List of biggest-selling British music artists
Introduction This list documents Britain's best-selling music artists alphabetically as well as by record sales. This page lists those artists who have had claims of over one million or more records in sales. The list is divided into numerous record-sales brackets within each of which, artists are listed in alphabetical order, rather than by number of records sold. The artists on the list are supported by third-party reliable sources, the sales-figures within which should represent a total number of sold albums, singles, compilation-albums, music videos as well as downloads of singles and full-length albums.This list holds no account of sales after the initial release dates, some artists keep on selling albums they originally released for instance in 1972.those albums sold over the years in their millions.
Constraints Although the criteria for the following list are intended to be expansive (including comparisons for total-sales for all recording artists) there are certain limitations and constraints that may limit the conclusions that can be derived from these data.There is no certainty these figures are correct for not all sales are controllable.Such constraints include:* Bias towards acts who have had success in a specific country or region. * Bias towards older artists. There is a broader genre spectrum of music to listen to now which limits the number of listeners. * Bias towards modern artists. Comparatively fewer successful pre-modern artists will have sold more records, as both global spending power and population have increased. In 1950, the world's population was 2.5 billion; by 2000 it had risen to 6 billion. Also, older artists suffer from bias as their record sales are less likely to have been accurately tracked, and estimates of their early sales are likely to be more vague. * Fan sites, press articles and record labels have been known to inflate record sales claims. * Inflated claims for artists who performed in different acts during their careers. Sometimes all of the sales data is attributed to an individual artist. For the purposes of this list, an effort is made to separate the individual acts (e.g., the sales figures for The Beatles and Paul McCartney & Wings are mutually exclusive).
400 million or more records  Artist Biggest selling album Period Genre Claimed sales The Beatles  ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''  1960–1970  Pop / Rock  600 million500 million
300 million to 400 million records  Artist Biggest selling album Period Genre Claimed salesElton John''Goodbye Yellow Brick Road''1964–present Pop / Rock 300 million Led Zeppelin  ''Led Zeppelin IV'' 1968–1980 Hard rock / Heavy metal 200-300 million
200 million to 299 million records  Artist Biggest selling album Period Genre Claimed sales Cliff Richard  ''Always Guaranteed''  1958–present  Pop / Rock / Rock N Roll / Jazz 260 million Bee Gees  ''Saturday Night Fever''  1958-2003  Pop / Disco / Soul / Rock / Soft Rock 220 million David Bowie  ''Let's Dance''  1964–2016  Rock  200 million Queen  ''Greatest Hits''  1970–present  Glam rock / Hard rock  170-200 million Pink Floyd  ''The Dark Side of the Moon''  1964–2014  Progressive rock  200 million The Rolling Stones  ''Hot Rocks 1964–1971''  1962–present  Rock / Blues rock  200 million
100 million to 199 million records  Artist Biggest selling album Period Genre Claimed sales Ed Sheeran  ''×'' 2011–present  Pop  150 million Genesis  ''Invisible Touch''  1967–present  Progressive rock / Pop rock 150 million Phil Collins  ''No Jacket Required''  1980–present  Adult contemporary  150 million Shirley Bassey  ''The Shirley Bassey Singles Album''  1957–present  Pop  135 million Status Quo  ''12 Gold Bars''  1967–present  Rock  130 million Adele  ''21''  2006–present  Pop / Soul  120 million Dire Straits  ''Brothers in Arms''  1977–1995  Rock / Pop  103 million Coldplay  ''A Rush of Blood to the Head''  1997–present  Alternative rock  100 million The Dave Clark Five  –  1964–1970  Pop rock / Beat  100 million Deep Purple  ''Machine Head''  1968–present  Hard rock  100 million Depeche Mode  ''Violator''  1980–present  Electro Rock 100 million Fleetwood Mac  ''Rumours''  1967–present  Pop rock 100 million George Michael  ''Faith''  1981–2016  Pop   100 million Iron Maiden  ''The Number of the Beast''  1975–present  Heavy metal  100 million Paul McCartney  ''Pipes of Peace''  1957–present  Pop rock 100 million Pet Shop Boys  ''Actually''  1981–present  Synthpop 100 million The Who  ''Who's Next''  1964–present  Rock / Hard rock  100 million Rod Stewart  ''Out of Order''  1962–present  Rock / Pop 100 million
50 to 99 million records  Artist Biggest selling album Period Genre Claimed sales Spice Girls  ''Spice''  1996–20002007–2008  Pop, Euro Pop  90 million Eurythmics  ''Greatest Hits''  1980–present  New wave  75 million Robbie Williams  ''I've Been Expecting You''  1990–present  Pop  75 million Oasis  ''(What's the Story) Morning Glory?'' 1991–2009  Britpop / Rock  75 million The Police  ''Synchronicity''  1977–present  Pop rock / New Wave  75 millionLittle Mix''Glory Days''2011–2022Pop, R&B, dance-pop75 million Duran Duran  ''Rio''  1978–present  New wave / alternative rock 70 million UB40  ''Promises and Lies ''  1980–present  Reggae   100 million Def Leppard  ''Hysteria''  1977–present  Hard rock / heavy metal  65 million Supertramp  ''Breakfast in America''  1969–present  Progressive rock  60 million Jethro Tull  ''Aqualung''  1968–present  Progressive rock / hard rock  60 million T. Rex  ''The Slider''  1967–1977  Glam rock / Folk rock  58 million Black Sabbath  ''Paranoid''  1968–present  Heavy metal  50 million Culture Club  ''Colour by Numbers''  1982–present  New wave-pop  50 million
See also * List of best-selling music artists* List of best-selling music artists in the United States
References