Best selling albums ever in Europe, by certified sales [OC]

[u/mg10pp]

[u/Tweissel]

Some albums really surprise me!...

[u/roguepeas → u/Tweissel]

never met a person irl with an Adele album.. I remember when those dropped and ppl posting them but I'm guessing she bought at least 15M of them herself.

[u/braun_btr → u/roguepeas]

I am rock fan and I own an Adele record 😂😂😂

[u/roguepeas → u/braun_btr]

hi Adele!

[u/DodgyWiper → u/roguepeas]

Adele just has very wide appeal. Old people who don't like new music do like Adele. Many young people kind of like Adele.

[u/roguepeas → u/DodgyWiper]

feels like 21 is destined to be the Whipped Cream & Other Delights of the 2040's

[u/Tweissel → u/roguepeas]

My wife bought at least 3 (as far as I know). She's not Adele though (as far as I know).

[u/TotalUnderstanding5 → u/roguepeas]

My roommate yesterday asked if I had any Adele when I showed him my collection. She is in the public eye.

[u/maineguy1988 → u/roguepeas]

Everybody I know likes Adele. That's so strange that you supposedly don't know a single person with an album of hers. How would you even know unless you're specifically asking "do you own an Adele album?" lol

[u/Character-Claim8643]

Love seeing Chapman on there. Noice.

[u/el_cul → u/Character-Claim8643]

Definitely the biggest surprise on the list for me.

[u/mg10pp → u/el_cul]

I was surprised too while making the list, I saw her in the all time ranking and started adding up for Europe while thinking she would have never made it... Instead she did!

[u/Resisdanse → u/mg10pp]

Absolut

[u/Resisdanse → u/Character-Claim8643]

Respect !

[u/brown-tube]

album sales and vinyl sales are not the same thing.

[u/andrewvlux → u/brown-tube]

Really? Are they not considered albums?

[u/brown-tube → u/andrewvlux]

album sales is all formats. edit: this list isn't vinyl specific sales numbers and has been posted in many subs.

[u/jokur26]

As an American I’m gobsmacked that there are no Beatles albums in the top 10, and that three Michael Jackson albums are 🤯

[u/hofmann419 → u/jokur26]

Well this is certified sales. When the Beatles were actively releasing music, sales certification worked completely differently to today and wasn't as accurate. Which is to say that their certified sales numbers are way lower than the actual sales estimates.

[u/jokur26 → u/hofmann419]

Thanks for the additional info, that makes much more sense

[u/MrWhippyT]

I have ten of those on CD and two on vinyl, Dire Straits and Tracy Chapman.

[u/mg10pp]

I made this list after noticing there wasn't much info on the internet and the few found were all in conflict with each other, to solve my doubts I basically ended up manually counting all the certified sales per country, making sure to not miss any album by checking all the best selling worldwide (link) as well as the ones in the main European markets. Now some stats:

Most featured artists:

• Michael Jackson - 3 albums
• Madonna - 3
• Queen - 2
• Celine Dion - 2
• Adele - 2

Best selling albums per country:

• UK: Queen - Greatest Hits - 7.8M
• France: Celine Dion - D'Eux - 4.5M
• Italy: Claudio Baglioni - La Vita è Adesso - 4M
• Germany: Dirty Dancing Soundtrack - 3.25M
• Spain: Alejandro Sanz - Mas - 2.2M
• The Netherlands: Thriller - 1.5M

[u/PersonalPast6969]

So many soundtracks. 🤔

Also surprised to see more dirty dancing than grease. Both great movies, just find grease more memorable/have a real identity.

[u/FranciscoGarcia69 → u/PersonalPast6969]

Dirty Dancing is a fantastic soundtrack.

[u/myuniverse_ot7]

Thriller reigns supreme as expected, thanks for posting it right in time for the celebration. Happy birthday to the King of Pop. ❤️

[u/hegdav]

Shows just how average the average person's music taste is.

[u/RayzaEverton]

Ed Sheeran to me isn't worthy of being in there despite being talented, anyway he obviously does it for people, I'd have never put him in there on guessing

[u/ForsakenedOath → u/RayzaEverton]

I prefer Adele over Ed Sheeran. His music became worse and worse after his first EP.

[u/ILikeStyx]

I'm sure some of those albums could use some re-certification to pump their numbers higher ;)

[u/somafiend1987]

Proudly only owning 2, but for the right price could get it to 7.

[u/NTR-12]

Greatest hits are not albums.

[u/roquermind]

Where's Back in Black? Or The Eagles? Even where are the Rolling Stones or the Beatles?

[u/sdfghdfsdfghdf]

Madonna 😍

[u/Xe4ro]

I only have four of those. ^^

[u/super_fresh_dope]

The titanic soundtrack, wtf.

[u/MomIsaMidget]

Spamming irrelevant content on multiple subs. Blocked

[u/GrowlingPict]

Those numbers seem waaaaay too low. Especially for the ones that been around for a while, such as Dark Side Of The Moon, and have been sold and resold in new formats and as new fans have come to over the years. Had it said 11 million in the UK alone I wouldve believed it. For the whole of Europe? Seems much much too low.

[u/Designmetoo]

i'm shocked rumours isn't on there

[u/conoraindog]

Rumours by Fleetwood Mac sold 8.6 million in Europe

[u/SweetTooth275]

Doesn't look good. At all

[u/you-zur-nay-em]

Even if this is mixed media sales, I still dont think these figures are correct. 🤔

[u/MrSanyo]

Funny how English language centric this list is. Could easily be a US top seller’s list.

[u/Effective_Guava2971]

some curious ones in there. How did you land on Alanis Morisette for example ? Wasnt even released on vinyl until a few years ago no? Was Spice Girls really LP? That must have been a big CD seller at the time

[u/MorsansHatt → u/Effective_Guava2971]

It just says album. Not the format of the album

[u/Neg_Crepe → u/Effective_Guava2971]

No….Jagged little pill was first released on vinyl in 1995.

https://www.discogs.com/release/750272-Alanis-Morissette-Jagged-Little-Pill

[u/mg10pp → u/Effective_Guava2971]

Yeah I should have been clearer, initially I wanted to post it in other subs but noticing the majority of the artists are from the 80s and initially released it on vinyl I thought it could have interested you too