Here are all of the best-selling music artists of all time with 250 million or more claimed record sales.

After recently checking out the top 10 most streamed artists on Spotify, we thought it’d be interesting to turn back the clock and take a look at the best-selling artists of all time.

The artists below are ranked by their ‘claimed sales’, all with at least 250 million record sales. This includes physical and digital downloads of albums, singles, compilation-albums and music videos. To see the full break-down, and how these numbers are defined, sourced, ordered and verified, find the Wikipedia article here.

1. The Beatles

Claimed sales: 500 – 600 million

Period active: 1960 – 1970


2. Michael Jackson

Claimed sales: 400 – 500 million

Period active: 1964 – 2009


3. Elvis Presley

Claimed sales: 500 million

Period active: 1953 – 1977


4. Elton John

Claimed sales: 250 – 300 million

Period active: 1962 – present


5. Queen

Claimed sales: 250 – 300 million

Period active: 1971 – present


6. Madonna

Claimed sales: 250 – 300 million

Period active: 1979 – present


7. Led Zeppelin

Claimed sales: 200 – 300 million

Period active: 1968 – 1980


8. Rihanna

Claimed sales: 230 – 250 million

Period active: 2003 – present


9. Pink Floyd

Claimed sales: 200 – 250 million

Period active: 1965 – 1996, 2005, 2012 – 2014