After picking up a monster 34 certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Friday morning, Luke Combs firmly planted himself in history as the second-highest-selling country artist of all time behind Garth Brooks with 153 million units sold across both singles and albums.
With all the buzz surrounding Combs’ accomplishment, it begs the question, “Who are the best-selling country artists of all time?” Before we dive into the answers, some groundwork surrounding the RIAA’s certification process should be laid.
In case you weren’t aware; when an artist receives a gold certification, it means the single or album has sold at least 500,000 units since its release, while a platinum cert means it has sold at least 1 million. As for diamond, a song or record must sell 10 million units.
Further diving into what constitutes a unit, one paid download or 150 on-demand streams of a given song will count towards a unit sold. As for albums, three separate criteria can be met to constitute as a unit sold. The three are as follows:
- A permanent digital album or physical album sale
- 10 permanent track downloads from the album
- 1,500 on-demand audio and/or video streams from the album
With all of this being said, it’s key to keep in mind a few different things. The first and most obvious would be that there will be a major discrepancy between both singles and albums while evaluating artists from the past and present. Given that singles were much harder to individually purchase before the digital age, artists of the past saw higher album sales and fewer singles sales given the primary form of music consumption was through the purchasing of albums in their entirety. What this means is newer artists will undoubtedly receive more certifications for singles and fewer for albums given that streaming dominates today’s music consumption.
A second thing to keep in mind is that the RIAA does not keep a live tally of artist’s sales. Instead, they will certify singles and albums in intervals. What this means is that fast-selling/streaming songs may take a while to actually receive a certification from the association. Using Morgan Wallen’s recent monster release, I’m The Problem, for example, it has already sold well over a million units but has yet to receive a platinum certification.
Finally, it should be noted that despite the RIAA trying to level the playing field for artists from different eras with the aforementioned streaming requirements, there is no doubt that newer artists benefit in terms of overall units sold simply due to the accessibility of music today.
With all of that being said, the Top 25 highest-selling country artists in history are as follows:
1. Garth Brooks
Total Units: 162.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 31
Highest-Selling Song: “Lost In You” (Gold)
Highest-Selling Album: Double Live (23x Platinum)
2. Luke Combs
Total Units: 153 million
Platinum Certifications: 36
Highest-Selling Song: “Beautiful Crazy” (14x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: This One’s For You (7x Platinum)
3. Morgan Wallen
Total Units: 122 million
Platinum Certifications: 42
Highest-Selling Song: “Whiskey Glasses” (9x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: One Thing At A Time (7x Platinum)
4. George Strait
Total Units: 113.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 56
Highest-Selling Song: “Amarillo By Morning”/”Check Yes Or No” (4x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Strait Out of the Box (8x Platinum)
5. Luke Bryan
Total Units: 110.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 33
Highest-Selling Song: “Country Girl (Shake It For Me)/”Play It Again” (8x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Crash My Party (6x Platinum)
6. Tim McGraw
Total Units: 94.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 37
Highest-Selling Song: “Live Like You Were Dying”/”It’s Your Love” (5x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Not a Moment Too Soon (6x Platinum)
7. Kenny Chesney
Total Units: 83 million
Platinum Certifications: 41
Highest-Selling Song: “American Kids” (4x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: When The Sun Goes Down/Greatest Hits (5x Platinum)
8. Chris Stapleton
Total Units: 79.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 25
Highest-Selling Song: “Tennesee Whiskey” (17x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Traveller (7x Platinum)
9. Carrie Underwood
Total Units: 72 million
Platinum Certifications: 32
Highest-Selling Song: “Before He Cheats” (7x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Some Hearts (9x Platinum)
10. Blake Shelton
Total Units: 65 million
Platinum Certifications: 33
Highest-Selling Song: “God Gave Me You”/”Boys Round Here” (5x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Based On a True Story… (3x Platinum)
11. Shania Twain
Total Units: 61.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 12
Highest-Selling Song: “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” (3x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Come On Over (2x Diamond)
12. Eric Church
Total Units: 60.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 27
Highest-Selling Song: “Springsteen” (8x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Chief (4x Platinum)
13. Toby Keith
Total Units: 60 million
Platinum Certifications: 25
Highest-Selling Song: “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)”/”Should’ve Been a Cowboy” (4x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Shock’n Y’all/Unleashed (4x Platinum)
14. Alan Jackson
Total Units: 59 million
Platinum Certifications: 22
Highest-Selling Song: “Remember When” (4x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 (7x Platinum)
15. Florida Georgia Line
Total Units: 59 million
Platinum Certifications: 20
Highest-Selling Song: “Cruise” (14x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Here’s to the Good Times (2x Platinum)
16. Kane Brown
Total Units: 57.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 19
Highest-Selling Song: “What Ifs” (feat. Lauren Alaina) (Diamond)
Highest-Selling Album: Kane Brown (3x Platinum)
17. Alabama
Total Units: 56.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 26
Highest-Selling Song: “Song of the South” (2x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Mountain Music/Greatest Hits (5x Platinum)
18. Keith Urban
Total Units: 56.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 28
Highest-Selling Song: “Blue Ain’t Your Color” (6x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Be Here (4x Platinum)
19. Sam Hunt
Total Units: 53 million
Platinum Certifications: 15
Highest-Selling Song: “Body Like a Back Road” (11x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Montevallo (4x Platinum)
20. Jason Aldean
Total Units: 51.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 27
Highest-Selling Song: “You Make It Easy” (6x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: My Kinda Party (4x Platinum)
21. Kenny Rogers
Total Units: 49.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 17
Highest-Selling Song: “Islands In the Stream” (w/ Dolly Parton) (3x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Kenny Rogers’ Greatest Hits (12x Platinum)
22. Thomas Rhett
Total Units: 49.5 million
Platinum Certifications: 24
Highest-Selling Song: “Die a Happy Man” (8x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Tangled Up (2x Platinum)
23. Reba McEntire
Total Units: 48 million
Platinum Certifications: 22
Highest-Selling Song: “Fancy” (2x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Greatest Hits, Volume II (5x Platinum)
24. Dixie Chicks
Total Units: 45 million
Platinum Certifications: 11
Highest-Selling Song: “Wide Open Spaces”/ “Cowboy Take Me Away” (2x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Fly (11x Platinum)
25. Lee Brice
Total Units: 41 million
Platinum Certifications: 16
Highest-Selling Song: “Rumor” (6x Platinum)
Highest-Selling Album: Hard 2 Love (2x Platinum)