ChartMasters

Music industry – One step closer to being accurate

Top artists
Here you will find our up to date list of
all-time best selling artists.

This top is evaluating and comparing

artists’ success across all formats,
which are weighted on par thanks to our
CSPC concept. The top is updated daily.

Top artists – CSPC best selling

artists of all-time
Best selling artists by era

Most successful artists ever. Numbers in

equivalent album sales through all
formats. Based on original recordings’
release dates. Video created with
Flourish.

ADVERTISING

Best selling artists of all-time

Gender :
Nothing selected

Genre :
Nothing selected

Language :
Nothing selected

Show 25 entries

Search:

# Pic Artist Total EAS

1 The Beatles 520,221,000

344,950,00
2 Michael Jackson
0

324,733,00
3 Elvis Presley
0

4 Queen 287,109,000

5 Madonna 251,973,000

247,293,00
6 The Rolling Stones
0

7 Pink Floyd 241,427,000

8 Taylor Swift 237,927,000

233,566,00
9 Frank Sinatra
0

223,986,00
10 Eminem
0

11 Elton John 213,779,000

12 Led Zeppelin 209,177,000

206,648,00
13 AC/DC
0

203,082,00
14 U2
0

15 Céline Dion 201,879,000

196,496,00
16 Mariah Carey
0

192,856,00
17 Rod Stewart
0

18 Eagles 178,333,000

19 Eric Clapton 176,942,000

20 Metallica 173,034,000

168,906,00
21 Drake
0

168,083,00
22 ABBA
0

23 Bruce Springsteen 164,178,000

24 Bee Gees 163,987,000

25 Whitney Houston 161,283,000

Showing 1 to 25 of 451 entries

1 2 3 4 5 … 19

Want to see your favorite artist covered?

Vote for them in our requests
leaderboard!

Join for free and vote!

Register as a free ChartMasters

member and vote for your artist
to be studied next. Quick and
easy!

Username

Password

E-mail Address

I'm not a robot

reCAPTCHA
Privacy - Terms

I agree to Terms of
the service

Join and vote

How it works
The table above shows the top artists of
all-time using the following ratios:

Studio album: sales of the original

album (ratio 1/1)

Other LPs: sales of compilations

generated thanks to the album (ratio 1/1)

Physical singles: sales of physical

singles from the album (added to CSPC
total with a ratio 3/10 for 2-tracks, 5/10
for EPs and Maxis)

Digital singles: sales of digital singles

from the album (ratio 1.5/10 for CSPC
total)

Streaming: equivalent album sales of

all the album tracks (ratio 1/1500 for
Audio stream and 1/6750 for Video
stream)

Setting up accurate best selling artists lists

View more

An ongoing process

View more

The automatic update of streams

View more

Frequently Asked Questions

Who’s the best selling artist of all-
time?
The Beatles are the best selling artist of
all-time with over 520 million equivalent
album sales. More than 175 million sales
behind, Michael Jackson is runner up
ahead of Elvis Presley.

Who’s the best selling solo artist of

all-time?
Michael Jackson is the best selling
solo artist of all-time with over 340
million equivalent album sales. Elvis
Presley is a close runner up, with
Madonna completing the top 3 lower
down.

Who’s the best selling female artist of

all-time?
Madonna is the best selling solo artist of
all-time with nearly 250 million
equivalent album sales. Celine Dion is
runner up at 200 million, while Taylor
Swift is closing in behind, now at 180
million.

Who are the top artists currently?

As revealed by our list reflecting the
most streamed artists on digital
streaming platforms, Drake, Taylor
Swift and Bad Bunny are the biggest
artists worldwide in recent years, with
the addition of BTS thanks to their heavy
album sales.

Are the Beatles and Elvis Presley over

1 billion records sold?
No. While their success is indeed
outstanding as they rank 1st and 3rd
among all-time top-sellers, the billion
claims made in the early 80s were based
on an old accounting method using
singles equivalent, where each album
sale was valued as 6 units. Under this
method, each of the 22 artists with over
167 million equivalent album sales on this
page would be over 1 billion “records”
sold.

We have more for you

This article is being

discussed in our forum, join
us to share your comments!
»

Subscribe

Please login to comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam.

Learn how your comment data is
processed.

3 COMMENTS

Newest

View Comments

ESSENTIALS
NEW – Artist dashboard | Top money makers

Rankings | Analyses | Data | Forum

Streams – Artists | Albums | Tracks

Pure Sales – Artists | Albums | Singles | DL
Total SPS – Artists | Albums | Songs

Spotify – Monthly listeners | Followers

Streaming tool | Revenue calculator

Log in | My Account | Subscribe

FORUM POSTS

RE: Most followed artists on Spotify

Davido has 9.1 million followers on Spotify and wi...
By Xanthes king , 1 day ago

RE: Spotify top album debuts

He's been added!
By Al , 2 days ago

RE: Spotify top album debuts

Hi Bestie, the tracking week for Riky Rick "Boss Z...
By Banele , 3 days ago

RE: Most streamed tracks on Spotify

Lil Tecca - Did It Again 500,187,806 streams
By Karrot , 3 days ago

RE: Ongoing CSPC works

Very interesting are the overall numbers at nearly...
By Landi Schorsch , 4 days ago

  
Rankings Analyses Data Pricing My account
About us Contact us

Copyright © 2025 ChartMasters | Powered by Responsive

Theme

Update Privacy Preferences

3 A RAPTIVE PARTNER SITE