guess none will be beating Eminem in the “rapping” category anytime soon.
Eminem during his prime was a big part of my childhood lol. Listening to him and Tupac.
Just think, if all of those pirates hadn’t used Napster, Metallica could have been on the top of the list. 😆
Would be cool to see stacked bars with actual albums, song purchase eq, and streaming eq broken out.
Interesting to note that Taylor Swift is the only one whose first album came out this century (2006). I think the next closest would be Eminem (1996) and Mariah Carey (1990).
Edit: Just realized that Adele’s not on there. That surprises me.
Rod Stewart is the most surprising to me. I knew he was big, but THAT big?
Unexpected to see Eagles here. Was also wondering how much did that Apple thing contribute to U2 being on this list, but after doing a bit of research – apparently not much if anything at all, as the Apple push itself wasn’t counted towards album sales.
Honestly surprised Taylor Swift is so high. That’s really a good company she’s in.
Madonna at 250 is a testament
The cohort with the money determines what is popular.
This list changes very quickly depending on how you calculate “equivalent” album sales, curious where the 1,500 streams = 1 album came from …maybe that’s the just the norm?
It’s almost impossible for artists today to compete with the fame of the late 1900s ones.
With social media and the internet there’s just so much more artists as well as control over who you want to listen to.
Tylor Swift ? She must be buying her own stuff to be on this list.
Julio Iglesias sold over 300 M.
Amazing that Brits make up eight of the top 20.
I think people underestimate just how big Taylor Swift really is. She might not be the biggest popstar at any given moment, but shes been top 5 for like 15 years.
Might be more meaningful if thus were per capita. Elvis Presly or Frank Sinatra did it with a lot less people in the world.
Always a surprise that there is no Chinese or Indian artist that can sell millions of albums locally.
![[OC] Best selling music artists of all time](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/3j06rfbe5bbf1-1240x1024.png)
19 comments
Source: [ChartMasters](https://chartmasters.org/best-selling-artists-of-all-time/)
Tools: [Datawrapper ](https://www.datawrapper.de/)
guess none will be beating Eminem in the “rapping” category anytime soon.
Eminem during his prime was a big part of my childhood lol. Listening to him and Tupac.
Just think, if all of those pirates hadn’t used Napster, Metallica could have been on the top of the list. 😆
Would be cool to see stacked bars with actual albums, song purchase eq, and streaming eq broken out.
Interesting to note that Taylor Swift is the only one whose first album came out this century (2006). I think the next closest would be Eminem (1996) and Mariah Carey (1990).
Edit: Just realized that Adele’s not on there. That surprises me.
Rod Stewart is the most surprising to me. I knew he was big, but THAT big?
Unexpected to see Eagles here. Was also wondering how much did that Apple thing contribute to U2 being on this list, but after doing a bit of research – apparently not much if anything at all, as the Apple push itself wasn’t counted towards album sales.
Honestly surprised Taylor Swift is so high. That’s really a good company she’s in.
Madonna at 250 is a testament
The cohort with the money determines what is popular.
This list changes very quickly depending on how you calculate “equivalent” album sales, curious where the 1,500 streams = 1 album came from …maybe that’s the just the norm?
It’s almost impossible for artists today to compete with the fame of the late 1900s ones.
With social media and the internet there’s just so much more artists as well as control over who you want to listen to.
Tylor Swift ? She must be buying her own stuff to be on this list.
Julio Iglesias sold over 300 M.
Amazing that Brits make up eight of the top 20.
I think people underestimate just how big Taylor Swift really is. She might not be the biggest popstar at any given moment, but shes been top 5 for like 15 years.
Might be more meaningful if thus were per capita. Elvis Presly or Frank Sinatra did it with a lot less people in the world.
Always a surprise that there is no Chinese or Indian artist that can sell millions of albums locally.
How many AC/DC records does one really need?
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