Data analysis company Chartmaster has reported that Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ has overtaken AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’ to rank as the sixth best-selling album of all time.
Chartmaster combines physical sales, digital downloads and streaming to calculate an ‘Equivalent Album Sales’ figure. The company tracks the total number of sales across all formats to create a comprehensive ranking of the most successful albums.
Chartmaster reported: “‘Nevermind’ has an EAS of 66,832,000, while ‘Back In Black’s total isn’t far behind at 66,831,000.”
The top ten list shows Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ remains the best-selling album of all time with 131,253,000 equivalent album sales. The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ ranks second with 74,695,000, followed by the ‘Saturday Night Fever’ soundtrack at 73,267,000, Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ at 73,108,000, and Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ at 70,196,000. After Nirvana and AC/DC, Pink Floyd’s ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ comes in eighth with 63,623,000, The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ ninth with 61,075,000, and Led Zeppelin’s ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ rounds out the top ten with 60,696,000.
The ranking demonstrates how streaming has changed the landscape of album sales metrics.
Nevermind’s rise to the top has been remarkable. Nirvana released the album as their second studio album on September 24, 1991, on DGC Records and produced by Butch Vig. Geffen Records initially expected modest sales of around 250,000 copies, the same level the label had achieved with Sonic Youth’s debut Goo.
The album far exceeded those projections from the start. Hit singles including “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, “Come as You Are”, “Lithium”, and “In Bloom” drove its success. By January 1992, Nevermind had replaced Michael Jackson’s Dangerous at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, and the album was selling approximately 300,000 copies per week. The album earned its gold and platinum certifications on November 27, 1991, just over a month after its release.
The Recording Industry Association of America certified Nevermind as Diamond in December 2024, recognizing over 10 million copies shipped in the United States. The album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide and played a significant role in bringing alternative rock to mainstream audiences. Publications such as Rolling Stone and Time have ranked it highly on lists of the greatest albums of all time.
AC/DC’s Back in Black also has a remarkable story behind it. Released on July 25, 1980, the album came following the death of original singer Bon Scott and marked AC/DC’s comeback with new vocalist Brian Johnson. The album has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide and holds the distinction of being the best-selling hard rock album ever. In August 2024, the Recording Industry Association of America certified Back in Black as 27× Platinum, making it the third-best-selling album in the United States and notably the best-selling album that never reached the top spot on the American charts.
