List of fastest-selling albums

This is a list of the world's fastest-selling albums of 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.^[1] This list may include any type of album, including studio albums, extended plays, greatest hits, compilations, various artists, 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

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in Argentina.

Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1997	Romances	Luis Miguel	400,000	[2]

Cameroon

Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1996	Class F/M [fr]	Petit-Pays	50,000	[3]

Canada

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in Canada since Nielsen SoundScan tracking began in 1995. 25 by Adele is the fastest-selling album of all time in Canada with over 305,928 copies sold in its first seven days of release.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1	2015	25	Adele	306,000	[4]
2	1997	Let's Talk About Love	Céline Dion	230,212	[5][6]
3	1999	Millennium	Backstreet Boys	191,791	[7][8]
4	2003	Star Académie	Star Académie	173,000	[9]
5	2000	Black & Blue	Backstreet Boys	156,307	[7]
6	2002	A New Day Has Come	Céline Dion	151,600	[10]
7	2002	Up!	Shania Twain	150,000	[11]
8	2024	The Tortured Poets Department	Taylor Swift	150,000	[12]
9	2008	Black Ice	AC/DC	119,000	[13]
10	2006	I Think of You	Gregory Charles	109,000	[14]

Chile

Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1994	Segundo Romance	Luis Miguel	50,000	[15]

China

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in China.

Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
2022	Greatest Works of Art	Jay Chou	5,000,000	[16]

Colombia

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in Colombia.

Year	Title	Artist	Sales/Shipments	Ref.
1997	Tengo Fe	Carlos Vives	300,000	[17]
2013	Loco de Amor	Juanes	240,000	[18]
2013	Corazón Profundo	Carlos Vives	120,000	[19]
2009	Clásicos de la Provincia II		42,000	[20]
2007	La Llave de Mi Corazon	Juan Luis Guerra	17,000	[21]

Denmark

Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
2008	Show the World	Martin	36,000	[22]

France

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in France.

Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
2018	Mon pays c'est l'amour	Johnny Hallyday	780,177	[23][24]
2002	À la vie, à la mort		305,634	[23][24]
2016	Encore un soir	Celine Dion	217,000	[25]
2013	Random Access Memories	Daft Punk	195,013	[26]
2015	25	Adele	169,693	[27]
2012	Monkey Me	Mylène Farmer	147,530	[28]
2011	Bleu noir		139,176	[29]
2015	Interstellaires		109,971	[30]

Germany

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in Germany.

Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
2007	12	Herbert Grönemeyer	>300,000	[31]
2017	Helene Fischer	Helene Fischer	300,000	[31]
2015	25	Adele	263,000	[32]
2019	Untitled	Rammstein	260,000	[33]

Greece

Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1998	Antidoto	Anna Vissi	80,000	[34]

Ireland

In Ireland, the fastest-selling album is The Best of 1980–1990 by U2 in November 1998.^[35]

Japan

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in Japan since Oricon was founded in November 1967. The top two sales records were achieved in the same week, on March 28, 2001, as both albums were promoted as a direct competition between J-pop singer-songwriters Hikaru Utada and Ayumi Hamasaki by their respective labels.^[36] Distance would debut at Number 1 in the first week, while A BEST would also reach Number 1 in the following week.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1	2001	Distance	Hikaru Utada	3,002,720	[37][38]
2	2001	A Best	Ayumi Hamasaki	2,874,870	[37][38]
3	1998	The Best "Pleasure"	B'z	2,709,530	[38][39]
4	1998	The Best "Treasure"		2,500,120	[38][40]
5	2002	Deep River	Hikaru Utada	2,350,170	[38][41]
6	2000	Delicious Way	Mai Kuraki	2,218,640	[38][42]
7	1999	First Love	Hikaru Utada	2,026,870	[38][43]
8	1997	Review	Glay	2,003,150	[38][44]
9	1996	Sweet 19 Blues	Namie Amuro	1,921,850	[38][45]
10	2002	I Am...	Ayumi Hamasaki	1,751,360	[38][46]

Mexico

Luis Miguel holds several of the fastest-selling albums in Mexico. His seventh studio album Cómplices sold 320,000 units in its first day alone.^[47]

Rank	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1990	20 Años	Luis Miguel	600,000	[48]
1994	Segundo Romance		600,000	[49]
1997	Romances		560,000	[50]
1996	Nada Es Igual...		500,000	[51]
2004	México en la Piel		400,000	[52]
2008	Cómplices		320,000	[47]
2005	Nuestro Amor	RBD	160,000	[53]

New Zealand

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in New Zealand since the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand, later renamed as Recorded Music NZ, was founded in 1972. 25 by Adele is the fastest-selling album of all time in NZ with over 18,766 copies sold in its first seven days following release.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1	2015	25	Adele	18,766	[54]
2	2009	I Dreamed a Dream	Susan Boyle	17,435	[54]

Sierra Leone

Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
2014	Home and Away	Emmerson Bockarie	28,000	[55]
2016	Survivor	Emmerson Bockarie	12,000	[56]

Spain

Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
2000	El Alma al Aire	Alejandro Sanz	1,000,000	[57]
2002	Corazón latino	David Bisbal	600,000	[58]
2003	Divorcio	Julio Iglesias	200,000	[59]
2000	Alma Caribeña	Gloria Estefan	150,000	[60]

South Korea

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in South Korea as recorded by the Hanteo Information System^[a] established in 1993.^[61] Seventeenth Heaven by Seventeen is the fastest-selling album of all time in South Korea with 5,091,887 copies shipped to stores in its first seven days of release.^[62]

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1	2023	Seventeenth Heaven	Seventeen	5,091,887	[62]
2	2023	5-Star	Stray Kids	4,617,499	[63]
3	2023	FML	Seventeen	4,550,214	[63]
4	2023	ISTJ	NCT Dream	3,652,897	[64]
5	2020	Map of the Soul: 7	BTS	3,378,633	[65]
6	2024	17 Is Right Here	Seventeen	2,960,000	[66]
7	2022	Proof	BTS	2,752,496	[67]
8	2023	Golden	Jungkook	2,438,483	[68]
9	2020	Be	BTS	2,274,882	[69]
10	2023	The Name Chapter: Freefall	TXT	2,251,959	[70]

1. 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.

United Kingdom

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in the United Kingdom. 25 by Adele is the fastest-selling album of all time in the UK with just over 803,000 copies sold in its first seven days.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1	2015	25	Adele	803,000	[71]
2	1997	Be Here Now	Oasis	696,000*	[71]
3	2017	÷	Ed Sheeran	672,000	[72]
4	1963	With the Beatles	The Beatles	530,000	[73]
5	2010	Progress	Take That	518,601	[74]
6	2005	X&Y	Coldplay	464,471	[75]
7	2008	The Circus	Take That	432,490	[76]
8	2009	I Dreamed a Dream	Susan Boyle	411,820	[77]
9	2003	Life for Rent	Dido	400,351	[78]
10	2008	Now That’s What I Call Music! 70	Various Artists	383,002	[79]

Notes:

• Be Here Now was unconventionally released on a Thursday and debuted at number one based on three-day sales of 696,000 copies. Sales accumulated during its first full week of availability, which went from Thursday to Wednesday, totaled 813,000 copies, which remains the most an album has sold in its first week on sale.^[71]
• 25 sold 439,000 copies in its second week.^[80]
• 25 sold 450,000 copies in its fifth week.^[81]

United States

This is a list of the fastest-selling albums (pure sales) in the United States since Nielsen SoundScan tracking began on March 1, 1991. 25 by Adele is the fastest-selling album of all time in the US with 3,378,000 copies sold in its first seven days.

Rank	Year	Title	Artist	Sales	Ref.
1	2015	25	Adele	3,378,000	[82]
2	2000	No Strings Attached	*NSYNC	2,416,000	[82]
3	2024	The Tortured Poets Department	Taylor Swift	1,914,000	[83]
4	2001	Celebrity	*NSYNC	1,880,000	[82]
5	2000	The Marshall Mathers LP	Eminem	1,760,000	[82]
6	2000	Black & Blue	Backstreet Boys	1,591,000	[82]
7	2004	Encore	Eminem	1,582,000	[84]
8	2023	1989 (Taylor's Version)	Taylor Swift	1,359,000	[85]
9	2002	The Eminem Show	Eminem	1,322,000[A]	[82]
10	2000	Oops!... I Did It Again	Britney Spears	1,319,000	[82]
11	2014	1989	Taylor Swift	1,287,000	[82]
12	2017	Reputation		1,216,000	[86]
13	2012	Red		1,208,000	[82]
14	2005	The Massacre	50 Cent	1,141,000[B]	[82]
15	2022	Midnights	Taylor Swift	1,140,000	[87]
16	1999	Millennium	Backstreet Boys	1,134,000	[82]
17	2011	Born This Way	Lady Gaga	1,108,000	[82]
18	2004	Confessions	Usher	1,096,000	[82]
19	1998	Double Live	Garth Brooks	1,095,000	[82]
20	2000	Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water	Limp Bizkit	1,055,000	[82]
21	2010	Speak Now	Taylor Swift	1,047,000	[82]
22	2016	Views	Drake	1,040,000
23	2004	Feels Like Home	Norah Jones	1,022,000	[82]
24	2008	Tha Carter III	Lil Wayne	1,006,000	[82]

Notes:

1. 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.
2. 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.

Additional records

Pre-SoundScan era

The following albums predate the introduction of Nielsen SoundScan, and are possibly subject to manipulation or inflation as sales were self-reported by record labels:^[88]

• In 1963, John Fitzgerald Kennedy—A Memorial Album, recorded on the day of John F. Kennedy's assassination, sold 4 million copies at 99 cents each within six days of its release.^[89]
• In 1965, The Beatles' Rubber Soul sold 1,200,000 copies in "just the first nine days".^[90]
• In 1968, The Beatles' self-titled double album (often known as the "White Album") sold "almost two million in one week".^[91]
• In 1970, The Beatles' Let It Be allegedly had "a sale of 3,700,000 in just over 2 weeks".^[92]
• In 1971, Carole King's Music reportedly sold "1,300,000 copies on the day of its release in the U.S."^[92]
• In 1975, Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, the first album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200, sold "1,400,000 in the U.S. in the first 4 days on the market".^[92][93]
• In 1984, Prince's Purple Rain sold 1.5 million copies in its debut week.^[94]
• In 1986, Bruce Springsteen's Live/1975–85 sold over 1.5 million copies during its first ten days.^[95]
• In 1987, Michael Jackson's Bad sold at more than 2.25 million copies during its first week^[96][97]

SoundScan era

• Although not in its opening week, Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album moved 1,061,000 units during Christmas week 1992.^[98]
• Although not in its opening week, the Beatles' compilation 1 moved 1,258,667 units during Christmas week 2000,^[99] becoming the highest sales in a nondebut week since SoundScan era.^[100]
• Encore by Eminem sold 1.58 million copies in its first ten days of availability, after an abbreviated three-day first week.^[101]
• 25 by Adele sold 1.11 million and 1.16 million copies in its second^[102] and fifth weeks of availability respectively.^[103]

Worldwide

This is the list of the fastest selling albums worldwide within the first week of their release, based on figures published by reliable sources.

Colors
‡	Sales based in a single territory

Year	Album	Artist	Sales/Shipments	Source
1987	Bad	Michael Jackson	7 million	[104]
2015	25	Adele	5.4 million	[a]
1991	Dangerous	Michael Jackson	5 million	[112]
2000	Black and Blue	Backstreet Boys	5 million	[113]
2022	Greatest Works of Art	Jay Chou	5 million	[16]
2023	Seventeenth Heaven	Seventeen	5 million	[114]
2002	Elvis: 30 Number 1 Hits	Elvis Presley	4.7 million	[115]
2023	5-Star	Stray Kids	4.6 million	[116]
2023	FML	Seventeen	4.5 million	[117]
1963	JFK: Memorial Album	John F Kennedy	4 million	[89]
2020	Map of the Soul: 7	BTS	3.7 million	[118]
2000	1	The Beatles	3.6 million	[119]
2005	Confessions on a Dance Floor	Madonna	3.6 million[b]	[121]
2023	ISTJ	NCT Dream	3.6 million	[122]
2023	1989 (Taylor's Version)	Taylor Swift	3.5 million	[c]
1968	White Album	The Beatles	3.3 Million	[124]
1998	Ray of Light	Madonna	3 million	[125]
2000	Music	Madonna	3 million	[126]
2001	Invincible	Michael Jackson	3 million	[127]
2010	Michael	Michael Jackson	3 million	[128]
2001	Distance	Hikaru Utada	3 million	[129]
2001	A Best	Ayumi Hamasaki	2.8 million	[130]
2022	Proof	BTS	2.7 million	[131]
1998	B'z the Best Pleasure	B'z	2.7 million	[132]
2000	Oops!... I Did It Again	Britney Spears	2.5 Million	[133]
1998	B'z the Best Treasure	B'z	2.5 million	[134][135]
2000	No Strings Attached	*NSYNC	2.4 million	[82]
2023	Golden	Jungkook	2.4 million	[68]
1995	History Past Present Future	Michael Jackson	2.3 million	[136]
2024	The Tortured Poets Department	Taylor Swift	2.3 million	[d]
1998	Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie	Alanis Morissette	2.2 Million	[139]
2020	Be	BTS	2.2 million	[69]
2023	The Name Chapter: Freefall	TXT	2.2 million	[70]
2022	The Name Chapter: Temptation	TXT	2.1 million	[140]
2000	The Marshall Mathers LP	Eminem	2 million	[141]

• Additional records: According to some estimates, Adele's 25 (2015) had the biggest first-week sales in a single territory, when surpassed 3 million-plus copies in the United States. Utada Hikaru's Distance (2001) and Ayumi Hamasaki's A Best (2001) previously sold 3 million and 2.8 million in Japan, respectively.^[130] In 2022, Jay Chou sold 5 million copies of Greatest Works of Art in China during its opening week,^[16] while John Fitzgerald Kennedy—A Memorial Album (1963) sold 4 million copies at 99 cents in the U.S.^[89]

Notes

1. First-week sales divided in 3,378,000 copies in the United States (Billboard),^[82] 306,000 in Canada (Nielsen),^[4] 150,000 in Australia (3 days),^[105] 260,000 in Germany,^[32] 120,000 in the Netherlands,^[106] 20,000 in Spain,^[107] 3,260 in Portugal,^[108] 40,000 in Switzerland,^[109] 18,766 in New Zealand,^[54] 180,000 in Benelux,^[110] 169,693 in France,^[111] and 803,000 in the United Kingdom.^[71]
2. Others estimated 4 million.^[120]
3. 3.5 million global in album-equivalent units.^[123]
4. Traditional sales divided in 1,914,000 units in the United States, 150,000 copies in Canada and, 270,000 sales in the United Kingdom alone.^{[83][12][137]} Others estimated 4 million globally in album-equivalent units.^[138]

See also

• Album era
• Lists of albums
• List of best-selling albums
• List of best-selling albums by country
• List of fastest-selling concert tours