List of best-selling albums by year in the United States

Until 1991, the Billboard album chart was based on a survey of representative retail outlets that determined a ranking, not a tally of actual sales.

Weekly surveys and year-end charts by Billboard and other publications such as now defunct Cash Box magazine sometimes differed.

[2] Harry Belafonte's Calypso (1956) was the first record to be recognized as a year's top-selling album by Billboard, when it started tracking sales figures.

She accomplished this with Fearless (2009), 1989 (2014), Reputation (2017), Lover (2019), Folklore (2020), Midnights (2022), 1989 (Taylor's Version) (2023) and The Tortured Poets Department (2024).

American singer Michael Jackson's 1982 album, Thriller became the best-selling record in the country for two consecutive years in 1983 and 1984.

Taylor Swift is the first and only artist to garner the best-selling album of the year eight times. Swift is also the only artist to have the annual top-selling album in three separate decades (2000s, 2010s and 2020s). [ 1 ]
Portrait of Harry Belafonte, singing.
Harry Belafonte 's Calypso was labeled the US's top-selling record of 1956.
West Side Story 's soundtrack was the best-selling album for two consecutive years.
A Caucasian man with light brown hair. He is wearing black framed glasses with orange lenses and a black suit over a white shirt. Behind him is a white wall with a blue square.
Two of Elton John 's albums each became the best-selling record in the 1970s.
A mid-twenties African American man wearing a sequined military jacket and dark sunglasses. He is walking while waving his right hand, which is adorned with a white glove. His left hand is bare.
Michael Jackson 's Thriller was the best-selling album for two years in a row.
Whitney Houston had the best-selling albums of 1986 and 1993, with her self-titled debut studio album and the soundtrack of The Bodyguard , respectively.
Eminem is the only rapper to have achieved the best-seller of the year twice; The Eminem Show and Recovery were the best-selling albums of 2002 and 2010, respectively.
Adele 's 21 , 25 , and 30 were the best-selling albums of 2011-2012, 2015-2016 and 2021, respectively.