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], it has sold more than 7 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 approximately 4 million copies since being released in 1991, and is the tenth biggest-selling album in the UK.[1] These sales figures include 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 top 60 best-selling albums, more than half are by British artists.[1] Fourteen are by American artists, with the rest being from Ireland, Canada, Sweden and Jamaica.[6] Ten acts feature on the chart with more than one album, with Queen and Michael Jackson both featuring twice within the top ten.[1] The only acts to feature more than twice are Coldplay, Michael Jackson, Take That and Robbie Williams; Williams features on the chart four times, more than any other artist. The most-represented record label is Parlophone with seven entries, while the decade that appears the most is the 2000s, with 20 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 first number one was Songs for Swingin' Lovers! by Frank Sinatra.[10] Since then, four albums have gone on to sell more than five million copies each: Greatest Hits by Queen, by ABBA, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles and 21 by Adele.[11] The top nine best-selling 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,, 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 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;[16] digital downloads have been counted towards unit sales since 2004.[17] 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.[18] The highest-certified album is Greatest Hits, which has been awarded platinum certification 23 times, representing 6,900,000 units.
Positions are as of July 2016;[1] sales, where shown, are from the reference given, which may be at a different date, and cannot be used to infer changes in position.
| Album | scope=col | Artist | scope=col | Record label | scope=col | Released | scope=col | Chart peak | scope=col | Sales (as of date) | scope=col | No. of times Platinum |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 1 | Greatest Hits | Queen | EMI | 1 | 7,000,000 (Jul 2022)[19] | 23× | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 2 | ABBA | Polydor | 1 | 6,300,000 (Jul 2024)[20] | 21× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 3 | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | Parlophone | 1 | 5,400,000 (Aug 2020)[21] | 18× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 4 | 21 | Adele | XL | 1 | 5,400,000 (Nov 2022)[22] | 18× | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 5 | Oasis | Creation | 1 | 5,100,000 (Jan 2024)[23] | 17× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 6 | Thriller | Epic | 1 | 4,500,000 (Nov 2021)[24] | 15× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 7 | Pink Floyd | Harvest | 2 | 4,470,000 (Oct 2018) | 15× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 8 | Brothers in Arms | Dire Straits | Vertigo | 1 | 4,350,000 (Oct 2018) | 14× | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 9 | Bad | Epic | 1 | 4,200,000 (Nov 2021)[25] | 14× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 10 | Greatest Hits II | Queen | EMI/Parlophone | 1 | 3,990,000 (Jul 2016) | 13× | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 11 | Rumours | Fleetwood Mac | Warner Bros. | 1 | 4,090,000 (Oct 2018) | 14× | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 12 | Back to Black | Island | 1 | 3,930,000 (Oct 2018) | 13× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 13 | 25 | Adele | XL | 1 | 3,900,000 (May 2023)[26] | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 14 | Madonna | Sire | 1 | 3,700,000 (Jul 2016)[27] | 13× | ||||||
| 15 | Come On Over | Mercury | 1 | 3,517,003 (Jan 2023) | 11× | |||||||
| 16 | Stars | Simply Red | East West | 1 | 3,450,000 (Oct 2018) | 12× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 17 | Legend | Island/Tuff Gong | 1 | 3,380,000 (Aug 2020) | 14× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 18 | Back to Bedlam | Atlantic | 1 | 3,360,000 (Oct 2018) | 11× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 19 | Urban Hymns | Hut | 1 | 3,340,000 (Oct 2018) | 11× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 20 | x | Asylum | 1 | 3,380,000 (Oct 2018) | 11× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 21 | Bat Out of Hell | Meat Loaf | Epic | 3 | 3,370,000 (Oct 2018) | 11× | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 22 | Lady Gaga | Interscope | 1 | 3,303,415 (Aug 2023) | 11× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 23 | 1 | Apple | 1 | 3,230,000 (Jul 2016) | 11× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 24 | Bridge over Troubled Water | Simon & Garfunkel | CBS | 1 | 3,260,000 (Oct 2018) | 10× | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 25 | Dirty Dancing | Original soundtrack | RCA | 4 | 3,150,000 (Oct 2015)[28] | 10× | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 26 | Spirit | Syco | 1 | 3,170,000 (Oct 2018) | 10× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 27 | Crazy Love | Reprise | 1 | 3,130,000 (Oct 2018) | 10× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 28 | No Angel | Dido | Arista | 1 | 3,090,000 (Oct 2018) | 10× | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 29 | Spice | Spice Girls | Virgin | 1 | 3,022,090 (Nov 2021)[29] | 10× | |||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 30 | White Ladder | IHT/East West | 1 | 3,020,000 (Oct 2018) | 10× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 31 | Only by the Night | Kings of Leon | Hand Me Down | 1 | 3,000,000 (Apr 2018) | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 32 | Coldplay | Parlophone | 1 | 3,000,000 (Nov 2020) | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 33 | Talk on Corners | Atlantic | 1 | 2,960,000 (Oct 2018) | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 34 | Life for Rent | Dido | Cheeky | 1 | 2,900,000 (Oct 2018) | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 35 | Beautiful World | Take That | Polydor | 1 | 2,880,000 (Oct 2018) | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 36 | Hopes and Fears | Keane | Island | 1 | 2,860,000 (Oct 2018) | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 37 | U2 | Island | 1 | 2,880,000 (Oct 2018) | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 38 | Columbia | 5 | 2,800,000 (Oct 2018) | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 39 | X&Y | Coldplay | Parlophone | 1 | 2,790,000 (Oct 2018) | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 40 | Scissor Sisters | Scissor Sisters | Polydor | 1 | 2,760,000 (Oct 2018) | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 41 | Virgin | 1 | 2,750,000 (Oct 2018) | ||||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 42 | Jagged Little Pill | Maverick | 1 | 2,780,000 (Oct 2018) | 10× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 43 | Parachutes | Coldplay | Parlophone | 1 | 2,740,000 (Jul 2020)[30] | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 44 | Tubular Bells | Virgin | 1 | 2,760,000 (Oct 2018) | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 45 | Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of | Epic | 1 | 2,700,000 (Jan 2019)[31] | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 46 | Travis | Independiente | 1 | 2,687,500 (May 2016)[32] | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 47 | Tracy Chapman | Elektra | 1 | 2,710,000 (Oct 2018) | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 48 | Greatest Hits | ABBA | Epic | 1 | 2,606,000 (Jul 2016) | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 49 | Grease | Original soundtrack | RSO | 1 | 2,586,500+ (Jul 2016) | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 50 | I've Been Expecting You | Chrysalis | 1 | 2,586,500 (May 2016)[33] | 10× | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 51 | Come Away with Me | Parlophone | 1 | 2,556,650 (Oct 2016)[34] | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 52 | Graceland | Warner Bros. | 1 | 2,500,000+ (Jul 2016) | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 53 | Original soundtrack | RCA Victor | 1 | 2,500,000+ (Jul 2016) | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 54 | Tango in the Night | Fleetwood Mac | Warner Bros. | 1 | 2,500,000 (Apr 2017)[35] | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 55 | Eminem | Interscope | 1 | 2,460,000 (May 2018)[36] | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 56 | Swing When You're Winning | Chrysalis | 1 | 2,385,700 (May 2016) | |||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 57 | Progress | Take That | Polydor | 1 | 2,360,000+ (Jul 2016) | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 58 | Eyes Open | Snow Patrol | Fiction | 1 | 2,400,000 (Mar 2018)[37] | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 59 | Never Forget – The Ultimate Collection | Take That | RCA | 2 | 2,360,000 (Jul 2016) | ||||||
| scope=row style="text-align:center;" | 60 | Automatic for the People | R.E.M. | Warner Bros. | 1 | 2,350,000 (Jul 2016) |
General (chart positions)
Specific