Eminem has extended a record that already felt unshakeable. “Encore” has now crossed 20 million global sales (CSPC), making it the rapper’s fourth album to join the ultra-rare 20M+ club. No other hip hop artist has more than two. Some have none. Eminem now has four.
The new milestone pushes “Encore” into an elite circle and rewrites the genre’s all-time ranking once again.
The updated Top 10: a list dominated by one name
Chartmasters’ CSPC method paints the clearest picture of long-term cultural demand. It accounts for everything: album sales, singles, digital downloads, streams, and video views. The numbers below reflect the equivalent album units for each project. This method places every release on the same scale and offers a realistic view of global popularity. And once the dust settles, the picture is clear.
Here is the current Top 10 best-selling hip-hop albums of all time:
1. “The Eminem Show” Eminem – 41,477,000
2. “The Marshall Mathers LP” Eminem – 37,099,000
3. “All Eyez On Me” 2Pac – 25,651,000
4. “Hollywood’s Bleeding” Post Malone – 22,635,000
5. “Recovery” Eminem – 22,521,000
6. “The Score” Fugees – 22,445,000
7. “Views” Drake – 20,205,000
8. “Encore” Eminem – 20,032,000
9. “8 Mile” [OST] Eminem & Various Artists – 19,836,000
10. “Beerbongs & Bentleys” Post Malone – 19,659,000
Eminem shapes the Top 10 list, it goes well beyond being featured there.
A legacy written in numbers
Five of the ten bestselling hip hop albums ever released involve Eminem. Three are in the Top 5 spots. Four broke the 20 million threshold. And “The Eminem Show” now sits at a staggering 41.5 million, remaining the most successful rap album of all time.
The scale is so large that genre context almost becomes irrelevant. These are numbers usually associated with Beatles-level global fixtures. Yet, they belong to an artist who came from the Detroit underground, clawing his way into the mainstream through sheer skill.
This ranking reminds us of how far hip hop has travelled and how central Eminem has been to its global shift. His catalogue continues to stream at extraordinary levels every week, often outpacing entire generations of younger artists.
Today, with “Encore” joining the 20M club, the gap between him and everyone else grows a little wider.
