List of Best-selling Albums in The United Kingdom

List Of Best-selling Albums In The United Kingdom

An album is defined by British organisation the Official Charts Company (OCC) as being a type of music release that features more than four tracks and is longer than 25 minutes in duration. On 9 April 2012, a record chart was broadcast on BBC Radio 2 that listed the 40 albums that had sold the most in the United Kingdom. The programme was hosted by British DJ Tony Blackburn, and was entitled Tony Blackburn with the UK's Bestselling Albums. The chart was compiled by the OCC, and was based on sales of albums in the UK from 1956, the year that sales were first monitored, to March 2012. The record at number one was Greatest Hits, a compilation album by British band Queen, which, since its 1981 release, has sold approximately 5.87 million copies in the UK. Queen's second greatest hits album, Greatest Hits II, has sold approximately 3.89 million copies since being released in 1991, and was featured at number 10 on Radio 2's list.

Of the 40 albums listed on the chart, more than half are by British artists. Nine are by American artists, with the rest being from Ireland, Canada, Sweden and Jamaica. Five acts – The Beatles, Coldplay, Dido, Michael Jackson and Queen – feature on the chart with more than one album. In promotion of the Radio 2 programme, Blackburn described the list as "a real mixed bag". The most-represented record label is Parlophone with five entries, while the decade that appears the most is the 2000s, with 14 of the entries having been released during that period. BBC News remarked on the day of the chart's broadcast that the 2000s had been the most-represented decade despite its "general background of declining sales and internet piracy".

Sales of albums in the UK were first published on 28 July 1956 by music magazine Record Mirror, who compiled a weekly chart of the country's five biggest-selling records – their first number one was Songs for Swingin' Lovers! by Frank Sinatra. Since then, three albums have gone on to sell more than five million copies each: Greatest Hits by Queen, Gold: Greatest Hits by ABBA and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles. The top eight best-selling albums have each sold at least four million copies. As of 2012, sales of albums are monitored by the OCC, and compiled weekly as the UK Albums Chart.

Sales certifications for UK album sales are awarded by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). The BPI began awarding certifications soon after it was founded in April 1973. Initially, certifications were based on the revenue received by the album manufacturers – records that generated revenue of GB£75,000 were awarded silver certification, £150,000 represented gold and £1 million was platinum. Over the following six years, the thresholds for silver and gold certifications both grew twice – the threshold for platinum certification remained at £1 million. In January 1979, this method was abolished, and certifications were instead based on unit retail sales: sales of 60,000 were awarded silver, 100,000 for gold and 300,000 for platinum. Multi-platinum awards were introduced in February 1987; digital downloads have been counted towards unit sales since 2004. As of April 2012, the highest-certified album is 21 by Adele, which has been awarded platinum certification 16 times.