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Posted by: Medellíam 8th June 2019, 08:19 AM

Madonna's Official biggest selling albums
08 June 2019 | By Justin Myers

As Madonna prepares to release her 14th studio album, we look at the smashes that came before it.

Unless you've been without wifi for the last two months, you'll know Madonna is poised to release a new album this month. Madame X will be Madonna's 14th official studio album, and will be competing to become her 13th Number 1 on the Official Albums Chart.

As record-holder for the female artist with the most chart-topping albums, Madonna has an impressive back catalogue, so we delved into her archive to rank her Top 10 biggest albums.

Top of the shop is Madonna's first greatest hits retrospective The Immaculate Collection, which has shifted 3.77 million, across physical, digital, and streaming equivalent sales. Released in late 1990, The Immaculate Collection featured all Madonna's hits up to that point, along with future Top 10s Justify My Love and Rescue Me and spent 10 consecutive weeks at Number 1, her longest stint at the top. It's one of the biggest selling albums of all time.

Madonna's biggest studio album comes from the peak of mid-eighties Madonna mania. True Blue featured three Number 1s – Papa Don't Preach, the title track, and La Isla Bonita – plus two iconic Top 10s Live to Tell and Open Your Heart. True Blue was the first album by a US artist to go straight in at Number 1, and spent six straight weeks there to become the biggest album of 1986, shifting almost a million in its first six months of release alone. It's sold over two million copies. See all Madonna's hit singles and albums in her chart archive

In third is Madonna's huge late-nineties comeback, Ray of Light. Released in 1998, Madonna's new techno direction spent two weeks at Number 1 and spawned five Top 10 singles, including the chart-topping lead single Frozen. Ray of Light has sold 1.73m. Its follow-up Music, released in 2000, is Madonna's fourth biggest, and features two Number 1s (if you count American Pie, which Madonna very likely doesn't, as she didn't want it on the album). Spending two weeks at the top, Music has shifted 1.63m copies.

In fifth is Madonna's 1989 opus Like A Prayer, perhaps the first major gear shift of her career. The title track was a Number 1, and all the singles from that campaign went Top 5. (Oh Father was released years later but as part of a different album campaign.)

With 2005's thumping Confessions on a Dance Floor and 1984's Like A Virgin in sixth and seventh place, each selling over a million, the rest of the Top 10 features greatest hits albums and a stray soundtrack. Something to Remember was Madonna's mid-nineties ballad retrospective, with 880,000 sales, and GHV2 added another decade of hits her existing collection in late 2001, shifting 868,500. Madonna's Evita album rounds things off at 10, with 737,000.

Just outside the Top 10 is another greatest hits: 2009's Celebration, on 666,000 copies.

If you were to cut out those greatest hits and have only studio albums*, removing Immaculate Collection from the top and the other three from the bottom, the lower four rungs of the all-time Madonna albums Top 10 would be occupied by Erotica (1992), Bedtime Stories (1994), American Life (2003), and Hard Candy (2008).

*I'm Breathless, featuring music from and inspired by Dick Tracy, isn't usually considered an official studio album, but if it were… it would come above Erotica on the rundown.

Here's Madonna's biggest albums of all time:

TITLE PEAK YEAR
1 THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION 1 1990 3.77m
2 TRUE BLUE 1 1986 2m
3 RAY OF LIGHT 1 1998 1.73m
4 MUSIC 1 2000 1.63m
5 LIKE A PRAYER 1 1989
6 CONFESSIONS ON A DANCE FLOOR 1 2005
7 LIKE A VIRGIN 1 1984 1m+
8 SOMETHING TO REMEMBER 3 1995 880k
9 GREATEST HITS - VOL 2 2 2001 869k
10 EVITA - OST 1 1996 737k
11 CELEBRATION 1 2009 666k

And if you're interested, here's her Top 10 studio albums:

TITLE PEAK YEAR
1 TRUE BLUE 1 1986 2m
2 RAY OF LIGHT 1 1998 1.73m
3 MUSIC 1 2000 1.63m
4 LIKE A PRAYER 1 1989
5 CONFESSIONS ON A DANCE FLOOR 1 2005
6 LIKE A VIRGIN 1 1984 1m+
7 EROTICA 2 1992
8 BEDTIME STORIES 2 1994
9 AMERICAN LIFE 1 2003
10 HARD CANDY 1 2008

All charts ©2019 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

Posted by: Medellíam 8th June 2019, 08:48 AM

Comments:

The OCC revealed Confessions on a Dancefloor had sold 1.35m as of April 2019.

Like a Virgin has been downgraded. It sold 1.55m in the 80s and had sold 1.626m by November 2006, based on a list supplied by the OCC. I have the album on 1.678m as of July 2018.

Something to Remember has been downgraded. It sold 980k in the 90s and has since passed the 1m mark. The position of #8 on the countdown is correct though.

Evita sold 260k in 1996 and 380k in 1997, putting it on 640k by the end of 1997. It's 21st century sales were revealed to be 87k as of March 2015 which gives us a total of 727k from the info we have. I presume it also sold in 1998 and 1999, more than the 10k that would take us up to the figure given in this article, so I assume the 1996 sales have been downgraded. Today's figure is consistent with the 733k the OCC gave in January 2018.

The order of Erotica, Bedtime Stories, American Life and Hard Candy is correct. Who knows what sales the OCC have for the former two, but I know that Erotica has sold less than Celebration so at least that's correct.

Madonna's debut album is missing. I have it on about 650k which would place it above Erotica.

Posted by: Jordan Lee 8th June 2019, 10:18 AM

I thought Ray of Light had sold more than that too I thought it was a bit nearer the 2m mark.

Posted by: Common Sense 8th June 2019, 10:32 AM

The Immaculate Collection didn't contain all her hits up that point as True Blue, a No.1, was left off.

Posted by: Bjork 8th June 2019, 10:38 AM

hate how the occ downgrades old albums, they should decide on a figure and then make it final and stop messing with it

Posted by: slowdown73 8th June 2019, 11:35 AM

Her album sales have certainly declined since the 00s with the exception of confessions era which heralded a return to form!

Posted by: M4NG0 9th June 2019, 01:19 PM

Yeah, a few of her hits were left off that e.g. Dress You Up and Who's That Girl (also a #1 single)

Posted by: Jordan Lee 9th June 2019, 01:23 PM

How did her Like A Virgin album get downgraded so much?

I also thought her debut had sold more than both American Life and Hard Candy.

Plus Ray of Light I thought was on 1.9 or over 2m by now.

Nice to see a list of her albums but confused at it

Posted by: Rob 10th June 2019, 11:03 AM

How have her last few albums sold e.g. MDNA?

Posted by: Medellíam 10th June 2019, 02:23 PM

135k for MDNA as of March 2015 and 85k for Rebel Heart to the end of 2015.

Posted by: pippa 10th June 2019, 03:38 PM

Rebel Heart and Kylie;s Kiss Me Once have almost identical sales.
Interesting to see how Madonna's new album sells.
Hopefully she can improve on Rebels Hearts sales.

Posted by: ___∆___ 10th June 2019, 06:02 PM

Had no idea this album had sold so much - I know it’s basically a GH but it’s one of my favourite Madonna albums