Here are all of the best-selling music artists of all time with 200 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 200 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
4. Elton John
Claimed sales: 250 – 300 million
Period active: 1964 – present
5. Madonna
Claimed sales: 275 – 300 million
Period active: 1979 – present
6. Led Zeppelin
Claimed sales: 200 – 300 million
Period active: 1968 – 1980
7. Rihanna
Claimed sales: 250 million
Period active: 2005 – present
8. Pink Floyd
Claimed sales: 200 – 250 million
Period active: 1965 – 1996, 2005, 2012 – 2014
9. Eminem
Claimed sales: 220 million
Period active: 1996 – present
12. Queen
Claimed sales: 200 million
Period active: 1971 – present
13. Eagles
Claimed sales: 200 million
Period active: 1971 – 1980, 1994 – present
15. Celine Dion
Claimed sales: 175 – 200 million
Period active: 1981 – present
16. AC/DC
Claimed sales: 150 – 200 million
Period active: 1973 – present
