charts discussion 100 Best Selling Weeks of Soundscan Era - Traditional Sales

[Gaia]

The way Adele is just so omnipresent there’s not even a reason to give her a nickname. Everyone already knows  

[brianc33710]

16 hours ago, GreatestLoveofAll said:

who was doing it before ha? not a soul 

actually its pure sales are only behind the bodyguard's if we are going according to this list.

The biggest selling album of the SoundScan era belongs to Metallica's Black Album with just a little over 17.1 million pure sales scanned (per Old Bloke on UK MIX). Shania Twain's Come On Over has around 16 million scanned & 2 million more thru mail services like BMG, so 18 million pure.

 

The Bodyguard is in the Top 5 though, probably #3/4, but I don't have that total. TBG is probably over 15 million but I don't know the total. There are albums certified for shipping totals & TBG probably did well at BMG too. 

 

But for albums released since 2000, the Beatles #1s has sold a bit over 13 million & 21 has a bit over 12 million. #1s still places ahead of 21 in pure sales most of the time so Adele can't & won't catch up. I like Adele more than the Beatles so don't take what I said the wrong way.   

[Majord]

50 cent has the highest 1st week sales for an African American artist in the history of soundscan