List of best-selling albums by year in the United States

Best-selling albums by year

The list doesn't have the best-selling album of the year but the best-selling album IN the year.

1990

The best-selling album was Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814.

1991

Mariah Carey's self-titled album was the biggest album of 1991.

1992

Garth Brooks's Ropin' the Wind was the best-selling album of 1992. His No Fences was the 8th best-selling album of 1992.

Nirvana's Nevermind was third and Michael Jackson's Dangerous was second.

1993

Whitney Houston's The Bodyguard (Soundtrack) was the best-selling album of the year and I Will Always Love You the most succeful song of the year, spending 14 weeks at the top.

1994

The Sign, the American version of the album Happy Nation by Swedish dance-pop group Ace of Base sold 8 million copies in 1994 and was the best-selling album of the year. The album spawned several hit songs, three of them went to number 1.

Happy Nation/The Sign is also the best-selling debut ever with more than 20 million copies sold in the world.

It was the last time a performer had a #1 album and a #1 single in the annual chart until 2003 when 50 Cent topped both charts. In 2004, Usher also topped both charts.

1995

Hootie & the Blowfish's debut album Cracked Rear View sold 7 million copies. It was the band' only hit album, and it sold strongly for two years before fading in obscurity.

1996

Released in 1995, Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissete was a massive hit in 1996. It was the best-selling album of the year, with 7.3 million albums sold.

It was the best-selling album of the year and the second best-selling album of the decade, after Shania Twain's Come on Over, which has more than 20 million copies shipped and 16 million copies sold and is still selling strongly. It never reached the Number 1 in the Billboard or in the annual charts, but it was a Top 5 album in the annual chart in both 1998 and in 1999.

It was the first time three women had the top 3 albums of the year. In second, Mariah Carey's Musicbox and in third Celine Dion's Falling Into You.

1997

Leaded by the massive hit Wannabe and by another two top 5 hits, Spice Girls' first album, Spice was the best-selling album of the year selling over 7 million copies.

The second best-selling album was No Dobut's Tragic Kingdom.

1998

The soundtrack to the film Titanic did as well as the movie and sold 8.33 million copies in 1998 being the best-selling album of the year. The lead single of the album was number 1 global hit My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion.

Celine herself did very well in 1998 and her album, Let's Talk About Love was the second best-selling album of the year.

1999

Backstreet Boys' Millennium sold 1.3 million copies in it's first week, a record for the time, and sold 9,445,732 copies, another record, until the next year when N*sync broke both records (and the first week was topped by several other artists since 2000).

Pop music reached it peak in 1999. In the top 5, besides Nsync at first: Britney Spears's ..Baby One More Time was second (8,3 million copies) and NSync and Ricky Martin were both at the Top 5.

2000

For the second year, a boyband lead the chart.

NSync sold 2.4 million records in the first week and went to sell 9,936,104 million copies of No Strings Attached in 2000, being the fastest-selling album ever, the best-selling sales for a year and the best-selling sales for one week.

The second best-selling album was Santana's Supernatural with 8 million copies sold.

2001

The Beatles haad the best-selling album of the year for the first time in 31 years since they split. With 7 million albums sold of the greatest hits collection 1.

The best-selling studio album was Shaggy's Hotshot which spawned two global hits: It Wasn't Me and Angel. Hotshot sold 6.5 million copies.

2002

With lot of polemic around his image and commentaries, Eminem's The Eminem Show was the best-selling album of the year with 7 million copies sold. The soundtrack of his movie 8 Mile sold 3 million copies. While The Eminem Show didn't spawned any number 1 hit, the 8 Mile soundtrack spawned Lose Yourself which spent 8 weeks at the top of HOT 100.

The most successful song of the year was Dilemma featuring Kelly Rowland and Nelly, from Nelly's album Nellyville. The album sold 5 million copies and was the the second best-selling of the year.

Pink was the best-selling female artist with Missundastood.

2003

50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' was the best-selling album of the year with 6,5 million copies sold.

The album spawned two number 1 singles In Da Club, the most succeful song of the year after eight weeks at number 1 and 21 Questions.

In 2003, 50 Cent was the first artist to have the number 1 album and song of the year since 1994. Usher did the same thing in 2004.

2004

Usher's Confessions was the best-selling album for the year and sold 9 million copies in 2004, 1.1 million in it's first week, the most for any album since 2001 N*Sync's Celebrity who sold 1.9 million copies in the first week.

The album spawned four number 1 hits. The first single, Yeah, was the most succeful song of the year spending 12 weeks at the top of the HOT 100 and being replaced by himself with the song Burn, which spent eight weeks at the top. My Boo, a duet with Alicia Keys, and Confessions Part II also reached the top. Usher was the first artist to spend the majority of the year (28 weeks) at the top of the chart.

A limited edition of the album also helped it to achieve 8 million copies.