According to the RIAA(Recording Industry Association of America) these are the twenty best selling hard rock and heavy metal albums in America. I’ve also included sales totals.

Interesting tidbits: Every one of these albums has sold at least 10 Million copies….I only included original studio albums…no greatest hits…no live…no unplugged…and they have to be considered hard rock or heavy metal by the vast majority of folks.

Amazingly….FIVE! Yes Five Led Zeppelin albums make the list….that means FIVE, yes Five Zep albums have sold more than 10 million! WOWZERS!

The only other band with more than one album in the Top 20 is, unsurprisingly, Def Leppard.

Another surprise to me wasn’t so much that Green Day was in the Top 20 but that it was with an album other than American Idiot. Dookie makes it in at Number 15 with over ten million sold!

Best album cover of these 20? My pick….MeatLoaf- Bat Out of Hell….yours?

Only album on the list released in the new millenium…Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. Another WOW. Does that mean it may be the last truly great hard rock/heavy metal album or is it the change in how we consume our music now? I’d lean toward the latter.

20. LED ZEPPELIN – LED ZEPPELIN (TEN MILLION SOLD)

19. VAN HALEN – 1984 (TEN MILLION SOLD)

18. LINKIN PARK – HYBRID THEORY (TEN MILLION SOLD)

17. ZZ TOP – ELIMINATOR (TEN MILLION SOLD)

16. DEF LEPPARD – PYROMANIA (TEN MILLION SOLD)

15. GREEN DAY – DOOKIE (TEN MILLION SOLD)

14. NIRVANA – NEVERMIND (TEN MILLION SOLD) 

13. LED ZEPPELIN – HOUSES OF THE HOLY (ELEVEN MILLION SOLD)

12. CREED – HUMAN CLAY (ELEVEN MILLION SOLD)

11. KID ROCK – DEVIL WITHOUT A CAUSE (ELEVEN MILLION SOLD)

10. DEF LEPPARD – HYSTERIA (TWELVE MILLION SOLD)

9. BON JOVI – SLIPPERY WHEN WET (TWELVE MILLION SOLD)

8. LED ZEPPELIN II (TWELVE MILLION SOLD)

7. PEARL JAM – TEN (THIRTEEN MILLION SOLD)

6. MEAT LOAF – BAT OUT OF HELL (FOURTEEN MILLION SOLD)

5. METALLICA – METALLICA (FIFTEEN MILLION SOLD)  

4. LED ZEPPELIN – PHYSICAL GRAFFITTI (SIXTEEN MILLION SOLD) 

3. GUNS ‘N’ ROSES – APPETITE FOR DESTRUCTION (EIGHTEEN MILLION SOLD)

2. AC/DC – BACK IN BLACK (TWENTY-TWO MILLION SOLD)

1. LED ZEPPELIN – IV (TWENTY-THREE MILLION SOLD)

Published by rbtaleman

Heavy metal (fiend/friend?) Writer, frustrat(or), frustrat(ee), decorated U.S. Navy veteran, Husband(twice), father(three times), grandfather(of seven), FM radio veteran, Concertgoer, music collector, muscle car aficianado. Grown up since five. Child since 45. View all posts by rbtaleman