Talk:List of best-selling singles in the United States

is this a page for the best selling singles in the USA or is it an RIAA multiplatinum singles list?
This needs debate. One thing is to list ONLY all of the singles that have been certified multiplatinum by the RIAA through the years since 1958 to present - specifying the different requirements for gold, platinum and multiplatinum from before and after 1989 and maybe making a special topic on digital certifications - and another very different thing is to list the top selling singles of all time in the United States since everyone knows there's a bunch of top selling singles in history that have never been certified by the RIAA. Does this means that we should only include singles that have been certified multiplatinum by the RIAA and miss any other multimillion seller that has never been certified anything?

Kinkorama (talk) 19:12, 24 March 2008 (UTC)

The pre 1989 era of RIAA certifications awarded gold for net shipments of 1 million units and platinum for 2 million. So when this page states that singles having shipped at least 2 million copies are multiplatinum singles, that's technically correct only if we are talking about post 1989 certifications when gold was recuced to half a million in net shipments and platinum also was reduced to a million, meaning that 2 million was double platinum, and 3 and 4 and so on, multiplatinum. Anybody wants to contribute to this debate?

Kinkorama (talk) 23:27, 25 March 2008 (UTC)

I'll remove "NEW, Please Hold" from Black Earl, in the next few hours, unless someone explains why should it be included. I don't even know if it's a song, a single, what is it really? where it came from? Accuracy needed please.

Kinkorama (talk) 17:49, 2 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I've started inserting songs like "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Eye of the Tiger" that haven't been necessarily certified for 3 million or more.
 * As with any other article that deals with record sales, newer songs here seem to be overrepresented because it's ridiculously easy to go to the RIAA database, look up a recent mega-hit and insert it into the list if it has high enough certifications. However, for older songs, you have to comb through dozens or hundreds of websites until you find something like this or this.
 * Don't worry though, Kinkorama, I'll come back here often to make sure that classic songs and "oldies" get listed, as they deserve to be.--Mauri96 (talk) 01:25, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Ringtones should not be considered singles
There are Platinum ringtones listed on the page that, in my opinion, should not be considered singles since they do not contain the entire song. Billboard, for example, does not consider a ringtone to be a single and does not use them to compile the Hot 100. ("Stay Fly" by Three 6 Mafia was certified as a ringtone, not a digital single.) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Superbu (talk • contribs) 18:10, 11 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Point taken. I'll change the totals or remove "Irreplaceable", "Lollipop" and anything else I can find that includes ringtone sales. -- Mαuri ’96   “ ...over the Borderline ” 21:40, 25 June 2012 (UTC)


 * I've changed my mind-RIAA classifies "mastertone" certifications under the "single" format as you can see they did with "Low". As I also explained here, IFPI counts ringtones as "songs" and includes ringtone sales in their yearly list of best-selling, well, songs.
 * Maybe the best option would not be to incite disagreement by forcing editors to consider ringtones singles, but to move this page to say, "List of best-selling songs in the United States"
 * What do you think?-- Mαuri ’96   “ ...over the Borderline ” 03:52, 22 July 2012 (UTC)


 * Actually, I don't imagine a label not to release a song that sells very well. A song that gets success, without being released as a single first, will become a single. RIAA also ranks mastertone certifications on Single from the format category. ·  Mcdonalds  ( talk ·  cont ), at 02:11, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Certificaciones de Lady Gaga
"Just Dance" ha vendido alrededor de 5.911.000 millones de copias digitales en los Estados Unidos. "Poker Face" la canción ha vendido 5,84 millones pagados descargas digitales en los Estados Unidos según Nielsen SoundScan. "Bad Romance" la canción ha vendido más de 4 millones de descargas digitales en los Estados Unidos, según Nielsen SoundScan


 * En esta página se suelen usar más links de la RIAA que la fuente que usted cita, Nielsen SoundScan. No sé cuando habra dejado su comentario, pero le informo que "Just Dance" ya ha recibido una certificación de 6× platino y "Bad Romance" también ya se encuentra en la lista, en la sección de "Over 5 million". Mauri96 (talk) 01:04, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

Reorder
If there are no objections, I think we should reorder the songs in the 6 Million, 5 Million, & 4 Million sections to reflect which songs have sold the most. I think it would be useful, considering this page details the best selling singles in the country. I also think we should remove the 3 Million section, due to the quickly increasing number of songs selling that much, because the list is getting to long to be an acurate representation of just the best selling singles. Perhaps we could even include the most reliable available sales numbers, similar to what the page Best-selling singles worldwide does.


 * Great decision to remove the 3 million group. It is a big achievement, but in the digital age, single sales have really boosted and it was way too long and impractical. TomyHun (talk) 14:13, 26 February 2012 (UTC)


 * I personally believe that reordering the songs would be quite difficult, seeing that not all of them are easy to find on the yearly Nielsen SoundScan reports. Worse still for songs re;eased before Nielsen tracking began.


 * Talking about single sales having increased, we could separate the list into digital singles and physical singles like in the worldwide list. Any reader that comes along looking for a specific song, especially if said song was released before the digital era, most likely has a hard time finding it due to the utter flood of newer songs. Mauri96 (talk) 01:12, 15 March 2012 (UTC)

Uncertified singles
Considering that we are now going by actual sales and not RIAA-certified shipments, I was wondering if we could add the singles that were mentioned as not having been certified and also modify the "Notes about RIAA certification" section.

These are the uncertified (or low-certified) singles mentioned in the article I was referring to:
 * "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" (8 million sales reported)
 * Crosby's "Silent Night" (7 million)
 * Vernon Dalhart's "The Prisoner's Song" (7 million)
 * the Mills Brothers' "Paper Doll" (6 million)
 * Patti Page's "The Tennessee Waltz" (6 million)
 * Gene Austin's "My Blue Heaven" (5 million)
 * Ben Selvin's "Dardanella" (5 million)

I'm pretty sure that the source all these sales figures were quoted from is Joel Whitburn's Pop memories, 1890-1954.

If that's not the case, a good place to start looking for non-certification-dependent sales is here. Of the two books, only the latter's contents are searchable.-- Mαuri ’96   “ ...over the Borderline ” 19:50, 29 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Well, certifications can be used for digital (paid downloads + ringtones) sales because they're based on sales. It's a different case for physical sales which are sometimes overshipped. Globally, if a source clearly proves that a single has sold X million copies without having been certified, I'm definitely okay with it. Some songs will never get certified. ·  Mcdonalds  ( talk ·  cont ), at 23:38, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

3 million section
why does somebody keep on reposting the singles that have sold over 3 million copies??? with the rapid increase in music downloading in the united states, i think only the very best should be posted here, and that is from 4 million copies and above, since these are the ones easily to sell over 5 million copies worldwide. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.202.175.25 (talk) 04:22, 13 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree. In the present day selling three million copies of singles is not such an unusual, once-in-a-career event. However, I think we should wait for others to voice their opinions and reach a consensus to solve this dilemma once and for all.-- Mαuri ’96   “ ...over the Borderline ” 23:37, 14 September 2012 (UTC)


 * I stumbled across his last night on STiki and I restored the section solely because it was section blanking. I agree, three million is too small an amount to say anything about any song. AS stated, with the advent of digital music, this is too small a number. As a note to the IP who removed it, please do not remove the section, till proper consensus is reached. --Rsrikanth05 (talk) 11:23, 15 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Over 150 songs have sold over 3 million paid digital downloads to date whose 90-100 less than 4 million. Including ringtones, this becomes just impossible to keep up. Let's remove the 3 million section. ·  Mcdonalds  ( talk ·  cont ), at 16:00, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

i remember this once when wikipedia first posted this article, with 2 million sellers being the lowset salesmark. during that time wikipedia still used riia certifications and did not use third party sources. if we do the same with today, even if we use the riaa certificates only, there would still be plenty of songs on the list, which will contradict the whole articles target list. besides, it is already east for singles to reach the 3 million salesmark, which doesn't make it a bestseller's mark anymore. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.217.58.78 (talk) 04:47, 19 September 2012 (UTC)

inc
why were many other hits erased? lack of sources? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 112.208.30.30 (talk) 05:53, 25 July 2013 (UTC)

Different sections for physical and download singles?
Pre-download it was much harder to sell multi-million (mainly because of price compared with today's almost giveaway pricing). Would you consider having a section for physical multi-platinum singles - going down to 2 million. I don't think there would be too many altogether.(Coachtripfan (talk) 11:42, 7 August 2013 (UTC))


 * That sounds like a reasonable and helpful change. I voice my support for it.-- Mαuri ’96 “  everything and nothing always haunts me…  ” 03:15, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

Edit request on 7 August 2013
Payphone should be at 5,286,000. Link to source: http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart-watch/week-ending-aug-4-2013-songs-blur-200048881.html

Bottom of Page I requested Maroon 5's Overexposed single sales, and was answered by Paul Grein.

Paul Grein 1 hour ago I just happen to have that right here.

Payphone: 5,286,000 One More Night: 4,349,000 Daylight: 1,954,000 Love Somebody: 997,000

72.39.212.131 (talk) 22:31, 7 August 2013 (UTC)


 * Yes check.svg Done -- Mαuri ’96 “  everything and nothing always haunts me…  ” 19:37, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

All these figures are wrong because they don't take physical sales into account
With a few exceptions, there is no physical sales data for most of these songs, so the figures for total sales are totally inaccurate, reflecting only downloads. Or have I misunderstood something here? Grand Dizzy (talk) 21:38, 7 September 2013 (UTC)


 * There is no physical sales data for most of the songs because, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, next to no singles shipped 4 million physical copies from 1984 to the present day. See this discussion for more info.-- Mαuri ’96 “  everything and nothing always haunts me…  ” 01:46, 9 September 2013 (UTC)


 * But a song doesn't need to have sold more than 4 million physical CDs for those sales to affect the total. Even 1 CD sale will affect the "total sales" and would possibly affect the order these songs are listed in. Grand Dizzy (talk) 23:16, 19 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I see your point; that's why all sales figures for physical singles have either a + (in the case of Nielsen SoundScan tracked sales or press estimates) or a ~ (in the case of shipments).
 * For any song released before physical single sales all but died out in the US, I tried to add physical sales as certified by RIAA.
 * However, I can imagine original-release physical sales significantly affecting the sales of 'classic' songs that have sold well digitally ("Livin' on a Prayer", "Ring of Fire", "Sweet Home Alabama", etc.) -- Mαuri ’96 “  everything and nothing always haunts me…  ” 06:20, 21 November 2013 (UTC)

to ten best selling artists
RIAA Crowns Katy Perry Top Certified Digital Artist Ever source 1, source 2 77.44.232.141 (talk) 13:00, 6 July 2014 (UTC)
 * No, Perry has not sold 72 million singles. Those links clearly state the certifications are from a combination of singles downloaded + streaming which is why until Nielsen SoundScan numbers for Perry's total sales are not reported, she won't be #1 on that list, whatever RIAA says so since they work on shipments, not sales. — Indian: BIO  · [ ChitChat ] 04:47, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 11 July 2014
114.108.228.80 (talk) 00:20, 11 July 2014 (UTC) pls use sources for referring to new and updates sales:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/6150379/ask-billboard-ed-sheeran-taylor-swifts-red-reigns?page=0%2C1

5,717,000, "Love Story" 4,935,000, "I Knew You Were Trouble." 4,469,000, "You Belong With Me"

https://music.yahoo.com/blogs/chart-watch/chart-watch-beachin-over-the-4th-171629438.html

The July 4 holiday helped five other songs return to Hot Digital Songs: Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A." (14K this week, 865K total), Toby Keith's "Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)" (12K this week, 1,245,000 total), Katy Perry's "Firework" (12K this week, 6,668,000 total), Miley Cyrus's "Party In The U.S.A." (11K this week, 5,542,000 total) and Zac Brown Band's "Chicken Fried" (10K this week, 4,231,000 total).
 * ✅ — Indian: BIO  · [ ChitChat ] 07:00, 11 July 2014 (UTC)

Lady Gaga's total sales
I saw that on the list of the top-selling digital artists you used the sales figures of the last the Billboard sales update for Lady Gaga's sales, but they only reported her singles sales figures on that report, they didn't give a general number for all of her singles and album tracks combined, like they did on their August 2013 report , which said she had sold a combined 46,322,000 singles and album tracks at the time. If we sum up the sales figures for her top-selling singles they gave on that report, the total is 41,495,000 singles sold, so if we substract to the total combined song sales (46,322,000) her singles sales (41,495,000) we get an aproximate of 4,827,000 album songs sales at that time, if that figure is added to the top-selling singles figure they gave in the latest report, her total songs sales would be of at least 52,176,000 copies sold.

FredeGermanotta (talk) 23:50, 13 May 2015 (UTC)
 * this all is the very definition of WP:SYNTH and WP:OR and grossly violates them. Sorry it cannot be accepted. — Indian: BIO  [ ChitChat ] 05:51, 14 May 2015 (UTC)

Add "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus.
Add "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus. http://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&ar=MILEY+CYRUS&ti=WRECKING+BALL

~Tridor (talk) 18:08, 10 July 2016 (UTC)Tridor
 * RIAA counts sales + streaming. Find a source for pure sales. Cornerstonepicker (talk) 03:10, 13 July 2016 (UTC)

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Proposal to remove the 4 million and over section
It seems that today's 4 million copy mark is yesterday's 3 million copy mark. I propose deleting this section. Richard Hendricks (talk) 18:43, 3 February 2018 (UTC)
 * The definition of a best selling album in the US is RIAA Diamond certification (10 million copies) or greater. I propose the definition of a best selling single be defined as greater than 5 million copies (10/2). -Richard Hendricks (talk) 20:49, 30 April 2018 (UTC)

candle in the wind
WHY IS CANDLE IN THE WIND 97 ONLY AT 839000 IN THE BEST SELLING SINGLES IN THE AMERICAN LIST WHEN IT HAS CLEARLY SOLD OVER 11 MILLION OR AT THE VERY LEAST ITS DIAMOND CERT OF 10 MILLION COPIES SOLD07:46, 17 May 2018 (UTC)07:46, 17 May 2018 (UTC)07:46, 17 May 2018 (UTC)~ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 27.252.27.204 (talk)

broken?chart...
the chart begins to include 5 million in the 6 million section not sure if its my screen, wont fix it due to LOI. DANIELTHEDON (talk) 19:17, 27 November 2018 (UTC)

chartdata.org
chartdata.org should not be considered a reliable source. Richard Hendricks (talk) 04:33, 9 March 2019 (UTC)

CERTIFICATION
WHAT A LOAD OF NONSENSE RIAA CERTIFICATION PROCESS REALLY IS WHEN IT CONCERNS DIGITAL SINGLES. YOU HAVE SINGLES SELLING ONLY 6 .5 MILLION IN REAL TERMS BUT ARE CERT AT 12X YET SINGLES THAT HAVE SOLD OVER 7 MILLION ARE CERT AT ONLY 11X WHAT CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!06:35, 23 October 2019 (UTC)06:35, 23 October 2019 (UTC)06:35, 23 October 2019 (UTC)~  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 118.93.33.237 (talk)

Baby Shark?
Baby Shark was certified 11x Platinum with 11 million sales. Shouldn't this be included? Thanks, EDG 543 (message me) 16:10, 28 January 2021 (UTC)


 * Done. Richard Hendricks (talk)

Limit Listing of Digital Singles
The listing of best-selling digital singles should be limited to those singles that have achieved RIAA Diamond Certification or better. Richard Hendricks (talk) 17:44, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Life Is Good
Life is Good by Future and Drake and Goosebumps by Travis Scott and Kendrick Lamar recently went 10x platinum. Anfwepgnrwfinre (talk) 15:42, 22 November 2021 (UTC)

Darius Rucker Wagon Wheel
Someone deleted Darius Rucker Wagon Wheel 9 X PlatinumWs (talk) 12:58, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
The 21 million sales you cite is simply not true. From the article you provide it is 4.5 million physical and half a million digital. Coachtripfan (talk) 15:52, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

White Christmas
The 25 million claim is simply not from a credible source. Coachtripfan (talk) 15:54, 11 February 2023 (UTC)


 * I agree with this, we need to re-open a discussion on Bing Crosby in general tbqh Never17 (talk) 18:10, 25 March 2024 (UTC)


 * No the best source but no unreliable. I removed the source because it says, North America sales instead of "America" or the United States. --Apoxyomenus (talk) 21:13, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Unwieldy
This list is getting out of hand especially with Digital singles, as RIAA Diamond certs are getting more and more easily obtainable in the streaming era. I suggest including singles only with reported sales and for the Diamond-or-above-certified singles, creating a new list like "List of the highest-certified singles in the United States". Ippantekina (talk) 03:10, 26 January 2024 (UTC)


 * Agree with this. --Apoxyomenus (talk) 21:13, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Mariah Carey's Christmas song
Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas Is You says it has 14x Platinum, apparently digital. Why not in the article? 46.132.3.220 (talk) 00:25, 22 February 2024 (UTC)


 * Another user trimmed the list to the highest-reported digital sales, instead of the highest-certified RIAA singles, because is getting more and more easily obtainable in today's era. Last report made by Luminate/Nielsen SoundScan ( 2021), say the song sold 3.7 million digital tracks. --Apoxyomenus (talk) 21:13, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
 * There are a number of 14x Platinum songs such as Royals and All I Want for Christmas Is You which appear to be missing, because the list of best-selling songs is based on Luminate/Nielsen SoundScan data, which is not publicly available. The only way the list can be updated is when someone like Billboard writes an article that lists the actual digital sales. So this becomes a list of songs that have an article written about them, rather than a list of actual sales or certifications. Xagent86 (Talk | contribs) 04:37, 18 May 2024 (UTC)
 * It is also true. Even there are other songs certified higher. Although it was also trimmed, there is another article that contains the highest-certified works in the RIAA's database (RIAA certification). A separate list was suggested above in order to have a more precise/detailed list of the highest-certified singles (List of the highest-certified singles in the United States), than the reported sales from Luminate due their limited data to public. Otherwise, we could add that subsection into this this article with a minimun thresold of 12-13? due the increase of 10x-11xP works. Thoughts? --Apoxyomenus (talk) 23:35, 28 June 2024 (UTC)