What is the biggest-selling album of all time? Let’s settle this question once and for all. It’s Thriller, Michael Jackson’s 1982 album. Okay, then, how many copies has it sold? That’s…difficult.
The Recording Industry Association of America keeps track of how many albums are sold in the US, something that used to result in some pretty sketchy numbers. Before the SoundScan era (pre-March 1, 1991, when album sales began to be counted one by one at the cash register), statistics were at best guesses of record labels and record stores. With no proper, standardized way of counting how many records were sold, actual sales could be wildly inaccurate–not to mention prone to corruption, exaggeration, and various sorts of numbers-goosing.
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There’s no doubt Jacko sold boatloads of Thriller between November 30, 1982, and February 28, 1991, but no one knows exactly how many. But using SoundScan data and extrapolating backwards, the RIAA is pretty certain that Thriller has moved 33 million copies in the US. Beyond that, though, we can only guess.
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