The Numbers of Wikipedia

The third and final part of our multi-part journey through the inflated numbers and exaggerations surrounding the record industry, with particular attention to Wikipedia's responsibility in spreading what amounts to inaccurate information. 

Il first installment was devoted to “La vita è adesso”, the celebrated album by Claudio Baglioni, while the second dealt with the analysis of a list of the supposedly best-selling albums on the Italian market.

 

 

Wikipedia credits exactly ten albums in the top tier. In first place is, naturally, “Thriller”, with 70 million, roughly 51.3 million of which are officially certified. The remaining 18.7 million can easily be explained by missing updates or by sales that took place before a given country adopted certifications: consider that in Italy the album is recorded as having sold 200,000 copies from 2009 onward (a figure that includes the so-called streaming equivalents). Before that date, the record was a bestseller on the Italian market (it was the best-seller of 1983), but there are no certifications to prove it: at least a million copies are missing from the tally.

In Japan the certification stands at 100,000 copies, but Oricon-tracked sales alone amount to over 1.74 million copies by 2012 (and the real figure is likely even higher, since Oricon stops tracking sales once an album drops off its chart, and “Thriller” kept selling quietly over the years).

In France the album was certified for a million copies sold, but the real figure is far higher (both InfoDisc and ChartMasters put it above 3.5 million — neither site is flawless, but when they agree on a figure it's generally safe to trust it).

In short, between Italy, Japan and France alone, over 5 million copies are missing from the certifications: 18.7 million worldwide therefore doesn't seem far-fetched at all, especially once streaming is factored in. 

 

In second place was “Back In Black” by Ac/Dc, with 50 million (31.2 of which certified). MediaTraffic estimates the album at 39 million, ChartMasters at 43 including digital sales and streaming — in any case well below 50, and the only source cited on Wikipedia regarding this is a Billboard article which, and this point should be hammered home endlessly, has no authority whatsoever on worldwide sales. The article, written by Kenneth Partridge, was not even based on official statements from record labels or on any certifications: the journalist never specified where the figure came from.

That said, given the huge volumes of streaming that the album continues to move, along with its physical sales, which despite everything keep going, albeit at a much slower pace than in the past, the milestone will probably be crossed sooner or later: at the moment, however, it's not yet in sight. Moreover, Partridge's claim of 50 million dates back to 2015 and is therefore in no way justifiable today.

 

In third place comes “The Bodyguard”, the soundtrack to the film of the same name, half of which is performed by Whitney Houston, with 45 million (28.7 of which certified). The figure isn't outrageous, but it should be trimmed downward.

Checking other sources, MediaTraffic estimates it at 38 million, while ChartMasters puts it at exactly 45. ChartMasters isn't convincing in its estimate, though: for instance, it credits the album with 2.95 million in the Japanese market, but the record was certified for 2 million by the RIAJ, and that was after it had already dropped off the chart for good — it's impossible that it sold almost another million without becoming a particularly notable catalog force.

In France the album is estimated at 1.3 million copies by ChartsInFrance and 1.44 million by InfoDisc, while ChartMasters claims 1.735 million: that's about 300,000 copies above the most optimistic estimate from the other specialist sites, an excess based on supposed catalog sales of the record which, judging by local charts, were actually scarce.

The album is also credited with 1.25 million copies in Italy by ChartMasters, a figure not far from the one on the English Wikipedia, which for our country lists 1 million copies up to 1999 and 25,000 copies from 2009 to today. However, ChartMasters cites no sources, while Wikipedia references an article from Corriere della Sera written by Mario Luzzatto Fegiz, who is proverbially known for his lack of credibility.

Looking at the real data, what we know for certain is that the album stayed at number 1 for four weeks on the Tv Sorrisi e Canzoni chart, for two weeks on the Musica e Dischi chart, and for seven weeks on the Rai chart. On the most comprehensive of the three charts in terms of size, that of “Sorrisi”, it stayed in the top 50 for 32 weeks. No record from that era with a similar chart run and only a single month at the top has ever sold over a million copies, so it's unclear why Houston's album should have managed it, especially considering that in Italy it didn't even turn out to be a long-seller (its only return to the chart, at number 36, came following the artist's death). ChartMasters' figure for our country has been inflated by at least 400,000 copies.

In Germany the album is certified for one and a half million, but ChartMasters estimates it at 1.85 million copies, with no significant catalog sales to account for the gap. Just between Japan, France, Italy and Germany, then, the site attributes an excess of two million copies to the album: if it applied similarly inflated estimates to the rest of the world too, then the 38 million calculated by MediaTraffic starts to look far more credible.

Coming back to Wikipedia, the 45 million figure reported there isn't the result of estimates calculated from charts or anything similar, but simply blanket claims repeated by various articles, the oldest of which, dated May 2017, comes from the Grammy Awards' own website — which has no authority whatsoever over the measurement of sales, either in the United States or anywhere else in the world.

 

The Wikipedia list continues with “The Dark Side Of The Moon" by Pink Floyd, which ties “The Bodyguard” at 45 million copies, only 24.8 million of which are certified. The gap of almost 20 million is explained by the album's release date: back in the the Seventies certifications were still in their infancy, and many countries subsequently never bothered updating figures for records released years or decades before their certification systems even existed. For example, in Italy it's the best-selling album of all time, well above two million copies, yet only 300,000 show up as certified, as explained in the previous article in this series.

MediaTraffic estimates the album at 43 million, ChartMasters at 47.5 million including digital sales and streaming; either way, it hovers around 45 million, and for once there's no need to dig much deeper, since every traceable indicator confirms estimates of this order of magnitude, making it the true second best-selling album of all time after “Thriller”.

It's also true that “Back In Black” fares considerably better in terms of streaming equivalents (the title track and “You Shook Me All Night Long” alone are enough to surpass the Pink Floyd album in its entirety), so within a few years it could close the gap. In terms of physical copies, however, “The Dark Side…”'s second place looks unassailable. 

 

In fifth and sixth place on the list come the Eagles, with “Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)” and “Hotel California“, respectively 44 million (41.2 certified) and 42 million (31.8 certified) copies. In the case of the compilation, the certifications come almost entirely from the United States, since the label, Rhino, has taken care to keep the figures up to date. It should be noted, however, that this time it's the certifications themselves that appear dubious even before we get to Wikipedia's estimate: the RIAA in fact credited the compilation with a whopping 38 million units on the US market by 2018. The previous certification, of 29 million, dated back to 2006.

Where do these 9 million copies come from? One might think of old sales that hadn't yet been tracked, such as those from music clubs, but that's not the case, since starting in 1994, when the RIAA made it possible, the Eagles had already updated their catalogue of certifications on that front. 

So these must be new sales, but there's no way the compilation could have sold 9 million copies in the twelve years since 2006: Nielsen SoundScan tracked “only” 1.2 million copies in that span, and even adding all digital copies and streams, as credibly reconstructed this time by ChartMasters, one could add at most another couple of million: a full 6 million are still unaccounted for. Even though this has been pointed out across the web by countless fans, Rhino and the RIAA have never provided any answers on the matter.

In short, that certified 41 million would more honestly be read as 35 million, at least until some clarity is provided.

The figure of 44 million reported on Wikipedia shouldn't even be taken into consideration, given that its source is an article from a regional British magazine, the Harrogate Advertiser, which obviously carries no authority whatsoever.

As for the 42 million of “Hotel California”, the source cited by Wikipedia is likewise a regional newspaper, this time American, namely the “Tuscaloosa News”.

MediaTraffic and ChartMasters report 35 and 34 million copies respectively, figures that are decidedly more credible (even “Hotel California” boasts a suspicious jump from 16 to 26 million in US certifications back in 2018). 

 

In seventh place comes Shania Twain with “Come On Over”, at 40 million copies (30.4 million of which certified). The figure needs revising downward: MediaTraffic estimates it at 33 million, ChartMasters at over 36 million including digital sales and streaming, both figures still enough to make it the best-selling album ever by a female solo artist. Wikipedia's 40 million figure is sourced from a 2015 Guinness World Records article, which has no real authority on the matter and, moreover, only accounts for sales on the US market without justifying the rest of the world's figures.

 

Eighth place goes to “Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac, with 40 million copies (30.3 million of which certified). ChartMasters estimates it at 46 million copies, including digital sales and streaming, while MediaTraffic puts it at 36 million. The gap between the two sources is considerable. Certifications don't help much here, because while some are fairly up to date (21 million in the United States, 4.5 million in the UK), others have lagged far behind (Canada's 2 million dates back to 1995, Australia's 910,000 copies to 2011), and the album has kept racking up substantial numbers in the meantime.

ChartMasters may have inflated some figures, having placed the album at 525,000 copies in France (InfoDisc instead estimates 380,000, which is far more plausible considering that in the new millennium the band's fortunes in France have been close to nil, with their entire catalogue managing just two weeks total in the top 100 albums chart) and at 250,000 in Italy, a figure that's essentially impossible: the album was certified for 50,000 copies between 2009 and 2024, which is however substantially also the period in which it became established as a classic in our country, particularly thanks to the internet and streaming, whereas previously it had never enjoyed particular fame — consider that at the time of its release it didn't enter any local chart, not even for a single week. An overall figure of 100,000 copies in our country is far more plausible.

It's also unclear where the 450,000 copies sold in Japan come from, given that at the time the album only reached number 33 on the local chart and has not proven to be a strong catalogue title since (to date it hasn't received any certification there). The bigger problem, however, is that its total physical sales on ChartMasters report 37.7 million copies, but adding up the individual country figures in the breakdown comes to roughly 33.7 million. The missing 4 million are credited to countries for which the site couldn't obtain official data, calculated following questionable pattern market and collector-site data, in a completely arbitrary manner. Subtracting them would bring the estimated total down to 42 million, still far from MediaTraffic's figure, which for its part cites no sources: if 46 is surely too high and 36 might be too low, the album likely sits somewhere around 40 million, which would make Wikipedia's estimate acceptable (even though the sources used to support it — CNN and Rolling Stone — have no real authority on the matter).

 

Ninth place goes to an album that never charted in Italy and never generated much enthusiasm even among fans: “Bat Out Of Hell" by Meat Loaf, with 40 million copies (22 million of which certified). The figure is wildly exaggerated. MediaTraffic and ChartMasters agree on an estimate of 28 million, decidedly more plausible and one that in no way diminishes the impact of what remains, to all intents and purposes, a blockbuster.

Rounding out the top 10 is the soundtrack to “Saturday Night Fever“, 40 million copies (22.1 certified). ChartMasters confirms the figure, while MediaTraffic is more cautious, at 35 million: there's no way to establish a precise number, but it's reasonable to assume it falls somewhere within that range. What's certain is that, outside the English-speaking markets, certifications are for the most part still in their infancy and don't help give an idea of the album's enormous success.

 

 

As we've seen, in the first tier there's only one album that seems out of place: “Bat Out Of Hell”. The others, while in several cases inflated, still have the numbers to belong among the ten best-selling albums of all time. Who should replace the album by Meat Loaf?

Plausibly, with the highest-selling album among those that Wikipedia itself places in the 30-to-39-million bracket, namely the fourth of the Led Zeppelin. The famous untitled album is estimated at around 37 million copies (the source is an article from the website of Wror, a Massachusetts radio station). Of these, 30.4 million are certified. MediaTraffic estimates it at around 34 million copies, while ChartMasters pushes it beyond 40, including digital sales and streaming. It's reasonable to assume the album falls somewhere between these two extremes.

 

An eleventh album should also be added, because once such enormous figures are reached, with no way of pinning down exact sales to the million, estimates can easily produce ties.

The album in question is “Bad” by Michael Jackson, estimated on Wikipedia at 35 million copies (sourced from an Abc News article — worthless as a citation, but at least it's not some regional radio station…), with surprisingly low certifications: 21.2 million. That alone would make it a colossal success, but it doesn't convey the true scale of the album, which MediaTraffic estimates at 33 million and ChartMasters at 40, counting digital sales and streaming.

The ChartMasters figure should nonetheless be revised downward, since the sales attributed to some specific regions don't hold up. The site assumed 4 million copies sold across the Asian market, but the only country on that continent where the album generated significant numbers is Japan, where, interpolating Oricon and Riaj data, it sits just above 800,000 copies (Sony Music claims 1.3 million, but that same Sony in 2006 claimed 104 million copies sold worldwide for “Thriller”, when the true figure today is still around 70 million — hardly the most reliable or disinterested of sources); the idea that it racked up another 3.2 million copies across the rest of the Asian market is a hard sell, especially considering that the half a million copies estimated for Turkey (with no source, incidentally) were counted under Europe. For the rest of the European market, the estimates seem more or less accurate, except for France: 1.8 million copies claimed, whereas InfoDisc stops at one and a half million.

 

Based on the analysis above, it's reasonable to state that the best-selling albums of all time are the following:

 

Michael Jackson: “Thriller” – approximately 70 million

Pink Floyd: “The Dark Side Of The Moon – circa 45 milioni 

AC/DC: “Back In Black” – approximately 40 million

Fleetwood Mac: “Rumours” – approximately 40 million

Whitney Houston + vari: “The Bodyguard” – circa 40 milioni

Bee Gees + various artists: “Saturday Night Fever” – between 35 and 40 million

Led Zeppelin: “Untitled” aka “Led Zeppelin IV” – between 35 and 40 million

Eagles: “Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)” – circa 35 milioni

Eagles: “Hotel California” – approximately 35 million

Michael Jackson: “Bad” – approximately 35 million

Shania Twain: “Come On Over” – approximately 35 million

 

As you'll notice, we chose to rely on approximations, because the truth is that even with the utmost rigor it would be impossible to reconstruct exact figures, especially for albums that date back quite far in time and for which one has to wade through a jungle of data. We'd advise never taking a chart of best-selling albums of all time at face value, should it claim to know with certainty exactly how many copies any of the above albums have sold.

The list could change within a few years, as streaming equivalents are strongly altering the dynamics at play. As already mentioned, Pink Floyd have proven weaker than expected in streaming, ending up well below other rock classics that would once have been perceived as more or less on their level, if not below it: among these are their direct pursuers, such as Ac/Dc e Fleetwood Mac.

Another album with streaming impressive figures, but which disappoints in proportion to its physical sales, is “Come On Over” by Shania Twain, which could soon find itself overtaken by albums just under the 35-million threshold that are racking up streams at a much faster rate, such as “21" by Adele or “Legend”, the famous compilation by Bob Marley.

Here we should really open a parenthesis on how streaming equivalentsare calculated, since some record labels, with the apparent complicity of certification bodies, count them in a particularly deceptive way — but perhaps it's best to leave that issue for a separate article, because it's far more complicated than it might appear.

 

 

Coming back to the encyclopedia, what stands out about their top 10? That, all things considered, it's fairly accurate: the albums are the right ones, and the only real glaring error is the inclusion of “Bat Out Of Hell”. Even the alternatives are on the mark: the fourth Led Zeppelin album and “Bad”, left out of the top 10, still show up as the highest-ranking albums in the tier just below.

Compared to the utter disaster of the equivalent list created by the Italian version of Wikipedia for the domestic market (which was in fact deleted shortly after our previous article was published), the English version's list for the global market looks far more solid. Yet more proof that our version of the famous encyclopedia is particularly shoddy and unreliable.

 

That said, we shouldn't be too generous toward the English Wikipedia either: that damning comparison alone isn't enough to make it look good. The inaccuracies in the figures remain (due to the use of sources with no real authority on the matter), and if you scrolled further down the list into the lower tiers, you'd find further errors. One of the most glaring is in the “Timeline of the best-selling albums” section, where “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by the Iron Butterflyshows up, listed as the first album to reach 8 million copies and now estimated at 30 million, sourced from Jeff March's book “Echoes Of The Sixties” (1999), which obviously has no authority on the subject whatsoever.

The album has been quantified at 4 million copies by 1993 in the United States, and its certification hasn't been updated since. The only other country where it appears to have sold in significant numbers is Germany, with half a million copies. There are no particularly notable catalog results: the only certification received in the new millennium is for the CD reissue on the British market, which scraped together 60,000 copies. The album is more plausibly somewhere in the range of 5 to 10 million (ChartMasters estimates around 8 million, though without providing any detailed figures).

Moreover, only one page has been considered so far, but Wikipedia consists of thousands of pages, and on the pages for specific albums it's very easy to run into contradictory data, even on the English-language version.

 

 

One case in particular will be examined here, perhaps the most striking: "Parallel Lines" by Blondie, whose Wikipedia page for years claimed sales of 20 million copies, citing as its source a 2008 article by Gary Graff for Billboard, despite the fact that Billboard had no role whatsoever at the time in measuring album sales outside the United States (and even the worldwide chart it currently compiles is quite questionable).

The figure was later lowered, citing as its source a BBC Four article that in 2017 credited the album with 16 million copies. Just as Billboard has no authority on the matter, neither does the BBC, and the figure remains too high. After years and years — during which the 20-million figure, and then the 16-million one, had plenty of time to spread everywhere — on October 24, 2024 a discussion was finally opened in the encyclopedia's relevant section questioning the estimate. The discussion's own history, incidentally, gives us a brief account of how this myth spread: it appears that one of the first sources to cite the 20-million figure was the LGBT culture magazine Out, in a 1992 article. Before that, one of the higher estimates was from Cash Box magazine (Billboard's historic rival), which in 1980 reported 7 million copies worldwide. How it could have sold another 13 million copies worldwide over the following twelve years, by which point it had long since dropped off any chart, remains a mystery. Not to mention that, however little authority Cash Box had on worldwide sales, it still had more than Out, which wasn't even a music publication.

The only countries where the album achieved strong catalog sales were the United Kingdom (where it is close to 1.7 million copies to date) and Greece (where it re-entered the top 10 in 2023, though the state of the Greek music market in 2023 is best left unmentioned).

The album is in fact likely to be in the region of 10 million copies: counting its performance weeks on the charts at the time, the most significant of which amounted to 103 weeks on the Billboard 200 (though only 16 of these in the top 40), and comparing this figure to the sales of albums that performed similarly on that chart, the most optimistic estimate one can reach is 5-6 million, but it's likely lower given that the band has never shown particular strength in catalog sales in the United States (suffice it to say that to date it is certified for only 5.5 million albums in the US across its entire career).

ChartMasters, too, refers to the estimate of 20 million copies for the album as the "most ridiculously inflated figure of all time" (a title that might arguably belong to "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" instead, though it hardly matters): in a 2016 article the site credits the album with 8.7 million copies sold, more or less in line with what's stated above, although, as already mentioned, for albums released in an era when certifications and detailed counts didn't exist, it's preferable not to offer such precise estimates.

 

In conclusion? When it comes to worldwide sales, the figures should always be taken cum grano salis and there are no reliable sources on the matter: the best one can achieve is to build up enough experience over the years — digging up as much data as possible — to be able to distinguish, through reasoned comparisons, fake estimates from realistic ones, and always allowing the realistic ones a more or less generous margin of error, depending on the information found. This is one of those subjects where, unfortunately, there's no magic wand.