List of best-selling albums in the United States of the Nielsen SoundScan era

This is a list of best-selling albums in the United States of the Nielsen SoundScan era.

SoundScan data is unrelated to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certifications, and is based on actual sales while the RIAA's certification process is based on shipments.

The following list includes the annual best-selling albums since 1991, as reported by MRC Data (formerly Nielsen SoundScan).

[29] The first album in the SoundScan era to sell a million copies or more in a week is the soundtrack of The Bodyguard by Whitney Houston in 1992; the most recent album to do so is The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift in 2024.

The following is a list of all of the albums that sold at least one million copies in a single week:[63][64][65][66][67] Footnotes

Metallica 's self-titled album is the highest selling record under Nielsen SoundScan, selling over 17 million copies
Shania Twain 's Come On Over (released in 1997) has sold over 15.7 million copies.
Alanis Morissette 's Jagged Little Pill (released in 1995) has sold over 15.3 million copies.
The Beatles ' 1 (released in 2000) has sold over 13 million copies.
Taylor Swift is the first artist to have the annual best seller seven times (2009, 2014, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023). [ 28 ]
Adele has the annual best seller five times (2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2021).
Eminem has the best-selling album of a calendar year twice (2002 and 2010).
Drake has the year's top-consumed album (based on album-equivalent units ) twice (2016 and 2018).