Guinness World Records have updated the ranking of the best-selling female artists in history (albums + singles):

 

1) Madonna

2) Rihanna

3) Mariah Carey

4) Taylor Swift

5) Beyoncé

 

And Madonna’s 400m+ achievements are superlative to me because so many of her sales are pure sales, rather than passive downloads appearing on a playlist… people had to go into a shop to purchase her music.

 

I’m surprised to see Mariah so high; stateside she was massive in the ‘90s but worldwide not so much.

 

Any surprises here for anyone??

Yeah Mariah is definitely the biggest surprise here for me. Is 'All I Want For Christmas' skewing her sales a bit perhaps?

I suspect Taylor next year will be at least 3rd place, maybe even ahead of Rihanna