Top 10 Best-Selling Prince Albums
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's no surprise that Prince is among the top selling artists of all time.
With a career that spanned nearly four decades, included 39 studio albums, five soundtracks, four live albums and five compilation albums, he was able to sell over 100 million records worldwide.
But the music, and the sales, have not stopped since his death on April 21, 2016.
In fact, according to Billboard.com, Nielsen reported Prince sold 4.41 million albums and songs between April 21 and April 28, 2016.
Additionally, Prince was named the bestselling albums artist last year, according to Forbes.
The magazine reported that while Drake had the biggest title, "Views," and Adele had the bestselling individual album, "25," Prince sold the most albums across an entire catalogue of any other artist in 2016. The total – just over 2.2. million; both physical and digital.
As the first year anniversary of his passing looms, and fans look to celebrate his memory with music, WCCO put together a list of his top 10 best-selling albums of all time.
So, party like it's 1999, doing the Batdance in the Purple Rain to these discs.
Purple Rain
- # Album: 6th
- Release Date: June 25, 1984
- Singles: "Purple Rain," "When Doves Cry," "Let's Go Crazy" and "I Would Die 4 U"
- Award: 13X Platinum (over 13,000,000 in U.S.)
- Spot on U.S. Charts: 1
- org reports: Over 21,000,000 sales worldwide
1999
- # Album: 5th
- Release Date: Oct. 27, 1982
- Singles: "1999," and "Little Red Corvette"
- Award: 4X Platinum (over 400,000 in U.S.)
- Spot on U.S. Charts: 9
- org reports: Over 6,400,000 sales worldwide
Batman
- # Album: 11th
- Release Date: June 20, 1989
- Singles: "Batdance"
- Award: 2X Platinum (over 200,000 in U.S.)
- Spot on U.S. Charts: 1
- org reports: Over 7,000,000 sales worldwide
Around the World In A Day
- # Album: 7th
- Release Date: April 22, 1985
- Singles: "Raspberry Beret," and "Paisley Park"
- Award: 2X Platinum (over 200,000 in U.S.)
- Spot on U.S. Charts: 1
- org reports: Over 4,600,000 sales worldwide
Diamonds & Pearls
- # Album: 13th
- Release Date: Oct. 1, 1991
- Singles: "Get Off," and "Cream"
- Award: 2X Platinum (over 200,000 in U.S.)
- Spot on U.S. Charts: 3
- org reports: Over 6,750,000 sales worldwide
Musicology
- # Album: 28th
- Release Date: March 29, 2004
- Singles: "Musicology," and "Call My Name"
- Award: 2X Platinum (over 200,000 in U.S.)
- Spot on U.S. Charts: 3
- org reports: Over 2,047,000 sales worldwide
Emancipation
- # Album: 19th
- Release Date: Nov. 19, 1996
- Singles: "Betcha by Golly Wow!," and "The Holy River/Somebody's Somebody."
- Award: 2X Platinum (over 200,000 in U.S.)
- Spot on U.S. Charts: 11
- org reports: Over 1,250,000 sales worldwide
Sign O' The Times
- # Album: 9th
- Release Date: March 30, 1987
- Singles: "Sign O' The Times," and "If I Was Your Girlfriend"
- Award: Platinum (over 100,000 in U.S.)
- Spot on U.S. Charts: 6
- org reports: Over 4,225,000 sales worldwide
Parade
- # Album: 8th
- Release Date: March 31, 1986
- Singles: "Kiss" and "Mountains"
- Award: Platinum (over 100,000 in U.S.)
- Spot on U.S. Charts: 2
- org reports: Over 4,210,000 sales worldwide
Controversy
- # Album: 4th
- Release Date: Oct. 14, 1981
- Singles: "Controversy" and "Let's Work"
- Award: Platinum (over 100,000 in U.S.)
- Spot on U.S. Charts: 21
- org reports: Over 2,680,000 sales worldwide
According to Billboard.com, Prince's compilation albums, "The Hits 1," "The Hits 2" and "The Very Best of Prince" all sold more than the 1,000,000 copies as well.
Prince's worst selling album was N.E.W.S, which only sold 30,000 copies. It did, however, still garner a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.