User:Sancho21/Sandbox

This is a list of the fastest selling albums of all time worldwide. This means that there are listed the albums that sold the highest number of copies worldwide in one week.

Sales in one or few countries are considered worldwide even if on the week chosen the album was released only in these countries. Compilations and soundtracks are included, but not singles. Sales taken in account are real sales as specified by national charts, not the number of copies sent by the publishers to the stores before or after the release.

One week is a maximum of continuous seven days, even if it includes days when stores are closed. The week chosen can start on other day than Monday, but worldwide addition of sales must take the same date of starting for each country taken in account in the worldwide sales total. An album can appear several times in the list if it shows enough huge sales on several weeks.

Singer Hikaru Utada may be the fastest seller ever with three appearances in the top 8 list. Band GLAY appears 3 times in the top 20 list. Singer Ayumi Hamasaki and bands 'N Sync, B'z and globe appear each two times in the top 20 list. Composer and producer Tetsuya Komuro is involved three times in the top 20 list, by both his work on Namie Amuro and globe albums.

About the list
1 by The Beatles doesn't appear on the list. Is is often told over the web that it got record sales though no source proves it, while a lot of contradictions appear in the numbers given with sources. Some valuable sources clearly show 1 had never broken any record in any country in the world or even been close to do it, especially in United Kingdom, USA and Japan, where it has sold well. The numbers often quoted without sources probably by fans seem overestimated, while real sales may have not reached 1,5 million in a week worldwide.

I Am... by Ayumi Hamasaki doesn't appear on the list, though official weekly sales are more than 1,7 million in Japan alone, because the Oricon always merge the sales of the first and second week of each year in a one week top since it is always in vacancy the first week of January. So the sales of the first Oricon week must be artifically divided to get an estimation of the real first week sales, with taken in account the usual percentage decrease in sales japanese albums find in a second week. I Am... first week sales estimation may not reach more than 1.45 million, which doesn't allow it to appear in the current top 20 list. Of course an album who proves enough first week sales to be referred on the list even after divided sales still must be referred on the list.

It appears that all the albums in the top 20 list were released in a short 7-years-run between 1996 and 2002 which peaked in 2000, a year in which seven albums of the top 20 list were released.

The United States of America and Japan are the only main countries of release who produced albums in in the top 20 list, with 15 albums for Japan and 5 for the USA. Some explanations may be at first their respective population and size of music market (first and second worldwide respectively), but also for Japan by the fact it has the tradition to never release singles from album after the release of it, but only before. This forbids the long-run after-release promotion american and european artists are used to, and automatically make the first week of release the best spot for reaching highest sales. Exceptions are so rare to this rule of pre-release singles that they are often explicitively quoted on articles about albums and artists.

This fastest selling albums list may also reflect, if not the best selling albums ever, some of the most awaited albums in History. By being involved in this list, these artists proved at least one time they succeeded in being followed by a solid fanbase, but even moren in building a tight and energetic link with a far larger audience, whether for a short time or not.

Abroad sales must be taken in account for english-speaking albums, since they make the numbers grow a little or far higher. In the same time asian sales for japanese albums from those which had foreign releases must be taken in account too, since they can make the sales of japanese albums grow of more than a half.