-selling albums

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This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in global recorded music. To appear on the list, the figure must have been published by a reliable source and all sales must have occurred in the first week of release. This list may include any type of album, including studio albums, extended plays, greatest hits, compilations, soundtracks and remixes. Market order within the article is ranked alphabetically. Albums within each table are listed in order of the number of copies sold and thereafter by the artist's first name.

Argentina

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Argentina
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
1997 Romances Luis Miguel 400,000 [1]
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Brazil

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Brazil
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
1987 Xegundo Xou da Xuxa Xuxa 1,200,000 [2]
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Cameroon

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Cameroon
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
1996 Class F/M Petit-Pays 50,000 [3]
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Canada

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Canada since 1995
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2015 25 Adele 306,000 [4]
1997 Let's Talk About Love Céline Dion 230,200 [5]
1999 Millennium Backstreet Boys 191,791
2003 Star Académie Star Académie 173,000 [6]
2000 Black & Blue Backstreet Boys 156,307 [7]
2002 A New Day Has Come Céline Dion 151,600 [8]
2002 Up! Shania Twain 150,000 [9]
2024 The Tortured Poets Department Taylor Swift 150,000 [10]
2008 Black Ice AC/DC 119,000 [11]
2006 I Think of You Gregory Charles 109,000 [12]
2014 1989 Taylor Swift 107,000 [11]
2005 X&Y Coldplay 105,000 [13]
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Chile

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Chile
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
1994 Segundo Romance Luis Miguel 50,000 [14]
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China

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in China
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2022 Greatest Works of Art Jay Chou 5,000,000 [15]
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Colombia

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Colombia
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
1997 Tengo Fe Carlos Vives 300,000 [16]
2013 Loco de Amor Juanes 240,000 [17]
2013 Corazón Profundo Carlos Vives 120,000 [18]
2009 Clásicos de la Provincia II 42,000 [19]
2007 La Llave de Mi Corazon Juan Luis Guerra 17,000 [20]
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Denmark

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Denmark
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2008 Show the World Martin 36,000 [21]
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France

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in France
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2018 Mon Pays C'est l'Amour Johnny Hallyday 780,177 [22][23]
2002 À la Vie, À la Mort! 305,634 [22][23]
2016 Encore un Soir Céline Dion 217,000 [24]
2013 Random Access Memories Daft Punk 195,013 [25]
2015 25 Adele 169,693 [26]
2012 Monkey Me Mylène Farmer 147,530 [27]
2011 Bleu Noir 139,176 [28]
2015 Interstellaires 109,971 [29]
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Germany

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Germany
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2007 12 Herbert Grönemeyer 300,000 [30]
2017 Helene Fischer Helene Fischer 300,000 [30]
2015 25 Adele 263,000 [31]
2019 Untitled Rammstein 260,000 [32]
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Greece

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Greece
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
1998 Antidoto Anna Vissi 80,000 [33]
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Ireland

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Ireland
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
1998 The Best of 1980–1990 U2 Not disclosed [34]
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Japan

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Japan since 1967
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2001 Distance Hikaru Utada 3,002,720 [35][36]
2001 A Best Ayumi Hamasaki 2,874,870 [35][36]
1998 B'z The Best "Pleasure" B'z 2,709,530 [36][37]
1998 B'z The Best "Treasure" 2,500,120 [36][38]
2002 Deep River Hikaru Utada 2,350,170 [36][39]
2000 Delicious Way Mai Kuraki 2,218,640 [36][40]
1999 First Love Hikaru Utada 2,026,870 [36][41]
1997 Review Glay 2,003,150 [36][42]
1996 Sweet 19 Blues Namie Amuro 1,921,850 [36][43]
2002 I Am... Ayumi Hamasaki 1,751,360 [36][44]
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Mexico

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Mexico
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
1990 20 Años Luis Miguel 600,000 [45]
1994 Segundo Romance 600,000 [46]
1997 Romances 560,000 [47]
2004 México en la Piel 400,000 [48]
1996 Nada Es Igual... 400,000 [49]
2008 Cómplices 320,000 [50]
2005 Nuestro Amor RBD 160,000 [51]
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New Zealand

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in New Zealand
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2015 25 Adele 18,766 [52]
2009 I Dreamed a Dream Susan Boyle 17,435 [52]
2013 Pure Heroine Lorde 15,000 [53]
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Netherlands

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in the Netherlands
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2015 25 Adele Not disclosed [52]
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Sierra Leone

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Sierra Leone
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2014 Home and Away Emmerson 28,000 [54]
2016 Survivor 12,000 [55]
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Spain

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in Spain
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2000 El Alma al Aire Alejandro Sanz 1,000,000 [56]
2002 Corazón Latino David Bisbal 600,000 [57]
2003 Divorcio Julio Iglesias 200,000 [58]
2000 Alma Caribeña Gloria Estefan 150,000 [59]
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South Korea

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in South Korea since 1993[a]
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2023 Seventeenth Heaven Seventeen 5,091,887 [60]
2023 5-Star Stray Kids 4,617,499 [61]
2023 FML Seventeen 4,550,214 [61]
2023 ISTJ NCT Dream 3,652,897 [62]
2020 Map of the Soul: 7 BTS 3,378,633 [63]
2024 17 Is Right Here Seventeen 2,960,000 [64]
2022 Proof BTS 2,752,496 [65]
2023 Golden Jung Kook 2,438,483 [66]
2020 Be BTS 2,274,882 [67]
2023 The Name Chapter: Freefall TXT 2,251,959 [68]
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United Kingdom

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in the United Kingdom
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2015 25 Adele 803,000 [69]
1997 Be Here Now Oasis 696,000 [69]
2017 ÷ Ed Sheeran 672,000 [70]
1963 With the Beatles The Beatles 530,000 [71]
2010 Progress Take That 518,601 [72]
2005 X&Y Coldplay 464,471
2008 The Circus Take That 432,490
2025 The Life of a Showgirl Taylor Swift 423,444 [73]
2009 I Dreamed a Dream Susan Boyle 411,820 [72]
2003 Life for Rent Dido 400,351
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Notes

  • Be Here Now (1997) by Oasis debuted at number one based on three-day sales of 696,000 copies, while its first full week actually totaled 813,000 copies.[69]
  • 25 (2015) by Adele sold 439,000 copies in its second week of availability,[74] followed by 450,000 in its fifth.[75]

United States

Since 1991

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in the United States since 1991
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
2025 The Life of a Showgirl Taylor Swift 3,479,500 [76]
2015 25 Adele 3,378,000 [77]
2000 No Strings Attached NSYNC 2,416,000 [77]
2024 The Tortured Poets Department Taylor Swift 1,914,000 [78]
2001 Celebrity NSYNC 1,880,000 [77]
2000 The Marshall Mathers LP Eminem 1,760,000 [77]
2000 Black & Blue Backstreet Boys 1,591,000 [77]
2023 1989 (Taylor's Version) Taylor Swift 1,359,000 [79]
2002 The Eminem Show Eminem 1,322,000 [b]
2000 Oops!... I Did It Again Britney Spears 1,319,000 [77]
2014 1989 Taylor Swift 1,287,000 [77]
2017 Reputation 1,216,000 [80]
2012 Red 1,208,000 [77]
2005 The Massacre 50 Cent 1,141,000 [c]
2022 Midnights Taylor Swift 1,140,000 [81]
1999 Millennium Backstreet Boys 1,134,000 [77]
2011 Born This Way Lady Gaga 1,108,000 [77]
2004 Confessions Usher 1,096,000 [77]
1998 Double Live Garth Brooks 1,085,000 [77]
2000 Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water Limp Bizkit 1,055,000 [77]
2010 Speak Now Taylor Swift 1,047,000 [77]
2004 Feels Like Home Norah Jones 1,022,000 [77]
2008 Tha Carter III Lil Wayne 1,006,000 [77]
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Before 1991

More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums in the United States before 1991[d]
Year Album Artist Sales Ref.
1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy – A Memorial Album John F. Kennedy 4,000,000 [83]
1970 Let It Be The Beatles 3,700,000 [e]
1987 Bad Michael Jackson 2,250,000 [85]
1968 The Beatles The Beatles 1,900,000 [f]
1984 Purple Rain Prince 1,500,000 [87]
1986 Live/1975–85 Bruce Springsteen 1,500,000 [g]
1975 Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy Elton John 1,400,000 [h]
1971 Music Carole King 1,300,000 [i]
1965 Rubber Soul The Beatles 1,200,000 [j]
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Notes

  • The Bodyguard (1992) by Whitney Houston sold 1.06 million copies in its Christmas week.[91]
  • 1 (2000) by the Beatles sold 1.25 million copies in its Christmas week.[92][93]
  • Encore (2004) by Eminem sold 1.58 million copies in its first ten days of availability, after an abbreviated three-day first week.[94]
  • 25 (2015) by Adele sold 1.11 million copies in its second week of availability,[95] followed by 1.16 million in its fifth.[96]

Worldwide

† Sales based in a single territory
More information Year, Album ...
List of fastest-selling albums worldwide
Year Album Artist Sales/Shipments Ref.
1991 Dangerous Michael Jackson 9,000,000 [k]
1987 Bad 7,000,000 [98]
2015 25 Adele 5,700,000 [99]
1995 HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I Michael Jackson 5,300,000 [l]
2023 Seventeenth Heaven † Seventeen 5,000,000 [102]
2022 Greatest Works of Art † Jay Chou 5,000,000 [15]
2005 X&Y Coldplay 5,000,000 [103]
2000 Black & Blue Backstreet Boys 5,000,000 [104]
2002 Elvis: 30 #1 Hits Elvis Presley 4,700,000 [105]
2023 5-Star † Stray Kids 4,600,000 [106]
2023 FML † Seventeen 4,500,000 [107]
1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy – A Memorial Album † John F. Kennedy 4,000,000 [83]
2025 The Life of a Showgirl Taylor Swift 3,871,341 [m]
2020 Map of the Soul: 7 BTS 3,700,000 [112]
2000 1 The Beatles 3,600,000 [113]
2023 ISTJ † NCT Dream 3,600,000 [114]
2005 Confessions on a Dance Floor Madonna 3,600,000 [n]
1968 The Beatles The Beatles 3,300,000 [117]
2010 Michael Michael Jackson 3,000,000 [118]
2008 Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends Coldplay 3,000,000 [103]
2001 Invincible Michael Jackson 3,000,000 [119]
2001 Distance † Hikaru Utada 3,000,000 [120]
2000 Music Madonna 3,000,000 [121]
1998 Ray of Light 3,000,000 [122]
2001 A Best † Ayumi Hamasaki 2,800,000 [123]
2022 Proof † BTS 2,700,000 [124]
1998 B'z The Best "Pleasure" † B'z 2,700,000 [125]
2000 Oops!... I Did It Again Britney Spears 2,500,000 [126]
1998 B'z The Best "Treasure" † B'z 2,500,000 [127]
2023 Golden † Jungkook 2,400,000 [66]
2000 No Strings Attached † NSYNC 2,400,000 [77]
2024 The Tortured Poets Department Taylor Swift 2,255,184 [o]
2023 The Name Chapter: Freefall † TXT 2,200,000 [68]
2020 Be † BTS 2,200,000 [67]
1998 Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie Alanis Morissette 2,200,000 [130]
2022 The Name Chapter: Temptation † TXT 2,100,000 [131]
2002 A Rush of Blood to the Head Coldplay 2,000,000 [132]
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See also

Footnotes

  1. [a]
    The Hanteo chart provides real-time daily, weekly, and monthly sales updates, but only accounts for data received from affiliated stores and therefore does not reflect the total sales of a given release. The Circle Album Chart (formerly Gaon), counts albums shipped to all stores regardless of affiliation, so there is always a noticeable difference between its figures and Hanteo's. Gaon, however, only began providing realtime data from 2019. Given this article's scope, and the limitations of existing sources, Hanteo's numbers alone are used.
  2. [b]
    Denotes sales from The Eminem Show's second week of availability, which was its first full week of activity. In its opening week, only one day of sales—284,000 copies—was recorded as the album's release date was pushed up due to bootlegging. That totals to 1.606 million copies in its first eight days of availability.[77]
  3. [c]
    Denotes sales from The Massacre's first four days of availability as the album was unconventionally released in the middle of an ongoing tracking week.[77]
  4. [d]
    The following albums predate the introduction of Nielsen SoundScan and their sales figures are possibly subject to manipulation as sales were self-reported by record labels.[82]
  5. [e]
    Based on two weeks instead of one.[84]
  6. [f]
    Reports state the album sold "almost two million" copies in a week.[86]
  7. [g]
    Based on ten days instead of a week.[88]
  8. [h]
    Based on four days instead of a week.[84][89]
  9. [i]
    Based on a single day instead of a week.[84]
  10. [j]
    Based on nine days instead of a week.[90]
  11. [k]
    According to Sony Music International, Michael Jackson's Dangerous has shipped 4 million units in the US and 5 million units outside the US[97]
  12. [l]
    Michael Jackson's History album shipped 3 million units in advance in Europe[100] and 2.3 million units in the United States.[101]
  13. [m]
    Traditional sales from the United States,[108] United Kingdom,[109] and France alone.[110] Global total unit estimates reached 5.5 million.[111]
  14. [n]
    Others sources estimated 4 million.[115][116]
  15. [o]
    Traditional sales from the United States,[78] the United Kingdom,[128] and Canada alone.[10] Global total unit estimates reached 4 million.[129]

References

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