Elton John in Numbers

 

Over more than five decades of career, Elton John has established himself as one of the most commercially successful artists in the history of music. His catalog has crossed different eras of the recording market, beginning with traditional physical sales, moving through digital consumption and also reaching the age of streaming. This continued reach has allowed Elton to maintain relevance across generations, accumulating expressive sales and occupying a leading position among the most consumed artists in the world.

The commercial performance of Elton John can be observed both through the individual impact of his albums and through the accumulated strength of his entire catalog. Among his releases, some stand out as major sales drivers around the world. Below is the list of the best-selling albums of Elton John's career:

1. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – 31.000.000

2. Greatest Hits (1974) – 18.609.696

3. Love Songs – 8.894.570

4. The Very Best of Elton John – 6.606.668

5. Greatest Hits 1970–2002 – 5.447.579

6. Greatest Hits, Volume II – 5.200.000

7. The One – 3.427.719

8. Sleeping with the Past – 3.335.252

9. Rocket Man – Number Ones – 3.890.000

10. Diamonds – 3.870.000

11. Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy – 3.139.390

12. Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player – 3.074.020

13. Made in England – 2.309.120

14. The Big Picture – 2.227.440

15. Caribou – 2.132.820

16. Madman Across the Water – 2.092.210

17. Decade – Elton John’s Greatest Hits 1976–1986 – 2.002.980

18. Greatest Hits Vol. III (1979–1987) – 2.000.000

19. Duets – 1.924.190

20. Too Low for Zero – 1.802.090

Ranking:

To determine the ranking of the most consumed artists by the public, it was necessary to establish parameters that represented the real behavior of the music market over the decades. The industry has changed several times, shifting from physical consumption to digital and then to streaming, which makes it impossible to use only traditional sales to measure long-term commercial relevance. For this reason, we used a more complete indicator called EAS, which means Equivalent Album Sales.

The EAS model includes physical album sales, digital sales, and streaming converted into album equivalents through the standardized market rule, which determines that 1,500 streams equal one album sale. This parameter is used in specialized sources such as ChartMasters.

However, this calculation alone does not reflect the contemporary strength of artists. For this reason, we also used a second complementary parameter based on IFPI, which annually publishes the Global Artist Chart.

Below is the final table resulting from the cross-referencing of the parameters:

1. The Beatles — 523 milhões EAS

2. Michael Jackson — 348 milhões EAS

3. Elvis Presley — 326 milhões EAS

4. Queen — 287 milhões EAS

5. Madonna — 252 milhões EAS

6. Elton John — 241 milhões EAS

7. The Rolling Stones — 241 milhões EAS

8. Pink Floyd — 241 milhões EAS

9. Taylor Swift — 238 milhões EAS

10. Eminem — 220 milhões EAS

11. Led Zeppelin — 210 milhões EAS

12. Mariah Carey — 206 milhões EAS

13. Celine Dion — 204 milhões EAS

14. AC/DC — 202 milhões EAS

15. U2 — 195 milhões EAS

16. Whitney Houston — 191 milhões EAS

17. Billy Joel — 185 milhões EAS

18. Drake — 170 milhões EAS

19. ABBA — 165 milhões EAS

20. Bruce Springsteen — 160 milhões EAS

Sources:

https://chartmasters.org
https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum
https://www.ifpi.org
https://www.billboard.com
https://www.officialcharts.com
https://www.bpi.co.uk
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com

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