List of best-selling albums of the 21st century in the United Kingdom

With sales of 6 million copies, Adele's 21 is the best-selling album of the 21st century in the UK. Other Adele albums also appear on the list with 25 at number three and 19 at number 31 respectively.

The UK Albums Chart is a music chart compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC) that calculates the best-selling albums of the week in the United Kingdom.[1] Initially based solely on the sales of albums in the vinyl and CD formats, digital albums began being included from April 2006.[2] Since March 2015, the chart has also been based on audio streaming figures,[3] however the OCC still compiles a 'sales' (only) chart and still quotes these traditional sales figures in its features and articles.[4]

This is a list of the 50 best-selling albums in the UK from 1 January 2000 onwards, as compiled by the OCC (sales that occurred before 2000 are not included). Of these, only two were originally released before the year 2000: White Ladder (1998) by David Gray and Gold: Greatest Hits (1992) by ABBA.[4]

Back to Bedlam by James Blunt, which was the best-selling album of the 2000s decade,[5] was also the best-selling album of the 21st century until August 2011 when it was passed in sales by Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, following Winehouse's death the previous month.[6] Less than four months later, however, Back to Black was itself overtaken by Adele's 21.[7] As of 2024, 21 remains the biggest-selling album in the UK since 2000 (and second best-selling ever), having sold 6 million copies.[8][9]

  1. ^ "Official Charts Company". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  2. ^ West, Dave (9 April 2006). "Album chart allows downloads from Sunday". Digital Spy. Hearst Magazines UK. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  3. ^ Copsey, Rob (11 February 2015). "UK's Official Albums Chart to include streaming data for first time". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  4. ^ a b Moss, Liv (19 March 2015). "Official Biggest Selling Albums of the Millennium so far revealed!". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  5. ^ "James Blunt records the biggest selling album of decade". BBC News. BBC. 29 December 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  6. ^ "Amy Winehouse's 'Back to Black' becomes UK's biggest-selling album of the 21st century". NME. 26 August 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  7. ^ Piedak, Alex (5 December 2011). "Adele's 21 tops Amy Winehouse for biggest selling album of 21st century". Metro. DMG Media. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
  8. ^ Ainsley, Helen (8 March 2021). "National Album Day: Adele named UK's best-selling female album artist of 21st Century". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  9. ^ White, Jack (12 October 2019). "The UK's Official Top 40 biggest studio albums of the 21st Century". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 12 October 2019.