Ranking the work of The Beatles is a treacherous task. No matter your preference, thanks to the sheer volume of Fab Four fanatics in the world, you will likely end up offending millions of people with your pick for the top spot, let alone which record gets the last place wooden spoon. So, we thought we’d rank those records, the illustrious canon of The Beatles, through the most unquestionable criteria: sales.
That has always been the great thing about The Beatles’ records; while countless artists have experimental albums or songs that push the entire scope of music forward, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr did it all while making piles and piles of cash with the voluminous sales of their singles and albums.
It’s hard to put into words just how imposing the figure of The Beatles is over popular music — the shadow of the four lads from Liverpool has kept much of the music world in comparative darkness for six decades. Primarily cited as one of the forefathers of modern music, the strength of the records The Beatles put out across their comparatively short time together is truly impressive and is rightly revered by all.
But while the band’s eclectic fanbase rightly treasures some albums, they may not have had the wider commercial success you would expect. Likewise, some of the group’s records sold millions of copies but have since slid down the scale of what is considered their greatest-ever LP. So while the list below is a definitive one, immovable by opinion or preference, it does have its caveats.
As well as noting that some of these records have become gluey with poptastic gunk in time, making them less desirable to the more discerning fan, we should also note that we have only focused on the 13 studio albums of the band, which is up for debate itself. Meaning records like the group’s landmark compilation of number one hits, 1, which was released in 2000 (32 million copies sold), and their re-released Anthology 1 (over seven million copies sold) have been removed. We’re using Best Selling Albums as our bible in this feature, informing us that The Beatles have sold over 236 million copies of their albums.
So, without further ado, let’s jump into the all-time best-selling Beatles albums.
