Reaction to Rick Beato video The Top 10 Records of This Century

Rick Beato has always been fond of statistics and he's just posted a video with some interesting insights into music industry trends, something he does extremely well.

It has to be said that he was doing it as a reaction video to some statistics from the Boardromm Instagram Channel that has blown up with this list, probably because you might be able to guess the number one but what about the other nine? It matters not, Rick brings some unique analysis from the angle of a musician

🎧 Top-Selling Albums of the 21st Century (2000–2020) – Key Insights

Rank	Album	Year	Artist	Estimated Sales
1️⃣	21	2011	Adele	31 million
2️⃣	The Eminem Show	2002	Eminem	27 million
3️⃣	Come Away With Me	2002	Norah Jones	27 million
4️⃣	25	2015	Adele	23 million
5️⃣	The Fame / Fame Monster	2008	Lady Gaga	18 million
6️⃣	Fallen	2003	Evanescence	17 million
7️⃣	A Rush of Blood to the Head	2002	Coldplay	17 million
8️⃣	Let Go	2002	Avril Lavigne	16 million
8️⃣	A Day Without Rain	2000	Enya	16 million
🔟	Meteora	2003	Linkin Park	16 million
🔟	Back to Black	2006	Amy Winehouse	16 million

🔥 Interesting Facts & Commentary

📀 #4 Adele's 25 was Double Diamond certified (20M+)

Released in 2015, Adele’s 25 achieved 23 million album-equivalent sales during the streaming era, where album sales were sharply declining.
Achieving Double Diamond status this late in the game is extraordinary.

> Conclusion: It is unlikely any future album will ever surpass the combined physical + digital success of Adele’s 21 and 25 in a single campaign.

📊 What Can We Conclude from This List?

1. 🧑‍🎤 Solo Artists Dominate

9 out of 10 albums are by solo performers.
Only one album (A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay) is by a band.

2. 👩 Female Artists Lead the Century

7 of the 10 albums are by female solo artists: Adele (2), Norah Jones, Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, Avril Lavigne, and Enya.
This reflects the rise of powerful female-led storytelling in pop and adult contemporary genres.

3. 🌍 Genre Blend

The list blends pop, R\&B, rock, and singer-songwriter styles.
No hip-hop albums dominate the very top, despite rap’s streaming success.

4. 📉 Declining Album Sales Era

Most of these records were released between 2000–2011, before streaming became dominant.
Adele’s 25 (2015) stands out as a final sales-era success, with most other high-sales albums coming from the early-to-mid 2000s.

📈 Adele’s Share of Total Sales

Combined, Adele’s two entries (21 at 31M and 25 at 23M) total:

→ 54 million units

Total of all 10 albums combined:

→ Approximately 205 million units

🧮 Adele’s share =

`54 / 205 ≈ 26.3%`

🔹 Adele alone accounts for over a quarter of all sales on this list.

🔁 Streaming Equivalents

If we convert 54 million units into streaming equivalents (using RIAA’s formula of 1 unit = 1,500 streams):

54 million × 1,500 = 81 billion streams

For perspective:

Taylor Swift’s entire global streaming total across all albums is estimated at \~34 billion (as of early 2024).

🎤 Adele’s 21 and 25 alone dwarf that, equating to more than double Swift’s full streaming discography.

🧠 Final Takeaways

Adele’s albums (21, 25) are anomaly-level blockbusters, unlikely to be repeated in the streaming era.
The dominance of female solo artists marks a clear cultural shift in post-2000 music influence.
Album sales peaked in the early 2000s, but Adele proved that even at the tail end of the format’s decline, people still buy when the music resonates.
The album as an artistic statement still has power, even in a streaming-obsessed market.