This is a list of the fastest-selling albums in global 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. This list may include any type of album, including studio albums, extended plays, greatest hits, compilations, 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 +List of fastest-selling albums in Argentina Year Album Artist Sales 1997 Romances 1968 Fuiste Mia Un Verano 1987 U2
Brazil +List of fastest-selling albums in Brazil Year Album Artist Sales 1987 Xegundo Xou da Xuxa Xuxa
Cameroon +List of fastest-selling albums in Cameroon Year Album Artist Sales 1996 Class F/M Petit-Pays
Canada +List of fastest-selling albums in Canada since 1995 Year Album Artist Sales 2015 25 Adele 1997 Let's Talk About Love 1999 Millennium Backstreet Boys 2003 Star Académie Star Académie 2000 Black & Blue Backstreet Boys 2002 2002 Up! 2024 2008 Black Ice AC/DC 2006 I Think of You 2014 1989 2005X&YColdplay
Chile +List of fastest-selling albums in Chile Year Album Artist Sales 1994 Segundo Romance 2002 Estadio Nacional Los Prisioneros 2000 Vivo
China +List of fastest-selling albums in China Year Album Artist Sales 2022 Greatest Works of Art
Colombia +List of fastest-selling albums in Colombia Year Album Artist Sales 1997 Tengo Fe 2013 Loco de Amor Juanes 2013 Corazón Profundo 2005 Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 Shakira 1997 Romances
Denmark +List of fastest-selling albums in Denmark Year Album Artist Sales 2006 Gammel Hankat Kim Larsen & Kjukken 1999 Dream Thomas Helmig 2013 Ingen Kan Love Dig i Morgen Rasmus Seebach 2007 For Dig Ku' Jeg Gøre Alting TV-2 2011 Mer' end Kærlighed Rasmus Seebach 2000 Aquarius Aqua 2008 Show the World Martin 2015 Verden Ka' Vente Rasmus Seebach
France +List of fastest-selling albums in France Year Album Artist Sales 2018 Mon Pays C'est l'Amour 2002 À la Vie, À la Mort! 2016 Encore Un Soir 2013 Random Access Memories Daft Punk 2015 25 Adele 2012 Monkey Me 2011 Bleu Noir 2015 Interstellaires
Germany +List of fastest-selling albums in Germany Year Album Artist Sales 2007 12 2017 Helene Fischer 2015 25 Adele 2019 Untitled Rammstein
Greece +List of fastest-selling albums in Greece Year Album Artist Sales 1998 Antidoto
Italy +List of fastest-selling albums in Italy Year Album Artist Sales 2000 Esco di Rado e Parlo Ancora Meno 1998 Mina Celentano Mina 2005 Nome e Cognome 1999 Io Non So Parlar d'Amore
Ireland +List of fastest-selling albums in Ireland Year Album Artist Sales 1998 U2 Not disclosed
Japan +List of fastest-selling albums in Japan since 1967 Year Album Artist Sales 2001 Distance 2001 A Best 1998 B'z The Best "Pleasure" B'z 1998 B'z The Best "Treasure" 2002 Deep River 2000 Delicious Way 1999 First Love 1997 Review Glay 1996 Sweet 19 Blues 2002 I Am...
Mexico +List of fastest-selling albums in Mexico Year Album Artist Sales 1990 20 Años 1994 Segundo Romance 1997 Romances 2004 México en la Piel 1996 Nada Es Igual... 2008 Cómplices 2005 Nuestro Amor RBD 2005 Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 Shakira
New Zealand +List of fastest-selling albums in New Zealand Year Album Artist Sales 2015 25 Adele 2009I Dreamed a Dream 2013Pure HeroineLorde
Netherlands +List of fastest-selling albums in the Netherlands Year Album Artist Sales 2015 25 Adele Not disclosed
Sierra Leone +List of fastest-selling albums in Sierra Leone Year Album Artist Sales 2014 Home and Away Emmerson 2016 Survivor
Spain +List of fastest-selling albums in Spain Year Album Artist Sales 2000 El Alma al Aire 2002 Corazón Latino 2003 Divorcio 2000 Alma Caribeña
South Korea +List of fastest-selling albums in South Korea since 1993 Year Album Artist Sales 2023 Seventeenth Heaven Seventeen 2023 5-Star Stray Kids 2023 FML Seventeen 2023 ISTJ NCT Dream 2020 Map of the Soul: 7 BTS 2024 17 Is Right Here Seventeen 2022 Proof BTS 2023 Golden Jung Kook 2020 Be BTS 2023 The Name Chapter: Freefall TXT
Turkey +List of fastest-selling albums in Turkey Year Album Artist Sales 2003 Seven 2007 Metamorfoz Tarkan 2016 Ahde Vefa Tarkan 2014 Yeni Ay Sıla
United Kingdom +List of fastest-selling albums in the United Kingdom Year Album Artist Sales 2015 25 Adele 1997 Be Here Now Oasis 2017 1963 With the Beatles 2010 Progress Take That 2005 X&Y Coldplay 2008 Take That 2025 2009 I Dreamed a Dream 2003 Life for Rent Dido
Notes Be Here Now (1997) by Oasis debuted at number one based on three-day sales of 696,000 copies, while its first full week actually totaled 813,000 copies. 25 (2015) by Adele sold 439,000 copies in its second week of availability, followed by 450,000 in its fifth.
United States Since 1991
+List of fastest-selling albums in the United States since 1991 Year Album Artist Sales 2025 2015 25 Adele 2000 No Strings Attached NSYNC 2024 2001 CelebrityNSYNC 2000 Eminem 2000 Black & Blue Backstreet Boys 2023 1989 (Taylor's Version) 2000 Oops!... I Did It Again 2014 1989 2017 Reputation 2012 Red 2005 50 Cent 2022 Midnights 1999 Millennium Backstreet Boys 2011 Born This Way 2004 Confessions Usher 1998 Double Live 2000 Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water Limp Bizkit 2010 Speak Now 2004 Feels Like Home 2008 Lil Wayne
Before 1991 +List of fastest-selling albums in the United States before 1991 Year Album Artist Sales 1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy – A Memorial Album 1970 Let It Be 1987Bad 1968 1984 Purple Rain Prince 1986 Live/1975–85 1975 Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy 1971 Music 1965 Rubber Soul
Notes The Bodyguard (1992) by Whitney Houston sold 1.06 million copies in its Christmas week. 1 (2000) by the Beatles sold 1.25 million copies in its Christmas week. Encore (2004) by Eminem sold 1.58 million copies in its first ten days of availability, after an abbreviated three-day first week. 25 (2015) by Adele sold 1.11 million copies in its second week of availability, followed by 1.16 million in its fifth.
Zimbabwe +List of fastest-selling albums in Zimbabwe Year Album Artist Sales 2016 Tsoka Dzerwendo 2001 Chimurenga Rebel 2003 Toi Toi
Worldwide Sales based in a single territory
+List of fastest-selling albums worldwide Year Album Artist Sales/Shipments 1991 Dangerous 1987 Bad 2015 25 Adele 1995 HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I 2023 Seventeenth Heaven Seventeen 2022 Greatest Works of Art 2005 X&Y Coldplay 2000 Black & Blue Backstreet Boys 2002 Elvis: 30 #1 Hits 2023 5-Star Stray Kids 2023 FML Seventeen 1963 John Fitzgerald Kennedy – A Memorial Album 2025 2020 Map of the Soul: 7 BTS 2000 1 2023 ISTJ NCT Dream 2005 Confessions on a Dance Floor Madonna 1968 2010 Michael 2008 Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends Coldplay 2001 Invincible 2001 Distance 2000 Music Madonna 1998 Ray of Light 2001 2022 Proof BTS 1998 B'z The Best "Pleasure" B'z 2000 Oops!... I Did It Again 1998 B'z The Best "Treasure" B'z 2023 Golden Jungkook 2000 No Strings Attached NSYNC 2024 2023 TXT 2020 Be BTS 1998 Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie 2022 TXT 2002 Coldplay
Notes Greatest Works of Art (2022) by Jay Chou holds the Guinness World Record for highest global first-week sales from a single territory, with 5 million units in China.
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
Footnotes
References