There’s a special category of album that doesn’t just sell a few million copies and spawn a tour. These records eat the decade alive, shape the sound of radio, and become shorthand for entire cultural moods. They’re also the records that never quite go away. If you look at the names that dominated the ’80s and ’90s, you will see some are still refusing to quietly retire.

So let’s walk through time, revisiting the biggest albums of each decade since 1980. It’s a tour through glittering pop, grunge angst, heartbreak balladry, and the strange math of the streaming era.

‘80s: Pop’s Permanent Landmark

It’s almost boring to say the best-selling album of the ‘80s was Michael Jackson’s Thriller, because what else could it have been? According to ChartMasters, it racked up around 116.7 million equivalent album sales. That’s not just the top of the decade; that’s the summit of the all-time mountain.

And for once, the cliché is justified. Thriller was a global media event. It had seven Top 10 singles, videos that turned MTV into a cultural force, and a star who seemed to have rewritten the rules of pop stardom while dancing on the ceiling in a red leather jacket. By 1984, the record had shifted more than 30 million copies. Forty years later, it still sits atop the all-time list.

Behind it, Jackson’s own Bad at 62.9 million EAS, and AC/DC’s Back in Black at 58.2 million. But if you grew up in the ‘80s, it’s Thriller that still plays in your head. 

‘90s: When Grunge Broke the Machine

The ‘90s didn’t belong to slick crossover pop in the same way. Instead, they belonged to angst. Nirvana’s Nevermind sits as the decade’s biggest album in the list. It sold over 30 million copies worldwide, but there was also a cultural impact. It made scruffy kids in flannel shirts the new icons and pushed metal hair into early retirement.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” made the underground mainstream almost overnight. You could argue that other albums of the ‘90s, like Oasis’s (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? or Celine Dion’s Falling Into You, sold similar numbers. But none defined a generational mood the way Nevermind did.

‘00s: Pop Learns How to Go Viral

In the ‘00s, things got messy. CD sales collapsed, downloads rose, and piracy ate into everything, making it all the more surprising that the decade’s biggest album isn’t from Eminem, Coldplay, or Linkin Park but from Lady Gaga.

The Fame is an album designed for the digital age. Songs like “Poker Face” and “Just Dance” dominated clubs, radio, and the internet. By ChartMasters’ calculation, The Fame edges out Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP once you count streams, downloads, and singles in the “equivalent sales” mix.

Maybe Eminem was the true king of the ‘00s in raw CD sales. But Gaga caught the wave of a new era, and she played it to perfection.

2010s: Heartbreak Goes Global

If the ‘80s were defined by spectacle and the ‘90s by rebellion, the 2010s were about intimacy on a grand scale. Adele’s 21 was the unstoppable force of the decade. It is the number one best-selling album thanks to its uncanny ability to sell across every format.

At its peak, 21 was selling 20 million copies a year. Its singles “Rolling in the Deep,” “Someone Like You,” and “Set Fire to the Rain” were all radio staples and streaming favorites. Adele cut through the chaos of the digital era by sounding timeless.

Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran also did enormous numbers. But 21 is the one that sat on top of the decade, and still pulls streams by the billion. It’s proof that an album about heartbreak can still conquer the world in an age of disposable playlists.

2020s: The Race Is Still Wide Open

And now to the present. The 2020s don’t yet have a clear champion. The decade is still young, and streaming dominance changes the math almost monthly.

But if you’re looking for contenders, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti is already rewriting the rules. It’s the most-streamed album on Spotify, with over 20 billion plays. That doesn’t translate directly into the kind of EAS totals Thriller enjoys, but it does make him a serious candidate for the decade’s crown.

Taylor Swift’s Midnights and Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR are also clocking staggering numbers, while K-pop favorites BTS continue to prove global fandom is an unstoppable economic force. But it’s too early to call. Unlike earlier decades, where physical sales determined everything, the 2020s mark a cultural shift where global fandom, streaming platforms, and viral culture matter as much as raw sales.

Why the Old Ones Never Die

Here’s the strangest thing: when you pull up ChartMasters’ all-time list, many of the albums topping it aren’t from the ‘00s or 2010s. They’re from the ‘70s and ‘80s. 

Why? Longevity. These are records that people don’t just buy once. They’re inherited, rediscovered, and streamed by teenagers who weren’t alive when vinyl was the default. Thriller may have been the ’80s juggernaut, but it’s also still one of Spotify’s most popular catalog albums today.

Streaming has made classics immortal. If a song works on TikTok or makes it onto a chill-out playlist, it can add millions of “sales” decades after release. That’s how old records keep climbing while newer records go out of fashion.

Crowns and Echoes

So, five decades later, we have Michael Jackson, Nirvana, Lady Gaga, and Adele. It’s an eclectic mix. The only unifying thread is that each felt like it captured something bigger than itself.

The fun part is wondering what the 2020s will bring. Will it be a Latin record, a pop behemoth, or something none of us see coming yet? Whatever it is, it’ll need to live not just in charts but also in headphones, playlists, and cultural memory for years to come.