List of biggest-selling British music artists

This list documents Britain's best-selling music artists alphabetically^[1] as well as by record sales. This page lists those artists who have had claims of over one million or more records in sales. The list is divided into numerous record-sales brackets within each of which, artists are listed in alphabetical order, rather than by number of records sold. The artists on the list are supported by third-party reliable sources, the sales-figures within which should represent a total number of sold albums, singles, compilation-albums, music videos as well as downloads of singles and full-length albums. This list holds no account of sales after the initial release dates, some artists keep on selling albums they originally released for instance in 1972. those albums sold over the years in their millions.

Constraints

Although the criteria for the following list are intended to be expansive (including comparisons for total-sales for all recording artists) there are certain limitations and constraints that may limit the conclusions that can be derived from these data. There is no certainty these figures are correct for not all sales are controllable.

Such constraints include:

• Bias towards acts who have had success in a specific country or region.
• Bias towards older artists. There is a broader genre spectrum of music to listen to now which limits the number of listeners.
• Bias towards modern artists. Comparatively fewer successful pre-modern artists will have sold more records, as both global spending power and population have increased. In 1950, the world's population was 2.5 billion; by 2000 it had risen to 6 billion. Also, older artists suffer from bias as their record sales are less likely to have been accurately tracked, and estimates of their early sales are likely to be more vague.
• Fan sites, press articles and record labels have been known to inflate record sales claims.
• Inflated claims for artists who performed in different acts during their careers. Sometimes all of the sales data is attributed to an individual artist. For the purposes of this list, an effort is made to separate the individual acts (e.g., the sales figures for The Beatles and Paul McCartney & Wings are mutually exclusive).

400 million or more records

Artist	Biggest selling album	Period	Genre	Claimed sales
The Beatles	Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band	1960–1970	Pop / Rock	500–600 million[2][3]

300 million to 400 million records

Artist	Biggest selling album	Period	Genre	Claimed sales
Elton John	Goodbye Yellow Brick Road	1964–present	Pop / Rock	300 million[4]
Led Zeppelin	Led Zeppelin IV[5]	1968–1980	Hard rock / Heavy metal	200–300 million[6][7]

200 million to 299 million records

Artist	Biggest selling album	Period	Genre	Claimed sales
Cliff Richard	Always Guaranteed	1958–present	Pop / Rock / Rock N Roll / Jazz	260 million[8]
Bee Gees	Saturday Night Fever	1958–2003	Pop / Disco / Soul / Rock / Soft Rock	220 million[9]
David Bowie	Let's Dance	1964–2016	Rock	200 million[10]
Pink Floyd	The Dark Side of the Moon[11]	1964–2014	Progressive rock	200 million[12][13]
The Rolling Stones	Hot Rocks 1964–1971	1962–present	Rock / Blues rock	200 million[14]
Queen	Greatest Hits[15]	1970–present	Glam rock / Hard rock	170–200 million[16][17][18]

100 million to 199 million records

Artist	Biggest selling album	Period	Genre	Claimed sales
Coldplay	A Rush of Blood to the Head	1997–present	Alternative rock	160 million[19]
Ed Sheeran	×	2011–present	Pop	150 million[20]
Genesis	Invisible Touch	1967–present	Progressive rock / Pop rock	150 million[21]
Phil Collins	No Jacket Required	1980–present	Adult contemporary	150 million[22]
Shirley Bassey	The Shirley Bassey Singles Album	1957–present	Pop	135 million[23]
Status Quo	12 Gold Bars	1967–present	Rock	130 million[24]
Adele	21	2006–present	Pop / Soul	120 million[25]
Dire Straits	Brothers in Arms	1977–1995	Rock / Pop	103 million[26]
The Dave Clark Five	–	1964–1970	Pop rock / Beat	100 million[27][28]
Deep Purple	Machine Head	1968–present	Hard rock	100 million[29][30]
Def Leppard	Hysteria	1977–present	Hard rock / heavy metal	100 million[31]
Depeche Mode	Violator	1980–present	Electro Rock	100 million[32][33]
Fleetwood Mac	Rumours	1967–present	Pop rock	100 million[34]
George Michael	Faith	1981–2016	Pop	100 million[35]
Iron Maiden	The Number of the Beast	1975–present	Heavy metal	100 million[36][37]
Paul McCartney	Pipes of Peace	1957–present	Pop rock	100 million[38]
Pet Shop Boys	Actually	1981–present	Synthpop	100 million[39]
Rod Stewart	Out of Order	1962–present	Rock / Pop	100 million[40]
UB40	Promises and Lies	1980–present	Reggae	100 million[41]
The Who	Who's Next	1964–present	Rock / Hard rock	100 million[42]

50 to 99 million records

Artist	Biggest selling album	Period	Genre	Claimed sales
Spice Girls	Spice	1996–2000 2007–2008	Pop, Euro Pop	90 million[43]
Eurythmics	Greatest Hits	1980–present	New wave	75 million[44]
Robbie Williams	I've Been Expecting You	1990–present	Pop	75 million[45]
Little Mix	Glory Days	2011–2022	Pop, R&B, dance-pop	75 million[46]
Oasis	(What's the Story) Morning Glory?	1991–2009 2024–present	Britpop / Rock	75 million[47]
The Police	Synchronicity	1977–present	Pop rock / New Wave	75 million[48]
Duran Duran	Rio	1978–present	New wave / alternative rock	70 million[49]
One Direction	Midnight Memories	2010–2015	Pop-rock / power pop	70 million[50]
Jethro Tull	Aqualung	1968–present	Progressive rock / hard rock	60 million[51]
Supertramp	Breakfast in America[52]	1969–present	Progressive rock	60 million[53][54]
T. Rex	The Slider[55]	1967–1977	Glam rock / Folk rock	58 million[56]
Black Sabbath	Paranoid	1968–present	Heavy metal	50 million[57]
Culture Club	Colour by Numbers	1982–present	New wave-pop	50 million

See also

• List of best-selling music artists
• List of best-selling music artists in the United States